Blood Road Page #4

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that the jungle takes on you

makes any task that you have

exponentially harder.

It certainly did ours.

RUSCH:
You okay?

Okay. I'm okay. Yeah.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

How do you like the sling?

(LAUGHS)

Going up towards a protected

area in the plateau,

I was testing the bike out.

I made the slightest mistake.

The front wheel went out,

and when I hit...

One of the most common

motorcycle

and cycling injuries is

a broken shoulder,

and I knew when I hit

that my number was up.

Not a good day for Don.

You know how many

freaking kilometers I put on

without a freaking injury?

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE) We had thought

that he had to discontinue the role

of guide and interpreter

for Rebecca and I

as well as the whole group.

RUSCH:
Don was seriously hurt,

and it's a minimum

of a day's ride

to the nearest hospital

from where we were.

He needed to undergo surgery,

and that would have taken him

out of the trip entirely.

So he refused.

He decided to rejoin the trip

and just tough it out.

NGUYEN:
Oh, very big hole.

Yeah.

NGUYEN:
Big hole.

Big bomb.

RUSCH:
This whole trail,

this whole section,

there's a lot of 'em.

The first bomb crater we saw,

I didn't believe

that that's what it was.

It was the first time of seeing

really obvious physical scars

still left in the land

and people living amongst that,

and living

basically right on top,

right around

all these bomb craters.

There was crater after crater,

and I actually couldn't fathom

the scope of the devastation

and how many there were.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

Everywhere you look,

there's another one,

there's another one,

there's another one.

And I was asking Huyen

about them, like...

"Why is that hole still there?"

You'd think that the ground

would have filled in,

but I guess it doesn't,

because in the rainy season,

they fill with water

and become these little ponds

and sort of ecosystems.

NGUYEN:
(IN VIETNAMESE) Along the

trail, there are so many bomb craters.

That really reflects

the harshness of the war.

RUSCH:
It's upsetting to see them.

I felt sorry

for the people who lived there.

I felt sorry for my father

and the other pilots

and the internal conflict

that they must have experienced.

We knew one thing for sure,

that it was very painful.

And I think that war

is the most cruel thing.

And I still do not understand

what it was for.

DUVALL:
Phanop Valley, this

was the main choke point

because it was where

the greatest concentration

of trucks were,

so it was hit by fighters,

B-52s, continuously for years.

Continuously.

MARTIN:
There's a town

in the Phanop Valley

near the border of Vietnam.

I called it Bomb Town.

And what we did there was...

Wow, I mean, I... Yeah.

I couldn't describe it.

One thing you want to notice

is how they're rounded off,

and the jagged pieces

are missing up there.

Because... From this ordnance.

RUSCH:
It got hit? Yeah.

RUSCH:
Yeah, yeah.

DUVALL:
Yeah.

MAN:
(AS STEPHEN)

"Dear Judy, Sharon and Becky,

"some of the anti-aircraft

from the bad guys over here

"really water your eyes.

"They use tracers so you can

really see it coming.

"Most of the time, we've only

been getting small arms fire,

"but I can do without any of it.

"You kind of lose inhibitions

about bombing these guys

"when you know they're trying

to knock you out of the sky.

"I have to brief shortly.

"Give my love and lots of hugs

and kisses to Sharon and Becky.

"I've got that 8-by-10 color

picture of them at my desk,

"and it is a real comfort

to look at.

Be good. Steve."

(MUSIC PLAYING)

DUVALL:
These circles with an X through it

are areas where

they were storing supplies,

so very likely

this was a storage place

along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

many children from U.S.A.,

if they can see

what happened here,

I think they don't want

to come here, came here.

Get ready.

Here it goes.

They turn down here.

Wow, this looks like this road.

here are very rich, I think.

Big house.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you dig through

this barrel here,

you'll find all kinds

of interesting artifacts.

Maybe some pickaxes.

This looks like

springs from trucks.

I don't know, but this is

igniter instructions in English.

What? Yeah, okay. Yeah, this is

a parachute flare casing.

Oh, cool. Look at that.

That's amazing.

RUSCH:
I feel sort of weird

snooping around everyone's houses.

Like, you would

never do this at home.

DUVALL:
You can go into many

villages and still find plates,

utensils for cooking.

Almost every village

along the Ho Chi Minh Trail,

you'll find

a planter that's built

from a cluster bomb casing.

There's still

plenty of evidence around,

and it will remain

for many years.

Oh, a pagoda.

RUSCH:
This place is sweet, with

the flowers and everything.

Check that out.

Look at that drum.

Fly.

Wow...

collect it and put it here.

RUSCH:
When I was young,

I remember that people

would hear my father's story

and they would say to me,

"Oh, I'm so sorry.

It must have been so awful

to grow up without a father."

And I didn't really

understand that,

because I was 3

when he was shot down.

I was so young that

it was nothing that I knew.

And it's taken me until now

to be ready

to dig a little deeper

and want to know more.

Can we go?

Yes, I know.

I feel you.

Let's go.

Yes.

In my dad's case,

they did an excavation

many years

after he was shot down,

and they identified him

through teeth.

So I went in

and they opened up the bag,

and brought out the two teeth,

and showed me what the teeth

that were on the table were,

and what his x-rays looked like.

It was no doubt.

I knew it was him.

And my eyes filled with tears

and I thought...

"Wow, he's...

He's really home."

Because you don't believe it

until you see it.

And I thought, "How different

would our lives have been

"if we knew

right at the beginning

or doesn't it matter?"

But I do know

that not a day has gone by

that I don't miss him.

Not a day goes by where

I want to make sure

I'm making him proud.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

RUSCH:
Growing up, I didn't know

what happened to my father.

I had reoccurring dreams

that maybe he was alive

and he had another family

and was living over here.

We would meet in a coffee shop,

and I would tell him

all about my life.

And when they found his remains,

and I knew that he died

that day in the crash,

I felt a strong desire

to come here

and try to find out

the circumstances

around his death.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't understand.

To better communicate

with the locals,

we enlisted Pahn's help.

PAHN:
(IN LAO)

I am one of the coordinators

who guide the track,

speak to local people,

and translate between

her team and local people.

DUVALL:
Each individual village,

depending

on their ethnic background,

has areas that are sacred

that have to be honored.

So he would also check

quite thoroughly about that

and inform us.

RUSCH:
Just as we were about to leave,

PAHN told us a monk

had been watching us,

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