Ed Henry

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Biographical Info:

I love to travel. I was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and as early as I can remember all I wanted to do was leave town. I spent a lot of time in the town library reading geography books and I daydreamed about one day visiting all the places I was discovering in the books. At age 17, I joined the Navy and soon found myself in the Fleet Marine Force as a grunt corpsman, traveling all over the Far East with the First and Third Marine Divisions and visiting some of those far-off places. It was just the beginning of a life filled with meeting extraordinary people and traveling to some extraordinary places. I love to travel. Going to Green Bay, Wisconsin is as much an adventure to me as going to Bangkok. People are people the world over. I try to remember this as I go from place to place and I also try to make it a habit to learn something new everyday as I travel in another country. Like many Vietnam veterans, the war interrupted my dreams too. I did my time and got out and put Vietnam behind me. I never had a desire to return until a friend planted the seed in my brain in the early weeks of 1988 and I began thinking back on all the things I didn't get to see while I did my tour of duty in 1965 and 1966. We were taught nothing of the language, culture or history. When I seriously thought about it, there wasn't a whole lot that I knew about this country except that I had once been there involved in their war. That trip was a turning point in my life and I thought for sure I would never do the trip again. But one trip led to another..and then another...and I was in demand for lectures, sales pitches and conferences dealing with the newly discovered Vietnam. Vietnam is not newly discovered...never has been...and never will be. We Americans just ignored it while the rest of the free world continued dealing with it before and after 1975. We Americans haven't even begun to realistically deal with it. Vietnam struggles to emerge as an internationally recognized economic player on the Pacific Rim and it will succeed in that struggle, just as it did in the struggle for reunification. Even thought I've made the trip back so many times, I can still feel a sense of excitement as I view Vietnam's progress. It is no longer a matter of whether America will deal with Vietnam or not--America has to deal with Vietnam if America wants to succeed in gaining a competitive marketing edge in the Pacific Rim and Southeast Asia. Every day is another day to learn something new about the world and about myself and the people with whom I'll come in contact. Military Historical Tours 4600 Duke Street Suite 420, Alexandria, Virginia, 22304, Tel: (703) 739-8900. E-mail: miltours@aol.com Website: http://www.miltours.com