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Sweet Heat

Sixty thousand men and women of Asian ancestry served in the United States Armed forces during the Vietnam war. Many fought in Vietnam as gunners, helicopter pilots and infantrymen. Some worked as nurses, journalists and other support staff. Fort Lewis, Washington, was often the military base that Asian American soldiers first encountered. As a basic training facility, many experienced their first over act of military racism when drill sergeants would point out these men and say to the rest men, this is what the gook, the enemy looks like. Cole Lews of San Francisco s Chinatown and Don Lau, born in New York, encountered the gook calling and much more while in Vietnam. SWEET HEAT is their story as they survived the insanity of war, cried when their buddies died, underwent friendly fire because they looked like the enemy, encountered MPs asking them to name the winner of the 1933 World Series and returned to the United States without ceremony of thanks.