In August 2022, four elderly American men arrived at a small airport near Quy Nhon, a city in Vietnam that was once a battleground during the Vietnam War. Major Dang Ha Thuy, a Vietnamese man in uniform, greeted them warmly. Despite being on opposite sides during the war, they now shared a common goal. Thuy had been searching for the remains of his fallen comrades for 20 years, and the Americans had come to help, as they were the ones who buried them. Together, they traveled to Xuan Son Hill, the site of a fierce battle at Firebase Bird, where a mass grave had been discovered. The Americans, including a tearful Steve Hassett, were deeply moved by the memories of the battle. They recalled the chaos and devastation that occurred on that fateful day in 1966. Years later, one of the veterans, Spencer Matteson, found solace in returning a stolen Buddhist statue he had taken during the war. The statue, a Bodhisattva, symbolized a sense of peace for Matteson, despite the guilt he felt for taking it. When he attempted to return it to a pagoda in 2014, he was told by a monk that keeping the statue was his karma, as it had been spared from destruction during bombings. Matteson’s journey to return the statue symbolized his desire for redemption and reconciliation with the past.
