The Slice: In country, the second time around

Let’s start with a few answers to Thursday’s question about Vietnam veterans going back to visit.

Sagle, Idaho’s Jim Bellotty was in the military in Vietnam in 1971.

Many years later, he went back and spent a couple of weeks there.

He admitted that flying into Hanoi felt somewhat surreal, but he’s glad he made the trip.

“Over the years, I have traveled to all the arch-enemies of my youth: Russia, China, Vietnam. It has been therapeutic and given me an understanding that the average person in all these countries wants the same things out of life.”

Pullman’s Don Peters served in Vietnam during 1970-71. He went back in 2014.

“We found the Vietnamese people to be warm, friendly and helpful. They do not seem to harbor any ill will toward Americans. However, most we talked to were not alive during the ‘American’ war. But all had memories or family stories of fathers, uncles or other relatives who served or were killed in the war.”

Then there was this from Newman Lake’s Duane Cocking, who spent a year in Vietnam as the pilot of cargo aircraft. He was there from October 1968 to October 1969.

He never wanted to go back. But several years ago his oldest son called and asked if Duane would mind if he took a tour of Vietnam. “I said, ‘No, have a ball. Just send me pictures.’

“He took about 600 which he posted on a website where I could purchase them for 29 cents each. I have yet to buy one.”

All three men are watching the PBS series, “The Vietnam War.”

We have a winner: Lots, and I mean lots, of readers knew that snippet in Friday’s column was from the opening of TV’s “The Outer Limits.”

Though quite a few readers incorrectly guessed it was from “The Twilight Zone.”

I’m sending the coveted reporter’s notebook to Rockford’s Tom Tyler because he admitted certain “Outer Limits” installments scared him as a kid.

Me too, Tom.

Today’s Slice question (for readers of a certain age): Are you bitter because you spent much of your youth perfecting the safecracker’s touch necessary to successfully manipulate the horizontal/vertical controls on your family’s television set only to see that hard-earned skill rendered obsolete by advances in TV technology?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. 1. The desire to protect your children. 2. The need for food, water and oxygen. 3. The sex drive. 4. The urge to acquire small, decorative pumpkins.