Sunday, October 23, 2011

Oct 18 - Oct 23, 1967


138 days, 18 Oct/67 Wed.

Hi,

Glory be, I fell asleep as my head hit the pillow, if not before; I must have been more tired than I thought. I didn’t wake till 8:30 – unusual. Today was another vacation day – we’ve had too few of those this month. Can you imagine having all your meals on time in one day? I sat in the club drawing cars and things (threw them all away) most of the day.

The flash attachment came in the mail today, but still no camera. Mom and Dad are on vacation, so I don’t guess I’ll be getting much mail for a couple of weeks. Mother expressed some concern over all the waiting we do at times, and the seemingly useless missions we have 75% of the time.

When we wait in Bao Trai or get a day off as today, it’s simply because we have no intelligence reports, and there fore no missions. We always operate only on direct intelligence, or as a reactionary force.

The useless missions are common. Our reports may be 3-4 days old as to where there are weapons, 4 VC in a village, etc., so all we can do is go out on what information we have, and usually the reported situation has changed by then. It’s a problem encountered fighting such an elusive enemy – encountered every where in Vietnam – but if we never went out, we’d never know if the reports were accurate, would we? We’ve killed 68 VC in just under 3 months. That’s more than 1/27 or 2/27 combined, and they are out 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so actually we do all right.

It may sound funny, but we get discouraged when we go out and don’t get anything. No one likes to get shot at, but no one likes to walk and hump all day for nothing, either. 9f she was talking about waiting at the chopper pad – that’s just good ol’ Army organization.


139 days, 19 Oct/67 Thurs.

Talking about worthless missions, we followed a Cheiu Hoi all over half of South Vietnam today, and found only an 80 year old man with an infected leg.

The Cheiu Hoe had never been in this area before. He was from the Duc Hoa area. He had heard there were 5 VC around here, but even he was going on only a rumor. Oh well, they all have to be checked out. I just wonder why the Cheiu Hois wait till just before chow time to talk, making us miss lunch.

Not much else to say, except maybe to explain about this stationery. The supply is short, so when the PX ran out, I used these sheets of Kleenex dipped in starch. The supply of Kleenex is also short, so to save what I con, I have to use both sides. I know it’s hard to read, because the sheets are so thin. Read each sheet separately on a dark surface, such as your dining room table. It’s easier.


140 days, 20 Oct/67 Fri.

Camera came finally – already shot half a roll – count on some slides in a few weeks. We had an unusual rain today. Just a light drizzle, but lasted for an hour and there was not one single cloud in the sky – anywhere. Not even a little white puff, or darkness on the horizon. Imagine – getting sunburned in the rain!

This afternoon we played basket ball from 2:30 – 5:30, then at 6:30 after chow we played volley ball till dark (8:30). Guess that’s enough exercise for one day. Tonight I’ll be taking some flash pictures in the club.

There are some congressional elections or some such thing this weekend, so MACV is all upset – doubling guards, etc. we once again are the reaction force and are expecting to be called out quite often. The MACV people kill me (Military Assistance Command –Vietnam). They’re mostly administrative or radio commo people and really get excited when they hear a round fired within a mile of the compound. I mean, they panic of a jeep backfires. All of them are volunteering for extra guard duty – at the front gate, where there’s a huge street light, and the main street – not out on the bunker line berm overlooking )no-man’s land”.

I hate being reactionary force – too hairy for me. I hope the VC leave this election alone. They have a different motto than ours: Stamp out the vote.

Bob


141 days, 21 Oct/67, Sat.

Hi,

Had a little bit of election excitement last night. Some little insignificant town got a few rounds of mortar fire, and MACV got excited, woke us up, had us on the vehicles ready to roll, and then called it off. They said we were on alert, and muse us sleep with boots and all on.

Shot lots of slides last night in the club, but overexposed all of them – hope they don’t come out too bad. I took some more in downtown Bao Trai (non-flash).

Had a mission today at 1:00, during which we saw several running from us, but we were out of range even for the M-60. If we’d come by chopper, we could have got them by surprise.

Here’s the big complaint of the day, and it’s about the 15th time it’s happened. We were done and on the vehicles, ready to come back, when Lt. Troub  called in and said we were on the way. It was 4:00. “The man” called back and said, “No, you have to stay out till 6:00”.

No explanation, no mission; we sat in a hutch and on the road in jeeps, for two hours, while dinner got cold. For no reason! We got backing at 7:00 for some cold cuts and warm ice tea. At one time, they were talking of keeping us out all night, without eating at all!

This has happened several times lately – we sit at an area for hours, missing chow, because a big officer somewhere said we have to stay out till a certain time. They give us 5 hours to do a 3-hour mission, and when we’ve gone through he objective, we can’t return because the 5 hours aren’t up – so we sit and get hungry. Why?



142 days, 22 Oct/67, Sun.

Election Day means a day off. No military traffic at all. Saw the last World Series game, played about eleventy-dozen games of basketball, and had barbeque spare ribs. Sounds nice – but wait. At 8:00, somebody got word from somewhere that a company of guess-who was waiting in a village near here, with 3 mortar tubes aimed toward Bao Trai. So, suddenly there we were – one platoon against one company.

That all sounded pretty sincere, so I carried an extra 100 bullets – so did everyone else. There’s a new policy now – everybody uses nothing but tracer rounds. Fine for daytime; you can see how close you come and  you don’t really worry if the VC see you or not during the day. At night, however, tracers give away your position instantly. Sure, there’s muzzle flash, but after 100 meters you can’t see that. Tracers show up for literally miles and you can tell exactly where they come from. So here I am with a machine gun and about 800 pretty red bullets. And for what? VC don’t use tracer, so how do I know where they are? How do tracers help me any at night, when I can’t see what I’m shooting at, anyway?

Well, breathe easy, there were no mortars, and no Charlie (according to the Lt., our objective was out of mortar range to Bao Trai, anyway). I also know that 200 rounds plus an M-60 just don’t get it. Too heavy! Next time I try to carry those extra 100 rounds and we’re going after anything less than a regiment, I hope some one hits me with a brick, because I’m bound to be asleep.


143 days, 23 Oct/67, Mon.

Could it be our new Lt.? Again all afternoon, and nothing to show for it. We don’t even try anymore. Today the choppers dropped us – we walked through the objective (a large hedge complex) in single file on a road – we didn’t search one hutch – and then called for choppers.

They dropped us a second time, and all we did was form up in our usual 3 file movement, and walked to the road. Didn’t even enter any hedge complexes; stayed on the berms. We used to spend at least 2 hours searching every objective; now we just walk right through them, with Lt Straub. Today, by the way, our 2nd objective was exactly the same spot we were the day of the 27 body count. I jumped out of the chopper on exactly the same spot. I took the picture of the dead one.

We’re not getting shot at this way, but we’re not helping CRIP, either. If we don’t do something soon, they might figure it doesn’t work and dissolve it. Don’t know what I'd get into then.

Got two new people today. They are new, only 2 weeks in country; I feel like a veteran. Forty more days and I’ll be at the top of the hill – halfway done.

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