Re: Marijuana and Vietnam

Henry C. Beigh (henryb@imagebuilder.com)
Tue, 6 Aug 1996 15:17:33 -0400

Verrrry interesting. I was in the Marine's from 1968 through 1978. Before
I went overseas in 1970 I went through staging at Camp Pendleton for a
month. Part of our training involved familiarization with the Vietnamese
culture. One of the tales we were indoctrinated with was that the VC were
behind the marijuana epidemic in country and that they were lacing the grass
with heroin in order to force addiction on the American troops. Some story,
huh? We never knew if it was true or not.

When VMA(AW)-225 TransPac'd back to the states in 1971, I and my troops
ended up stripping down their birds at MCAS El Toro since the squadron was
being deactivated. On one aircraft, we were pulling out all of the console
gear on the BN's side. Buried underneath all this gear were bags and bags of
SE Asia's finest. Our Avionics Officer called PMO, but by the time they got
there all but a couple of the bags had "disappeared". I guess some troop at
Da Nang was planning on making a killing when he got back stateside. I am
told the grass was "most excellent" as my friends Bill and Ted would say. Further
searching yielded an entire Conex box full of the stuff.

-- 
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 Henry C. Beigh                                  (503) 684-5151 x554
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