CLARKSDALE, Miss. (AP) — It was May 1968 when a then-21-year-old John Mayo climbed into a plane in Saigon, Vietnam, and headed back to the United States after 18 months of war, much of which was served as a lieutenant platoon leader in a combat engineer battalion.

Flying over the landscape, Mayo says he remembers thinking it unlikely he would ever return.

“When I left during the war I really didn’t ever think I would come back,” said Mayo, a former Clarksdale mayor and a state representative. “I do remember thinking this was a beautiful country and how much I would like see it again when there was no war, but I didn’t really think I would ever be back.”

It may have taken 40 years, but Mayo now can say he has a fresh perspective on Vietnam and an understanding of what the country is like in the 21st century.

After recently accepting an unexpected invitation to return to Vietnam with another veteran, Mayo spent the last week of June in the country.

“It was just an incredible journey, both as a tourist and former military person,” Mayo said.

Mayo says one of the most memorable moments was revisiting the site of AP Tan Thuan, a small village on a tributary of the Mekong river, where during the war he and his platoon built a bridge. During the bridge’s construction, Mayo says he took a number of photographs of the village children who were always playing by the river.

When he came back into AP Tan Thuan recently, Mayo said he showed the locals some of those pictures he had from the war and soon realized many of the people he was speaking to were in fact the same people shown in the photographs as children.

“I take my pictures out and the first two or three women I show them to looked at them and started screaming and then laughing and then yelling to show them to everybody.

“After five or 10n minutes dozens of people were sharing the pictures and showing them to me and pointing out who they were. These are people who were ten or 15-years-old then and are now 50 or 55.”

Mayo said he then started taking more pictures of the village people looking at the pictures, and couldn’t help but be struck at the circumstances.

“In a way it is the same as it was 40 years ago,” he said. “I’m taking pictures again and now it’s of these children’s children and grandchildren. That part to me was just incredible.”

Beyond the experience in the village, Mayo says his reflections on being an American as he stood on the grounds of the former American embassy in Ho Chi Min City were especially moving.

Watching the crowds of people waiting in line for travel visas — many wanting to come to the U.S. — Mayo said he was struck with how lucky he was to be an American.

“When I stood there on our last day in Vietnam and saw that U.S. flag flying, I was just overwhelmed with the sense that ‘Damn, I am a citizen of the United States.'” Mayo said.

Outside of the consulate, however, Mayo said he was well aware the flags were not American but that of the country he remembers fighting against.

“I never thought I would be bothered by their flag. I am as open-minded as the day is long, and realize it is their country not mine. But it did hurt and I felt a certain pain I can’t explain,” Mayo said.

Mayo says he takes comfort in the fact that American soldiers answered the call of duty.

“The South Vietnamese government may have screwed up the situation, the U.S. government may have screwed up the situation; but the American soldier didn’t,” Mayo said. “The American soldiers got it right.”

When asked about the insight he gained from the trip, Mayo said it came through just encountering the humanity of the people there.

“When any country goes to war,one of the first things soldiers do is to try and dehumanize the enemy. You do that to make killing the enemy easier.

“Soldiers get torn apart the more they are in personal contact with the people of the country they are in and the more they become conflicted with humanity and the inhumanity of war. But you realize these people are just like us. People all over want the same thing — family and happiness,” he said.

For his service in the Vietnam War, Mayo received a Bronze Star and three Army Commendation Medals including one for valor.