Policing Saigon

Policing Saigon isn't Platoon or Apocalypse Now, but the story of Loren W. Christensen's experience as a military policeman (MP) in a city of millions at a time when chaos and fear reigned.

As a 23-year-old from a small town in Washington State, the author was plunged into a chaotic city of brawling servicemen, prostitutes, racial violence, enemy rockets, riots, and death. It was a place that would give him a unique opportunity to see up close a different side of the Vietnam War and its effect on the human condition.

Nearly 80 stories collectively convey the author's experiences, and his arc-from naive to jaded, angry, confused, anxious, and bone-weary exhausted-is representative of so many GIs who served in the Vietnam War as well as those veterans of today's conflicts around the globe.

"A true warrior and a gifted and prolific author, Loren gives the reader a deep and illuminating insight into his experience that changed his life and subsequently led him toward helping others through his writing. Policing Saigon is a powerful book." Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

Military Policeman Loren Christensen takes the reader on a gritty, moving, and intense ride-a-along in Saigon, Vietnam. K.F., Afghanistan War veteran

Table of Contents

Introduction

PART ONE: THE FIRST FEW DAYS

Chap 1: Flying there

Chap 2: Door gunners and policing for cigarette butts

Chap 3: Welcome to Saigon

Chap 4: Python

Chap 5: Culture shock

Chap 6: Dead men's gear

PART TWO: "ROUTINE DAYS"

Chap 7: Day after day

Chap 8: EOD

Chap 9: Skylight

Chap 10: Cobra

Chap 11: Bob Hope

Chap 12: Papa-san and the ammo truck

Chap 13: Dead mama-san

Chap 14: Jail window

Chap 15: "Karate number one"

Chap 16: Sampson

Chap 17: 100-P alley

Chap 18: 200-P alley

Chap 19: The swimming pool

Chap 20: "Dance to the Music"

Chap 21: Drugs

Chap 22: Tracer rounds

Chap 23: Puff the magic dragon

Chap 24: Almost a coup

Chap 25: Vietnam blues

Chap 26: Tension

Chap 27: A shaky fork

Chap 28: Illusions of relief

Chap 29: Korean Marines

Chap 30: AFVN radio: "Goooooood morning, Vietnaaaaaam"

Chap 31: "I'm not a crook"

Chap 32: Running Code3

Chap 33: Fire

Chap 34: Riot

Chap 35: Power and rank: a deadly mix

Chap 36: The vision

Ch 37: Screams

Chap 38: Meyerkord Hotel

Chap 39: Resisting arrest

Chap 40: Letters

Chap 41: One GI who went home and came right back

PART THREE: LOSING IT

Chap 42: Silencer

Chap 43: Hangman

Chap 44: Johnny Walker Black

Chap 45: Escaped prisoner

Chap 46: The Punch

Chap 47: Death of the spirit

Chap 48: Grenade

PART FOUR: PROSTITUTES

Chap 49: "Boom-boom number one"

Chap 50: Clap

Chap 51: Peter

PART FIVE: THE INDIGENOUS

Chap 52: A fellow martial artist

Chap 53: A most excellent shot

Chap 54: "Everybody's talkin' 'bout me"

Chap 55: China girl

Chap 56: Date night

Chap 57: The old gravedigger

Chap 58: Altered states: The Buddhist Temple

Chap 59: Dog sex and an alligator baby

PART SIX: STREET CHILDREN

Chap 60: A Tu Do paperboy

Chap 61: Cemetery Kids

Chap 62: Country Kids

PART SEVEN: HOME: THE FIRST YEAR

Chap 63: We gotta get out of this place

Chap 64: Mom and dad

Chap 65: "You're home now"

Chap 66: Small adjustments

Chap 67: Martial arts

Chap 68: "Your name Christensen?"

Chap 69: First-year triggers

PART EIGHT: TEN YEARS AFTER

Chap 70: Some talked about it, some didn't

Chap 71: "I have to get more guns"

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