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From an army of papa-san forgers, the AWOL gets his phony ID and ration cards. He goes to the PX, buys an expensive item, such as a refrigerator, for as little as $71.50 in military payment certificates (MFCS). On the open market, he can sell it for $500 in MFCS. Markups on TV sets and stereo sets are almost as high.
Special Signal. Despite such amenities, life in Soul Alley can be lonely and miserable. Many of the AWOLs would rather be back home, but cannot leave Viet Nam without facing arrest and court-martial. Some would like to stay in Soul Alley, or something like it, but wonder whether they can. "I don't want to go back to the States, and certainly not back to Houston, Texas," said a black G.I. who is married to a Vietnamese. "They would call me a 'nigger' and my wife a 'gook,' and they would never leave us alone. But I can't get a civilian job here when I get out of the service."
Besides, many have found that they jumped from one form of racism into another, since Vietnamese often do not like dark-skinned people. Add to this the harassment by MPs, the sense of being without a country, and the day-today hassle to raise money, and the frustrations can grow unbearable.
One G.I. summed it up: "It ain't the rules; it's the man. Same as back in the world. A black man is the only one they grab for spitting on the streets. Over here if a bunch of brothers get together to blow some grass, right away the officers get uptight; in the next barracks over, white guys are doing the same thing, but nobody bothers them. The regs [Army Regulations] say you can grow your hair this long, but the first sergeant says he don't care what the regs say, because he don't like no black man with a 'Fro."
This sort of feeling has given rise to a special variation of the intricate signal that black soldiers in Viet Nam exchange when they meet. The standard greeting includes two taps on the chest —meaning "I will die for you." In Soul Alley, some blacks add a swift downward motion of the hand—a stroke to kill.