Taking a Long Shot: Love, Life and Peril in Wartime Vietnam

Love and Violence in Saigon

Wade Kendell, a Californian motor mechanic, left his family and his four bucks an hour job at the local Mobil gas station to join the thousands of civilian employees supporting the American troops in Vietnam. Arriving in Saigon just after the 1968 Tet Offensive, he now earned 1,800 dollars a month tax-free supervising Vietnamese workers in a giant motor pool.

For Wade having a beer on the steps of his trailer park home had been a luxury. Now he had a fridge full of cold beers. Among the bombings, guns and killings, Saigon boasted beautiful and available women. Wade found one in Mai. It was becoming the perfect life. But Mai and Wade had different dreams.

Why would a man put himself in danger's path? Was it just for the money or was it an escape from the mundane or a search for an adrenaline rush? Whether it was Saigon, Kabul or Baghdad you could find ordinary working Joes living extraordinary lives. Sometimes it's as they say, you can never go home again.