Return to Vietnam

Return to Vietnam After reading his cousin’s first book and recalling how his father never talked about his World War II memories, Greg told Stan to set the wheels in motion for what became a two-week trip to Vietnam for the three of them. OUT OF that experience, in 2020, Stan published his second book, Return To Vietnam.

Their tour guide, whom they called Mr. Giang, accompanied them to many interesting places — including Ho Chi Minh City and My Tho, where the orphanage had been located during Bain’s tour of duty. Though the North Vietnamese Army destroyed the orphanage in 1975, it was rebuilt into a well-equipped school, daycare, and orphanage in 1978. Fifty-two years later, much of Vietnam wasn’t recognizable to Bain, yet he felt a pull and sensed something familiar about the school where children were playing.

A priest they spoke with was unfamiliar with the old orphanage but said someone at the convent across the street might know about it. Bain met Sister Renee, who had been there in 1967 and remembered the day of the Viet Cong’s attack. She’d been the principal at a school across from the orphanage. The nun who had died in the courtyard during the attack had been a friend of hers. As they talked about the atrocities of that day, Bain grew emotional, and tears ran down his cheeks. Claire, Greg’s wife, then described what happened and Bain’s role in saving the children from burning to death.

“I had been living with that memory. It was as much a part of me as anything in my life’s experience,” Bain wrote in his book. “As horrible as it was, and as difficult as it was to live with, it was even harder to let it go.”