Most of the more "modern" small
towns were centered around the Church. This one building served as their
place of worship, the community center, sometimes the Hospital
and last, but not least, a fortress for defense. A definite
perimeter is visable.
Vietnam was then about
one-third Roman Catholic, and some of the churches built in even
the smallest of towns and hamlets were magnificent structures considering
the lack of suitable raw materiels. This little town was adjacent to one
of the Michelin rubber plantations, just north of Saigon. The
actual rubber trees can be seen in this photo, on this side of the road,
in the foreground.
This photograph was taken
while flying cover (recon) for a major firefight taking place only a few
hundred yards from the town. The artillery craters are just out of
the camera's view.
Church in the Village
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