October 22, 1966

Hi HONEY!!!!

I hope this letter finds you as happy as me. I’m still on a cloud from reading your letters. Harold and Augie wanted to know if they could read them but you know the answer to that. I did let them smell the envelopes. What ever it is keep doing it.

That reminds me, in my last letter to you I said that everything over here smells like crap and I said I’d explain later. Well here goes. First you need to understand that this is a very backward country (score one for your Geography Teacher) and the Army can’t provide all the modern things that we are used to. That brings me to bathroom facilities, here at Camp Holloway we have typical toilets but out in the field they do not have the same kind. They put 55 gal. Drums cut in half under the toilets. When they are almost full someone gets to remove them and burn the contents. They pour gasoline in the drum and set it on fire. You can’t imagine what the smell is like. Haven’t had to deal with much of that yet. Any way when I refer to it smelling like crap you will know what I mean.

Today was the pits, it rained most of the day and you just can’t stay out of it. We had to put a new set of landing skids on a ship before we can move it into the Hanger. It was brought in on a sling load under a larger chopper. I herd they took a lot of ground fire and landed pretty hard. Everyone was OK, now we have to get it ready to fly again and that will take a few days. Went on another Test flight today, they have a good system here that says if you worked on the ship you go on the Test flight. You can bet that I double check all my work and do it by the book. Our maintenance officer is pretty tough but he takes the time to fly every aircraft before it is released.

Dinner today was a mystery compared to what mom cooks. It’s gonna take a long time to get used to it.

In one of your letters you mentioned that I might not be the same when I return. I think that will be true for both of us and we will need some time to adjust. I know I will be a different person in many ways but that won’t change the way I feel about you. I’m sure I will see and do things that I never imagined and with Gods help I’ll grow from it. You are a big part of my life now and will be forever. This is starting to depress me so I think I’ll stop. I will write again soon.

I LOVE YOU
Tom
S.W.A.K.

Tom Gator 851.