My subscription was still in good order when I marched (or rather, flew) off to war with a box of paints secreted in my duffel bag, boxes of Airfix figures ready to be mailed to me if my assignment should permit a little extra-curricular imitation war, and a list of magazine subscriptions left behind for the family to keep current.
Even my fanatical addiction to wargaming has its limits, and for the first several months my minor contributions to the war effort coupled with the task of 1 earning some little about the Vietnamese culture took most of my time. There came a time, though, when I had both the time and the place to do some painting. The result was a brigade size force of American Civil War troops, four 24 man battalions to a side with supporting guns and cavalry rather grandly entitled the Confederate "Army of Gia Dinh" and the Unionist "Army of the Dong Nail', which went for each other hammer-and-tongs for about five months. The people I recruited as opponents quickly advanced from straight forward line against line battles to variable force meeting engagements to contested route marches with ambushes, roadblocks and skirmishing.
Although my opponents lost a gratifyingly large proportion of our games, my little Confederates eventually met their Dien Bien Phu in the streets of a small town - their retreat cut off, their perimeter broken in, and the gallant remnants hunted from house-to-house. Both the victorious Unionists and the sullen southern survivors were rotated back to "The World" shortly afterwards, and now stand placidly on my shelf, looking down their 25mm scale noses at the new battalions now being raised to fill out their numbers! (I might add that they were not counted as part of President Nixon's Phase III withdrawal).
Returning to the original subject: One of the small pleasure I had promised myself on returning home was the contemplation of 15 month's accumulation of Tradition, Wargamer's Newsletter, Armchair General, the Courier, etc. There was not one. Each and every subscription had run out a month or two after I left for Vietnam and although the family swears up and down that the cheques were made out, the forms filled in, and the envelopes addressed, stuffed and sealed - not one ever reached its destination, and no trace of any of the letters has been found.
Getting started in college on our GI Bill kept me busy for a while, and when I got around to getting all those subscriptions straightened out I found I had no idea what the rates would be, what with inflation, devaluation, decimalization, and God only knows what other confusion, I sent you a letter to ask for information and, so I'm told, you had a minor labour dispute in your postal service just about that time.
I could easily imagine, when and if the strike should end, that tons of mail might be delivered to you -- possibly by dump truck loads -- and that it might take some time before you could answer my note. If you should ever find that note, do feel free to ignore it entirely as I am enclosing my cheque for the coming year's subscription.
I am presently beginning work on a series of rules for the Vietnam War - hardly a popular choice, perhaps, due to both politics and a general desire to hear nothing more on the subject. Nevertheless, I think that, when the smoke clears away, Vietnam will have its attraction for generals of miniature forces.
To begin with, actions in Vietnam are usually on a small enough scale to permit recreation in realistic fashion. Even the "battles" are often a series of company or platoon actions, with rapidly available artillery, air, medical, supply, and higher level command support due to air mobility (this being true to a far greater extent than in previous actions).
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© Copyright 1971 by Donald Featherstone.
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