A couple of days ago, while looking for something else, I ran across a couple of items from the past that I\u2019d forgotten about. One was a curfew pass from Vietnam.
\nDuring the war there was a curfew \u2014 depending on the \u201cstate of the war\u201d the curfew was essentially \u201call the time\u201d or it varied up until about midnight.<\/p>\n
Anyhow, I lived in an apartment in downtown in Saigon \u2014 right across the street from City Hall. Since we usually worked fairly late, I was almost always out after curfew. Most of the curfew \u201ccheckpoints\u201d were on the outskirts of Saigon, not downtown on the main streets. There was a\u00a0 military and civilian curfew. Again, depending on the situation, the (American) military curfew was generally a little earlier than for the civilian population.<\/p>\n
Since I was technically a \u201cmilitary\u201d employee, I was often stopped by the American Military Police (MPs) for being out after curfew. They usually \u201cwrote me up\u201d for violating curfew and I didn\u2019t think much about it until I was called into our office at the embassy.
\nI apparently had been written up more times than I thought \u2014 there was a \u201cstack\u201d of offenses against me.<\/p>\n
After some discussion, it was agreed that I was probably going to continue to violate curfew and in order to counteract the situation, my superiors came up with a plan \u2014 they issued me a Curfew Pass. I guess they made it up in the office and it looked pretty official to me… had my picture on it and everything. The words on the pass said something like \u201c…. the person whose photograph and signature appear below is an official of the United States Government and is authorized to travel and conduct official business during curfew.\u201d It was printed in both English and Vietnamese with both my signature and that of the MACV Provost Marshal.<\/p>\n
There was just one problem \u2014 it apparently didn\u2019t work… it seems that none of the MPs had ever seen (or even heard of) a \u201cCurfew Pass.\u201d It also turned out that the serial number of the pass was 001. A few MPs asked how many people had curfew passes and if this was the only one (it was.)<\/p>\n
The \u201coffenses\u201d against me kept piling up and after another meeting I was issued a new pass \u2014 with a different serial number, but it also had a stamp prominently displayed that read \u201cOFFICIAL\u201d in both English and Vietnamese. That seemed to do the trick…. I received very few, if any, violations after that. So I guess if you\u2019re going to carry documentation, it should clearly state that it is \u201cofficial.\u201d Or…. maybe they just got tired of writing me up.
\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A couple of days ago, while looking for something else, I ran across a couple of items from the past that I\u2019d forgotten about. One was a curfew pass from Vietnam. During the war there was a curfew \u2014 depending … Continue reading