Excerpts from my letters home.
I arrived in South Vietnam September 5, 1968 at Cam Ranh Bay and soon learned the new arrivals (FNG's) were immediately assigned the detail of burning the waste from the latrines. Welcome to the real Army.
September 12, 1968: Arrived Pleiku (Camp Enari I think) and will be taking some refresher courses on first aid, tactics and zeroing in the M-16. I note how muddy the area is and the monsoons are just ending. The base camp got mortared last night and we had to run for the bunkers, the guy underneath me took my pants so I ran to the bunker in my underwear. Felt rather foolish. All you hear are guys yelling short, short, and short. Here I am just starting my tour.
September 14, 1968: Received my orders for 1st Bn, 35th Inf., 4th Inf. Div. They are located 5 miles north of Pleiku and are guarding a road. Talked with a kid just in from the field and he was telling me about his first firefight, how he cried and vomited after he saw all the dead VC. (Just what I needed to hear)
September 19, 1968: Right now I am at a place called Kontum and I am on a firebase (I think it is Mary Lou). I am pulling guard duty everynight. Weather here is hot but not bad.
September 20, 1968: Today went down to the Kontum river for a swim and to get washed up. What a relief it was to get cleaned. At night I have to pull guard duty in the bunker for two hours, everyone throws grenades and shoots their weapon. It seems like they are having a firefight. Every bunker has four men. The chow here is great, three hot meals a day. If you are walking along the roads the 1st vehicle that passes by offers you a ride so I never have to walk too far. This area is very hilly and I suspect we will be climbing those hills soon.
September 24, 1968: They have us on alert now to move out but do not know when, (typical Army) they say we are going to Ban Me Thout. I still have not gone to my proper platoon. (False alarm I think)
September 26, 1968: We moved to a new bunker yesterday and all good things must end. We are moving out on Monday.They had a couple of B52 raids, those are terrifying.
September 27, 1968: We are all loaded up and ready to move out probably tomorrow or Sunday. I think we have to hump fifteen miles and that will take about three days. We will be setting up a firebase. I will be carrying 540 rounds of M-16 ammo. They ration us either three beers or sodas a day twenty cents for a beer or soda. You learn to like it warm.
September 29, 1968: Well here I am out in the boonies. We hiked out, the pack I have is heavy. When we arrived we had to dig foxholes and put overhead cover on. We had to change foxholes three different times and that's a lot of digging. (Not sure why we had to change fox holes) I am covered with dirt. The jungle sure is thick, you can not see two feet in front of you. I got stung twice while clearing away some brush. The insects here are unbelievable, really huge, especially the ants. Soon I will have to go on LRRP (long range recon patrol) with three other guys for a couple of day's.
September 30, 1968: Well another day of clearing brush and eating C-rations.