Camp Holloway Discussion Forum Archive 03 - 03/01/01 to 12/31/03

June 17, 1967

June 17, 1967

Dear Lorraine,

Hi Honey! I hope all is well with you. I’m doing OK today but things are dragging along. It’s not a very good day for flying in the mountains the clouds are low and some of the field locations are socked in. I did not sleep very well last night but one day soon this will all be a distant memory. In many ways this has been the worst year of my life and in other ways it has been the best. The guys I fly with are great and we would do anything to help each other out. I know I will miss them when I’m home but I also know that you will help me get over it.

The Next Portion Has Been Omitted To Protect The Innocent.

I’m enclosing 3 pictures with this letter. They are not very good so try not to laugh. They were taken at Dakto while we were training for the SF missions. We are riding the McGuire Rigs for practice just in case we have to use them, instead of the SF guys. This will give you an idea of what it’s like riding 110 feet below a Helicopter. We only used them when there was no LZ to land in so we dropped the ropes down through the trees. We could haul 3 people at a time to a place where we could land and then get everyone on board.

If we get 3 more hours today my ship will need a 100-hour inspection. I’m going to try to schedule it anyway if maintenance has an opening. It’s better to get it done early than run over on hours. I could use an easy day. It will be just my luck to get stuck with guard duty if we are down tomorrow. The guard bunkers on the perimeter are the pits, they smell like mold and you have to chase the rats out before going in. Did I tell you we have huge rats over here? Some are almost big enough to ride.

Looks like we have mission coming up so I have to stop for now. I’ll try to write more later.

Love
Tom
S.W.A.K.