December 17, 1966

Dear Lorraine,

Hi! Honey how are you. I’m beet, I did not sleep well on flare stand-by last night. Nothing happened I just did not sleep well. Today we had 3 different CA’s one of the Landing Zones was full of very tall Elephant Grass so we could not land. I know you won’t understand this but Helicopters have a hard time hovering when the ground under them is not solid. This caused quite a problem with being able to stay in the air while getting the troops out. Mr. Dobbs was yelling for us to get them out. Three of our ships had problems holding a hover and sustained minor damage but no one was hurt. The Grunts had to jump out from a 12-foot hover with full packs on and then they just disappeared in the grass. The idiot that picked this LZ should have had to do himself first. We could have lost a few ships today if the pilots weren’t so good.

The whole area we were in today is very dense jungle so I hope the guys on the ground don’t make contact. If they do it’s gonna be bad, re-supply or getting any wounded out will be difficult and if it happens tonight I don’t think we can do anything till the morning.

There is a rumor going around that some of us may get relocated for a few weeks. Mr. Dobbs said it’s a place called Camp Lane near Phu Cat its east of here near the coast. It won’t change my mailing address but it will probably take longer to get it. The word is that there is a big operation coming up over there and they need all the ships they can get. I’m not sure what it will be like their but no sense worrying till it happens.

I don’t have much else to tell you now except that I Miss You.

Love
Tom
S.W.A.K.

Tom Gator 851.