AAAhhhhhh! Tay Ninh Province. I understand it’s quite the tourist area. For me most of the memories are not so good.
“Dear mom, dad, Steve. Sue and anyone else who may read this. June 20.
We got a hell of a rain last night and this paper is damp. I hope I can continue to write on it. In regards to Tay Ninh, the base camp itself has been mortared and rocketed, taken a few casualties, but it has not been hit by a ground attack. The 1st Cav does not work Tay Ninh proper. The 25th Infantry Division works the area around Tay Ninh and Tay Ninh City. We work about 15 miles from it, out in the jungles. Tay Ninh City has been hit by ground attack. How serious I’ not sure. We heard it was only the outer hamletss, but later we heard that the 11th Armored Cav was in the city blowing down buildings with VC in them. However, the reports you heard were exaggerated
“This is my second attempt to write you this week. 3 nights ago LZ Ike was mortared and our outgoing mail was blown away. This province is loaded with gooks. In the last three days our Batallion 2/5 Cav has had 101 men wounded and 7 killed. In the last 3 days B Company has had about40 wounded. They ran into something similar to what we ran into early this month. They are no longer an effective company and have joined up with C Company. To top things off, last night LZ Ike was hit by rocket, mortar, and ground attack, 6 killed and about 60 wounded, 20 artillary and 40 grunts. 54 gook bodies were policed up – 5 POWs. The mess hall was spared. We lost contact with the LZ for about an hour.
We could see the rocket attack from where we were – about 4 miles out. But us! We haven’t had any contact in the past 4 or 5 days, but we still have 8 days before we go into the LZ. This whole area stinks though, and I hope we get rotated top another area.
“My weapon, a CAR 15 is the same as an M-16 except it is shorter and fires faster on full automatic. It also has an extendable stalk. I like it because it it is lighter and easier to carry.” I then attempted to draw a picture of one in the letter.
“I’m still an RTO – and glad of it. I think I told you about Max and our LT. Max looked peaceful in death. What I didn’t tell you was that I’ve been put in for a Bronze Star for that action. Have negative knowledge as to whether or not I’ll get it. We’ve got a bird coming in in a couple of minutes so I’ll have to sign off now in order to get this out today.
“Glad you and dad had a good time at the McCaffery’s and with the Ericksons. Take care – five months and 10 days to go, Love to all, Dave”
I don’t have much to add here. Saddened by the loss of Max, maybe too excited about the possibility of a Bronze Star. Was I becoming too complacent about death? Not ready to deal with this today. Maybe next time. The next letter is from June 22. I have no idea what’s in it. Guess we’ll find out together.