How I spent Christmas in Vietnam at Sanctuary de Phu My December 1970 Saigon Republic of Vietnam

How I spent Christmas in Vietnam at Sanctuary de Phu My December 1970 Saigon Republic of Vietnam	As told in pictures and text by Richard Carvell 12 RITS Photo Lab OIC Tan Son Nhut Air Base, RVN
	None of us at the 12RITS could be with our families on Christmas Day in 1970, so we planned a party for the kids of Phu My Orphanage. This Christmas Day visit started like most other visits. The Vietnamese gatekeeper opened the gate for us when we arrived in the blue Air Force truck and tooted the truck's horn.
	But this visit was a bit different. It was Christmas Day 1970, and in the corner of an open-air room was a Christmas display just for the GIs who were throwing the party ... and in the same room, children of Phu My gathered in eager anticipation of the arrival of their friends from the 12RITS.
	The menu was hot dogs, potato chips and Kool-Aid, purchased the week before at the military commissary in Cholon. But we discovered a kink in our plan on Christmas morning.
	The night before the Phu My Christmas party in 1970, RITS picnickers at a Christmas Eve party behind the RITS building ran out of steak and -- being the hungry lads that they were -- helped themselves to the hot dogs stockpiled in the refrigerated storage reefers behind the RITS. It created an emergency. No hot dogs ... no Phu My party. With the case of the vanishing dogs solved early Christmas morning, one truck started for Phu My and a second truck headed for the Cholon Commissary with MPC to buy more hot dogs and buns. RITS people made their way to Phu My to entertain kids while the hot dog supply was replinished.
	War never takes a holiday, so fortunately for us and the kids, the Cholon commissary was open for business on Christmas Day and was not sold out of hot dogs. When the newly-purchased dogs arrived at Phu My, the grills were ready to cook them.
	We all were impressed by how the kids were dressed in their "finest" clothes for this Christmas Day party ... mostly hand-me-downs from good-hearted friends and relatives back home in America. They were all patiently waiting for the late-arriving troops and the hot dogs. We were serenaded by a chorus of young Vietnamese girls, singing traditional Christmas carols and songs. After all, this was an orphanage operated under the auspices of Sisters of the Roman Catholic Church. Christ definitely was in Christmas at Phu My in 1970.
	Cooking took place in an exterior courtyard, where both RITS people and Phu My children waited patiently for the good results. Most of the kids ate in the open air room, with some of the older kids and a Sister or two helping the younger ones balance everything.
	Short guys had some trouble reaching the top of the stack of cups, but there was usually a taller Phu My kid or a RITS person around to help.
	RITS people were even on hand to console little ones when a Kool-Aid cup spilled or a hot dog hit the ground. Hot dog replacement was easy and routine. It was the kids' parents we couldn't replace. Most, if not all, were orphans.
	Phu My was not only an orphanage, but it also was what we would call today an "assisted living" facility, a medical clinic, a TB sanatorium, with its own functioning garden and cemetery. A man, sitting on his cot in the tuberculosis sanatorium open bay sleeping room, made ornaments for sale ... small painted birds made out of strands of plastic for sale on the streets of Saigon. Apparently it was his only income.
	After the Phu My kids finished eating, we lined them up for games ... specifically, pinata-breaking. The pinata usually is associated with Hispanic cultures, although there is one legend that Marco Polo saw a pinata in the Orient. Perhaps that is why we did not have to explain the pinata to the Phu My kids? At least, not this boy. Even blind-folded, he knew exactly what to do ... and he was very proficient.
	Eyes were definitely turned skyward as the pinata swayed from a courtyard tree limb, knocked loopy by one of the older and stronger children. Anticipation was great!
	And when the pinata broke open, there was a pile of humanity on top of the pile of candy which dropped onto the ground from the broken pinata, split open by the wack of a bat.
	Kids filled their little hands with as much as each could hold. My caption for the second photo at the left has always been "I got a rock," a Charlie Brown line from a Halloween movie. Helpful GIs (in the third photo at left) made sure that everyone got some candy.
Christmas 1970 at Phu My Sanctuary in Saigon, Vietnam	The pinata actually was the idea of my Mother and Sister. The late Charlotte Carvell and Harriet Fowler both of Brinkley, Arkansas, constructed the pinata out of paper-mâché and shipped it to Vietnam for this very purpose. By hit and miss over the years, they had learned how to make a pinata either hold together under repeated blows or come apart on the first big whack. This one fell apart pretty quickly. God bless their memory as we remember that special Christmas many, many years ago in a far away land. I am thankful that they helped to make Christmas at Phu My a time to remember.
Visits	Thanks for spending Christmas 1970 with me and the men and women of the 12th RITS from Tan Son Nhut AFB, RVN, at Sanctuary de Phu My in Saigon.