I have a travelogue of that 2003 trip on my profile page if you are interested.
I miss Vietnam very much. Like many others who fought there, we grew attached to the country and the people.
When I went back there in 2000, I was looking for one specific guy but couldn't find him. He was a VC prisoner of mine who I captured on May 13th 1967. He was an older man, about 40 who was scouting for an enemy company when we spotted him. He took off running and I had the clear shot and hit him. When I got up to him, I saw that my shot had ripped the side of his hand and his little finger off. After I took his weapon, I saw that he was in a lot of pain and bleeding badly, so I bandaged his hand and handed him a cigarette to show him that we weren't going to kill him.
About a kilometer further and we ran into his company and a big fight started which lasted about 30 minutes. During that fight, I spotted some Marines who were badly wounded in an open, dry rice paddy about 100m from me. I ran to get one of them and when I got him back to cover, I was shot through my upper right leg.
My prisoner helped me get my tourniquet on my leg and when the helicopter arrived, he helped carry me to the plane. I still remember him waving at me with his bandaged hand when I lifted off.
I had hoped to find him and maybe buy him dinner but nobody around Xuan Diem knew who he was.
These are the kinds of memories Vietnam has for me.