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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