Tom,

The coast was a great place to fly. I was there twice. The first time in July of 68 we were located just north of Nha Trang for a week. The second time was during Dec.of 68 at Lane. The first was with the ARVINS and the second with the Koreans. Landing zones the size of a football field. You could move an entire conpany in two sorties in less then an hour. At Dak To or Kontum we would need half the day trying to hover into those bomb craters that we used.

I hated elephant grass. The pilots had a hard time maintaining a hover. That must have had something to do with the grass moving and distrupting the air cushion. I can remember hovering above the trees and not having the same trouble as elephant grass. I can recall having to shut down the ship and pulling the grass out of the intake filters. That garbage cause lots of foreign object damage to the engines. The other thing was you could never tell how tall the stuff was. I remember the grunts disappearing as they downed into that stuff. I don't know how they could even move through that stuff.

As I read your letters I can already start to tell you were going through the same changes we all did. You talk less about what you are doing and more about home and other things. By the end of my tour most of my letters were Hi how are you and I am fine. I didn't have the guts to tell my folks or my girl what I was doing.

Keep them coming. I have enjoyed them and realized that 1966 was just the same as 1968.