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On a winter afternoon,I took a plane from Saigon to
Lien Khuong Airport in the drizzling rain and freezing cold
of Da Lat Plateau. I was surrounded by mountains after
mountains,hills after hills,with only the occasional houses-
on- stilts along the roadside. Everything was hidden in a veil
of rain, making me feel something lost as I walked from the
bustling capital of Saigon to a quiet mystical place,enveloped
in fog and frost all year round...
I started a new life at house No. 7 on Phan Dinh Phung Da
Lat street with a few friends who studied with me at Nguyen
Hoang High School in Quang Tri. The next day, I contacted
Mr. Bui Dinh Ri and Mr. Tu Vo Hao to meet me at the Offi ce
of The Major General. In front of me was the vast and majestic
facilities of this school located on a large hill ( bearing number
1515), between Mount Lapbé Sub and Than Tho Lake, built in
1960. This is where many handsome young men who dreamed

of donning a bow and a sword came to fulfill their dreams. In
the mid-1950s,as a young boy attending the 6th and 7th classes

at Nguyen Hoang High School,I recalled the dazzling image
of the VNMA students returning home to Quang Tri,during
local festivals.They dressed majestically in white, high
collars, green stripes, yellow shoulder tassels, with a sword
at their side... really left a deep impression on my youthful
heart. After receiving my High School Diploma, I applied for
the entrance exam for the 18th class of this Da Lat National
Military school along with my Nguyen Hoang's classmates :
Nguyen Cung Vinh (later became a lieutenant colonel) and Le
Thi (later became a major). During an evacuation in Ban Me
Thuot, Vinh was missing in March 1975; Le Thi was arrested
and brought to the so called Re-education Camp under the
Communist Authority.Later, I heard that Thi did go to the US
under the HO program.
Because my elder brother, Le Dinh Dan,was entering the
12th class of the Thu Duc Infantry Officer School, my dear

father advised me not to continue this idea.Consequently, my
dream of becoming a VNMA student was left behind. It was
nearly 8 years later that I found myself returning to this school
as a professor of History and Humanities. Looking back, one

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