You’ve got mail! On January 15, more mail started to arrive; a letter from Brenda (It’s a shame I can’t remember who that was), more letters Susan (from Dallas). “Only Peni hasn’t come through.” At this point I considered both Peni and Susan to be girl friends. Stupid, but what the hell? I was 20. I went on to say that the reason my letters had slacked off was because we had “spent four days out in the jungles with nothing but our ‘light to fight’ gear. We’re back at the old FOB at the rubber plantation (outside of Phuoc Vinh) and back at the old routine of ambushes and patrols and whatnot. Those four days out in the jungle were pretty hairy. Earned my CIB (Combat Infantryman’s badge) when I shot at 3 gooks. They ran and we missed them. I was up front at the time. They were going to return fire but when they heard my grenade launcher shoot buckshot at them and our machine gun came up on line, they took off.” This was my first action and it was followed by this: “The real excitement was finding a VC battalion headquarters complex. All underground bunkers hidden under a bamboo canopy. After searching the bunkers, we dropped hand grenades into them.” I was amazed at how well they were constructed. There were tunnels, a mess hall with eating utensils and pots and pans. “….we called in artillery and they blasted the hell out of the area.”

I go on to tell how another platoon from our company lost four men in the area about a month earlier. “So our CO is a real gung ho bastard and he’s after revenge. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to get myself killed on his account.” In hindsight, It’s hard to believe I shared this kind of stuff with my mom.

“Coming back to the rubber plantation was almost like coming home. It’s good to be back among people again.” The next part of the letter was about taking care of some housekeeping issues like my pay, income tax, eating well, hot meals once or twice a day, and c-rations when we were in the field. I then talk about our rifle team leader Dan Erickson. He went from 275 lbs to 185 since his arrival in Viet Nam. He had a wife and 4 or 5 kids. He was 28 at the time and was activated with his reserve unit. He’s the guy in the picture with bare chest and glasses.

I finish this letter by describing how I got my first land leach bite. Mosquito repellent knocks them right off. And then there are the red ants. On the same day I was attacked and bitten by 100,000 red ants as I passed under a limb. Man! Those things are horrifying. I was going crazy trying to kill them all and get them off.” Ants, leaches and mosquitoes. What a life. See you next time.