Policing Saigon

Policing Saigon isn’t Platoon or Apocalypse Now, but the story of Loren W. Christensen's experience as a military policeman (MP) in a city of millions at a time when chaos and fear reigned.
As a 23-year-old from a small town in Washington State, the author was plunged into a chaotic city of brawling servicemen, prostitutes, racial violence, enemy rockets, riots, and death. It was a place that would give him a unique opportunity to see up close a different side of the Vietnam War and its effect on the human condition.
Nearly 80 stories collectively convey the author’s experiences, and his arc—from naive to jaded, angry, confused, anxious, and bone-weary exhausted—is representative of so many GIs who served in the Vietnam War as well as those veterans of today’s conflicts around the globe.
“A true warrior and a gifted and prolific author, Loren gives the reader a deep and illuminating insight into his experience that changed his life and subsequently led him toward helping others through his writing. Policing Saigon is a powerful book.” ~~Lt. Col. Dave Grossman
Military Policeman Loren Christensen takes the reader on a gritty, moving, and intense ride-a-along in Saigon, Vietnam. ~~K.F., Afghanistan War veteran
Table of Contents

Introduction

PART ONE: THE FIRST FEW DAYS

Chap 1: Flying there
Chap 2: Door gunners and policing for cigarette butts
Chap 3: Welcome to Saigon
Chap 4: Python
Chap 5: Culture shock
Chap 6: Dead men’s gear

PART TWO: "ROUTINE DAYS"
Chap 7: Day after day
Chap 8: EOD
Chap 9: Skylight
Chap 10: Cobra
Chap 11: Bob Hope
Chap 12: Papa-san and the ammo truck
Chap 13: Dead mama-san
Chap 14: Jail window
Chap 15: “Karate number one”
Chap 16: Sampson
Chap 17: 100-P alley
Chap 18: 200-P alley
Chap 19: The swimming pool
Chap 20: “Dance to the Music”
Chap 21: Drugs
Chap 22: Tracer rounds
Chap 23: Puff the magic dragon
Chap 24: Almost a coup
Chap 25: Vietnam blues
Chap 26: Tension
Chap 27: A shaky fork
Chap 28: Illusions of relief
Chap 29: Korean Marines
Chap 30: AFVN radio: “Goooooood morning, Vietnaaaaaam”
Chap 31: “I’m not a crook”
Chap 32: Running Code3
Chap 33: Fire
Chap 34: Riot
Chap 35: Power and rank: a deadly mix
Chap 36: The vision
Ch 37: Screams
Chap 38: Meyerkord Hotel
Chap 39: Resisting arrest
Chap 40: Letters
Chap 41: One GI who went home and came right back

PART THREE: LOSING IT
Chap 42: Silencer
Chap 43: Hangman
Chap 44: Johnny Walker Black
Chap 45: Escaped prisoner
Chap 46: The Punch
Chap 47: Death of the spirit
Chap 48: Grenade

PART FOUR: PROSTITUTES

Chap 49: “Boom-boom number one”
Chap 50: Clap
Chap 51: Peter

PART FIVE: THE INDIGENOUS
Chap 52: A fellow martial artist
Chap 53: A most excellent shot
Chap 54: “Everybody’s talkin’ ‘bout me”
Chap 55: China girl
Chap 56: Date night
Chap 57: The old gravedigger
Chap 58: Altered states: The Buddhist Temple
Chap 59: Dog sex and an alligator baby

PART SIX: STREET CHILDREN
Chap 60: A Tu Do paperboy
Chap 61: Cemetery Kids
Chap 62: Country Kids

PART SEVEN: HOME: THE FIRST YEAR
Chap 63: We gotta get out of this place
Chap 64: Mom and dad
Chap 65: “You’re home now”
Chap 66: Small adjustments
Chap 67: Martial arts
Chap 68: “Your name Christensen?”
Chap 69: First-year triggers

PART EIGHT: TEN YEARS AFTER
Chap 70: Some talked about it, some didn’t
Chap 71: “I have to get more guns”