Policing Saigon isn't Platoon or Apocalypse Now, but the story of Loren W. Christensen's experience as a military policeman (MP) in a city of millions at a time when chaos and fear reigned.
As a 23-year-old from a small town in Washington State, the author was plunged into a chaotic city of brawling servicemen, prostitutes, racial violence, enemy rockets, riots, and death. It was a place that would give him a unique opportunity to see up close a different side of the Vietnam War and its effect on the human condition.
Nearly 80 stories collectively convey the author's experiences, and his arc-from naive to jaded, angry, confused, anxious, and bone-weary exhausted-is representative of so many GIs who served in the Vietnam War as well as those veterans of today's conflicts around the globe.
"A true warrior and a gifted and prolific author, Loren gives the reader a deep and illuminating insight into his experience that changed his life and subsequently led him toward helping others through his writing. Policing Saigon is a powerful book." Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
Military Policeman Loren Christensen takes the reader on a gritty, moving, and intense ride-a-along in Saigon, Vietnam. K.F., Afghanistan War veteran
Table of Contents
Introduction
PART ONE: THE FIRST FEW DAYS
Chap 1: Flying there
Chap 2: Door gunners and policing for cigarette butts
Chap 3: Welcome to Saigon
Chap 4: Python
Chap 5: Culture shock
Chap 6: Dead men's gear
PART TWO: "ROUTINE DAYS"
Chap 7: Day after day
Chap 8: EOD
Chap 9: Skylight
Chap 10: Cobra
Chap 11: Bob Hope
Chap 12: Papa-san and the ammo truck
Chap 13: Dead mama-san
Chap 14: Jail window
Chap 15: "Karate number one"
Chap 16: Sampson
Chap 17: 100-P alley
Chap 18: 200-P alley
Chap 19: The swimming pool
Chap 20: "Dance to the Music"
Chap 21: Drugs
Chap 22: Tracer rounds
Chap 23: Puff the magic dragon
Chap 24: Almost a coup
Chap 25: Vietnam blues
Chap 26: Tension
Chap 27: A shaky fork
Chap 28: Illusions of relief
Chap 29: Korean Marines
Chap 30: AFVN radio: "Goooooood morning, Vietnaaaaaam"
Chap 31: "I'm not a crook"
Chap 32: Running Code3
Chap 33: Fire
Chap 34: Riot
Chap 35: Power and rank: a deadly mix
Chap 36: The vision
Ch 37: Screams
Chap 38: Meyerkord Hotel
Chap 39: Resisting arrest
Chap 40: Letters
Chap 41: One GI who went home and came right back
PART THREE: LOSING IT
Chap 42: Silencer
Chap 43: Hangman
Chap 44: Johnny Walker Black
Chap 45: Escaped prisoner
Chap 46: The Punch
Chap 47: Death of the spirit
Chap 48: Grenade
PART FOUR: PROSTITUTES
Chap 49: "Boom-boom number one"
Chap 50: Clap
Chap 51: Peter
PART FIVE: THE INDIGENOUS
Chap 52: A fellow martial artist
Chap 53: A most excellent shot
Chap 54: "Everybody's talkin' 'bout me"
Chap 55: China girl
Chap 56: Date night
Chap 57: The old gravedigger
Chap 58: Altered states: The Buddhist Temple
Chap 59: Dog sex and an alligator baby
PART SIX: STREET CHILDREN
Chap 60: A Tu Do paperboy
Chap 61: Cemetery Kids
Chap 62: Country Kids
PART SEVEN: HOME: THE FIRST YEAR
Chap 63: We gotta get out of this place
Chap 64: Mom and dad
Chap 65: "You're home now"
Chap 66: Small adjustments
Chap 67: Martial arts
Chap 68: "Your name Christensen?"
Chap 69: First-year triggers
PART EIGHT: TEN YEARS AFTER
Chap 70: Some talked about it, some didn't
Chap 71: "I have to get more guns"
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