As Fighting Raged in Vietnam
On August 15-17, 1969, two weeks before my departure for boot camp, a group of hippies and 400,000 of their soul mates converged on a dairy farm in New York state for three days of frolicking in the spirit of peace, love and music. Organizers called it “Woodstock,” after the Catskill Mountains town where they’d hoped to have the concert. (The show eventually went on in Bethel, New York, about 50 miles away.) It was 1969, the last year of the tumultuous ’60s.
Santana was one of the groups that performed at Woodstock, and every time I hear a Santana song from that era I have flashbacks of a bad Vietnam experience. A Filipino band was playing one evening at an EM Club at Phuoc Vinh firebase. In the middle of a Santana song, rockets began slamming down extremely close to the club. ‘Charlie’ apparently had the entertainment schedule for the EM Club, and knew it would be packed with GIs. My first instinct was to jump under a nearby pool table then I scrambled to a nearby bunker. While in the bunker I could hear someone gasping for what would be his last breath…
My Vietnam Experience 
“every time I hear a Santana song from that era I have flashbacks of a bad Vietnam experience”
I undestand you, before thirty years It must be very distressing.
Yes, but I still like Santana music…
Of course, bad experiencie but good music.
🙂
Yes indeed…
I’LL NEVER FORGET BUT I LOST ALL MY MEMORIES IA FIRE IN 90
What a bummer, sorry to hear that…
We had a plywood backboard and a projector plugged into a generator we used to show movies at Phouc Vinh. Many nights the recoilless rifle rounds would start falling. No one would move until they started to get too close for comfort. One night we were watching The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. There is a scene where the camera pans down main street… and a round from artillery roars in and explodes in the street. By the time that round landed everyone had scattered trampling everything in their way headed for the bunkers… and then we realized it was just the movie! Man was that real!