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Tina Staudt had the following experience when she traveled with a Save the Children team in Vietnam in 2002.

Aug. 24, 2016:  We are close to the Laotian border in the northwest corner of Vietnam, half a day's drive from Hanoi on one of the myriad of roads that collectively became known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War.

The narrow pathway snakes under a dense forest canopy. Last year's monsoon has washed rocks and debris from the surrounding hills onto the road surface. Fallen tree trunks require occasional detours on tracks so narrow that the branches brush up against the windows of the Save the Children jeep where Kristina, David, and I bounce around in the back seat. 

We are on our way to visit a community of Nung people, an ethnic minority group that benefits from the agency's nutrition and maternal health programs. Hoang is at the wheel next to Sam, who is Save the Children's bilingual program specialist and a native of the area.

We cross a stream on a couple of precariously placed planks. Acute precision is required to keep us from plunging into the roaring water below. "You are a great driver," David comments. Sam translates and gives Hoang's response:  "I know these roads well. When we were at war with the Americans, I drove here for years, carrying weapons and materiel across the border to Laos and down to our fighters in the south."

David pauses, and then says in a strained voice: "I was in that war, too. I was here. Flying missions. My job was to kill you."

As I hear Sam translate David's words, I see in the rear view mirror a smile spread across Hoang's face as he utters a short phrase. "He is glad you didn't succeed," Sam says.

"Me, too," David answers.

And then we all smile. Former enemies, we have a common mission now – the Vietnamese men in the front seat and the three Americans in the back – to make life just a little better for the children and grandchildren of those who survived the horrors.

Pictured here:  Tina Staudt.

Photo by N. Bower