A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (75 page)
Read A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam Online
Authors: Neil Sheehan
Tags: #General, #Vietnam War; 1961-1975, #History, #United States, #Vietnam War, #Military, #Biography & Autobiography, #Southeast Asia, #Asia, #United States - Officers, #Vietnam War; 1961-1975 - United States, #Vann; John Paul, #Biography, #Soldiers, #Soldiers - United States
John Paul Vann’s mother, Myrtle Lee Tripp, in her self-indulgent finery. “I’m Myrtle and there’s not another one in the world like me. I love myself,” said her sister Mollie in summing up Myrtle’s character.
Courtesy Dorothy Lee Cadorette
.
His father, Johnny Spry, in a moment of brief prosperity before his bootleg whiskey still was raided. Myrtle named the boy John Paul after him.
Courtesy John Paul Spry, Jr
.
ESCAPE TO FERRUM
A rich Norfolk oyster dealer outfitted him in sport coat and slacks and wrote a check for a scholarship at Ferrum Training School and Junior College in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Courtesy Dorothy Lee Cadorette
.
A happy Johnny Vann in
The Beacon
, the Ferrum yearbook for the class of 1943:“Intelligent, clear-eyed—of such as he, / Shall Freedom’s young apostles be.”
Courtesy The Parker Studio
,
Roanoke, Virginia
.
Attired as the knight of the air he wanted to be in a photo he sent to Mary Jane and signed, “Love, Johnny.”
Courtesy Mary Jane Vann
.
Myrtle and Frank Vann came to visit him at a processing center in Nashville, Tennessee, before he went on to flight training. Myrtle wore her gray-squirrel coat.
Courtesy Dorothy Lee Cadorette
.
The eve of the wedding: John Vann between Myrtle and Mary Jane.
Courtesy Mary Jane Vann
.
THE AIR CORPS AND A GIRL
Lt. John Paul Vann and Mary Jane Allen on their wedding day, October 6,1945.
Courtesy Mary Jane Vann
.
FAMILY DAYS
The halcyon time in Osaka, Japan, before the outbreak of the Korean War, with Patricia, their first-born, and John Allen on his mother’s lap.
Courtesy Mary Jane Vann
.
West Germany in the mid-1950s: Tommy listening to his father during a bicycle excursion along a dirt road through a forest. Tow-headed Jesse at left, John Allen behind Tommy, blond boy beside him is the child of a family friend.
Courtesy
Mary Jane Vann
.
VIETNAM:
THE FIRST YEAR
Vann and Cao, August 1962.
“The best U. S.-Vietnamese team for fighting Communists.” Courtesy Mary Jane Vann
.
Capt. Thuong, the Cambodian who commanded the Rangers and who wielded a Bowie knife.
John Paul Vann Papers
.
