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Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:02 pm
by Kung-fu Hillbilly
Image
Sean Flynn, left, and Dana Stone on the rented motorcycles they rode into Cambodia on April 6, 1970. Photo courtesy Perry Deane Smith/MCT/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Carl Robinson
Nov 8, 2019


As the sun set one evening over Saigon’s putrid Thi Nghe Canal, out beyond the old French part of town, John led me past a Cambodian Buddhist temple, through a labyrinth of tin and wood shacks, and upstairs into my first opium den

John was determined to follow in the modern-day footsteps and excesses of William Lee, the junkie hero of William S. Burroughs’ 1959 novel Naked Lunch, which he often quoted, but I never read.

A strobe light flashed off psychedelic posters. I was introduced to British photographer Tim Page, who worked for Time Life; he was sitting on a mat rolling one of his classic four-sheet super joints, which he called Tamparello, a combination of Cigarillo and Tampax, the popular feminine tampon.

When we arrived in the capital, Sean invited us to a French restaurant and then to Madame Chung’s, Phnom Penh’s most renowned opium den, which lay off a wide boulevard in a quiet part of town. Compared to that rough start back in Saigon, this was all class.

Our diminutive hostess entered with a few quiet words of welcome in French, then began the opium-smoking ceremony. Using a long silver needle heated over the lamp’s small but intense flame, she masterfully prised a small bit off a black chunk of opium, and then used the pipe bowl’s flat surface and more heat to mould the smouldering piece into a pea-sized ball.

The incident would mark the start of a string of departures and other mishaps in my circle of friends. Most shockingly, Tim Page was badly wounded by a booby-trapped US-made 105-mm artillery shell west of Saigon. The Good Humour Man had been over only the night before, and we’d enjoyed a few pipes. He hadn’t even mentioned the routine assignment he’d be doing for Time: taking aerial views of the black market along the Cambodian border. The right side of his brain was blown away, and he was now at the 24th Evacuation Hospital at the huge US base of Long Binh, north-east of Saigon.

full https://www.afr.com/world/asia/out-of-t ... 021-p532n8

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:37 pm
by SternAAlbifrons
"Most shockingly, Tim Page was badly wounded by a booby-trapped US-made 105-mm artillery shell west of Saigon. The Good Humour Man had been over only the night before, and we’d enjoyed a few pipes. He hadn’t even mentioned the routine assignment he’d be doing for Time: taking aerial views of the black market along the Cambodian border. The right side of his brain was blown away, and he was now at the 24th Evacuation Hospital at the huge US base of Long Binh, north-east of Saigon."

Surviver. Tim page is now a Professor of Journalism at Griffith University Qld Aust.
Not bad for a bloke who had half hs head blown away.
Still does fantastic work and travels all over the show- including shooting in Cambodia regularly.
If you ever hear of him giving a workshop, screening, talk, exhibition etc, - catch it.
Recently named as one of "100 Most influential Photographers of All Time"

This is a link to WSJ story on Tim's lifelong quest to find the remains, and the final story, of his best friends Sean Flynn and Dana Stone after they were captured by the Khmer Rouge in 1970.
https://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2014/02/21/ ... ean-flynn/

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:54 pm
by willyhilly
I think Page’s worst wounds occurred when the Swift boat was shot up by friendly fire by US aircraft.
I followed Flynn’s quest in about 2007 and found the village in the rubber plantation and the old lady who said she used to give ganga to the taller of the two captives. Lots of digging went on around there most lately by that pommie prick, Shane’s mate.
Turns out the two captives were probably Humphries and the other hijacker of the freighter.
That Uncle Ho Victory Garden book is still a great yarn though. Don’t know about the Steinbeck connection though. Dana Stone’s family had more tragedy when his brother was killed in Afghanistan.

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:04 pm
by Smoking Joe Conrad
For what reason did opium fade out of existence here?

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:28 pm
by phuketrichard
Smoking Joe Conrad wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:04 pm For what reason did opium fade out of existence here?
illegal
and better to make Smack as less bulk for tranport

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:16 pm
by SternAAlbifrons
phuketrichard wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:28 pm
Smoking Joe Conrad wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:04 pm For what reason did opium fade out of existence here?
illegal
and better to make Smack as less bulk for tranport
The War on Drugs - Fab idea.
Let's use Thailand as a setting.

The yanks demand drugs be banned. Big crackdown, war starts.
So everyone stops smoking and selling both opium and weed(1). Bulky, smelly and too easy to be seized.
Big switch to smack(2).
Drug war continues.
Opium sits in an open paddock for 9 months. Heroin has a complex production and supply chain. Very risky.
So opium growing and heroin production now switches to meth(3).

123 - a war that gets worse with every "success".
Fab idea.

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:28 pm
by mouytiet
I drink with the man who found Sean Flynns remains now and again, though hes doesn't drink liquor anymore. Dave Mc Millan.

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:53 pm
by SternAAlbifrons
mouytiet wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:28 pm I drink with the man who found Sean Flynns remains now and again, though hes doesn't drink liquor anymore. Dave Mc Millan.
Did he tell you he found them? If so, it seems he did not tell anyone else.
What about the Flynn family who funded his work for no result? Why not tell them?
Or Tim Page who he worked and fell out with? Or the world.

Dave M is a very divisive figure. And with 20 years gaol in 5 countries to his resume.
He is not an idiot, nor a crazy, and probably not even "bad".
Certainly has led a very interesting life - with guts.
But NObody has found Sean Flynn and Dana Scott's remains.

On Dave - mostly told from his point of view. Others may be a bit more harsh.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... iland.html

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 9:59 am
by canucklhead
Smoking Joe Conrad wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 5:04 pm For what reason did opium fade out of existence here?
Still readily available.

Re: Out of their fathers' shadows: In Vietnam with Flynn and Steinbeck

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 10:40 am
by mouytiet
SternAAlbifrons wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:53 pm
mouytiet wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2019 6:28 pm I drink with the man who found Sean Flynns remains now and again, though hes doesn't drink liquor anymore. Dave Mc Millan.
Did he tell you he found them? If so, it seems he did not tell anyone else.
What about the Flynn family who funded his work for no result? Why not tell them?
Or Tim Page who he worked and fell out with? Or the world.

Dave M is a very divisive figure. And with 20 years gaol in 5 countries to his resume.
He is not an idiot, nor a crazy, and probably not even "bad".
Certainly has led a very interesting life - with guts.
But NObody has found Sean Flynn and Dana Scott's remains.

On Dave - mostly told from his point of view. Others may be a bit more harsh.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... iland.html
No bro you got the wrong bloke but this guy is certainly a character, Dave MacMillan sorry, hes a lot younger than this dude but also lead a very colourfull life, he dug these remains up with old Keith who ran shooters bar and others, who died recently, just done some research, appears it was sanctioned by his half sister who came to their defence, remains were sent to Hawai, latest I can see they think its an Asian but further testing is undergoing, she said evidence was credible and if she broke protocal, "well be dammed", the legend Mr Page was seriously pissed of as he felt could have interfered with possible remains of other journalists thought to maybe be in the area but a later military excavations found no further remains.