August 29, 2018 I write--

John McCain left North Vietnam prison camp in May of 1973.

I found but did not write the story below about Quan Loi in the same time frame. He was still in North Vietnam when this piece below recounts. I was in 1967 at Quan Loi, or An Loc, or Loc Ninh when John McCain was shot down in North Vietnam.

Nothing I can say will change what happened but I remember and hold John McCain at my highest esteem and honor.

Saturday he will be with 50 some odd thousand on the Wall. I remember seeing my reflection in the Wall in 1991 and still wonder why I am on the reflection side of the wall.

I suspect Saturday will be a hard day for Vietnam veterans. People say we came home changed and I reluctantly agree.

By Rick Harris

The rest of Quan Loi was quite desolate in this timeframe. The Helicopter Assault company had left (summer of 1971, I think); I believe there were a few advisors with the ARVN units on the south side of the runway. Other than that, we felt very alone. We were mortared and rocketed occasionally, and were attacked by sappers.

As we got into the first months of 1972 we found our teams getting into more and more contacts. We found increased activity of bad guys, and our compound was being attacked by sappers at night. The 74th was about to stand down and my extra 6 months was about to come to an end. I can honestly say that I was "over" being involved with the exciting part - these guys were trying to kill me!!. I left Quan Loi at the end of February, 1972 just in time to escape the Easter Offensive at An Loc when the area was overrun by the NVA. Quan Loi, itself, was overrun on April 7, 1972.

I got home in March and I will always remember getting my local newspaper one day in April of 1972 and on the cover was a photo of An Loc with the caption: "The Battle of An Loc". I think I got home right in the Nick of time.