The DMZ

The De-Militarized Zone lives on in infamy, for being the scene of the worst fighting of the American War. It's one of the places I really wanted to go and see, as I'd read so much about it in the late 70's.

You can read all about it by clicking this link.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, as it was actually the most highly militarized place in the country, and was subject to repeated shelling, Agent Orange / Dioxin / Napalm attacks, and mining.

I'd decided to take a tour, as the DMZ covers a reasonably large area, and I thought this would be the easiest way to see it all. The tour guide was a really nice guy who'd lived in the area, and he presented the information without giving the standard propaganda line.

In reality, there's not much to see. But the scenery was incredible, and the tour commentary was excellent.

The infamous Rockpile:



Left over military hardware at the Khe Sanh Military base. Known at the time as "Khe Sanh hell""



Cows graze at this former military air force base - left over shells litter the ground:



A memorial to those who were separated when the DMZ was created. Some people waited twenty years to be re-united with there loved ones. The woman and child look north waiting to be re-united:



The dividing line between North and South:



I discovered today that it was Easter. A random comment made by someone alerted me to the fact - funny how you lose track...and on a slightly bizarre note, one of the Australian girl's on the tour discovered that her dad worked with one of the other Australians on the tour, and that they had lived a few minutes walk from each other. They then spend the next twenty minutes running through all the people they knew! How weird is that!