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exhilarating !
After teaching there for almost a year, I decided to return
to Hue to get married the summer of 1969. I met my wife
three years prior.She was a student from Dong Khanh High

School and was now a first year student at Hue University.
Our wedding ceremony was held on The Tenth of May at her
own house and an afternoon reception was held at the Hue
Sports Club beside the poetic Huong Giang River.
A few days later, my spouse followed me to Da Lat. Our
friends threw a memorable welcome party for my bride.
Attending were friends, history students that I was teaching at

the Faculty of Letters,Dalat University, and representatives of
the classes of The Military School. One detail my wife and I will
never forget was that when the VNMA delegation att ended,
led by Senior student Le Viet Dac from class 22B,in a light
moss uniform with beautiful red alpha shoulder signs (Mr.
Dac at that time was the Deputy Head of the Cadet Regiment.
Coincidentally, Mr. Dac was my wife's Math tutor during her

Middle School in Hue). All attendees automatically stood up
and applauded pleasantly when the Military School Cadets
entered the party. The next afternoon, at Thuy Ta coff ee shop
on the bank of Xuan Huong Lake, the students of History
Department gave my beloved spouse a very warm reception
that we haven't forgotten even after more than half a century.

One weekend, I took my wife to visit the VNMA Campus.
From the guesthouse in front of the school, I showed her the
highest mountain (called Lam Vien).Its peak was hidden in
the mist and all military cadets had to summit before the alpha

ceremony to officially become a student of this most famous
Vietnamese National Military Academy,the largest military
school in Southeast Asia.
At the end of 1969, the cadets of class 22B graduated. It

was the first class in a 4-year program to receive a diploma,
recognized by the National Inter-Institute Council as
the equivalent of a BS in Humanities and a Diploma in

Engineering. The official graduation day was December 12,
1969. The night before, was a memorial service for heroes
who died for our Country and for The People’s Freedom. The

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