MacNotes From Nam

June 2006

The "Great Adventure" started here:

        Arrived at Fort Jackson on 27APR67. Had some inkling that Nam would be the final destination and that inkling proved correct. Some 5 months later, my first letter home said: "Left Oakland about 7AM on the 29th (SEP67) and got to Bien Hoa at 5PM that day after a 20 hour flight. Stopped in Honolulu which was beautiful and an Air Force base in the Philipines. Right now we are going through a week of orientation (Reliable Academy) and from here I don't know where I'll be sent."

          A week or so later "Looks like I am finally settled and at least have an address (LRPD "D" Troop 3rd Squadron, 5th Cav). All we have been doing for the past week is move around. The weather is not too bad though it usually rains every afternoon. Water is good and food passable - typical Army. Plenty of cold beer and slot machines in the club, radio station broadcasting the World Series and American music and news. Vietnamese music is horrible! I will be stationed here at 9th Division headquarters which I think is about 10 or 15 miles from Bien Hoa. The area is secure and has never been under attack. The outfit I am in is top notch and has had only one wounded (by accident) since it was started in February. The only trouble with it is I have to go through another two weeks of training (the first class in our LRRP Recondo School) which I am pretty tired of. This starts tomorrow."

         On 1NOV67 I wrote "I finish up with school tomorrow and after that won't be doing much of anything except carpentry. As you can see, my address has changed  (HHC 9th Inf. Div.  LRP Det.), we are now attached to Headquarters so we have it easy. Good living conditions, not crowded and no tents, barbeques and good movies every few days." A week later I wrote "Got a nice helicopter ride the other day and saw some of the country. Very few towns, a lot of jungle and huge rubber plantations all over. From the air they look like cornfields in the Midwest.....We are eating better now with barbequed steak about three nights a week with ice cold martinis and beer." Couple of weeks later I said "Had the flu for a couple of days, probably the result of the party last week." Actually it was dengue fever or something like it, temperature of 105 degrees and it knocked the hell out of me!! Went on to say that I "got a letter from Charlie Henkart (high school classmate) the other day in reply to one of mine and his conditions are far worse in _every_ respect than ours. This is surprising in view of the fact that he is an officer but I guess the Coast Guard doesn't have the men or equipment to provide good supplies. Their regulations on beer and liquor are also ridiculous and very little shore leave is given." He was on a ship off the southern tip of Nam so I don't know if there were many places to pull into for fun!

          Had requested a care package with socks - "Army socks are all wool I think but for around here it doesn't really matter because we don't do that much walking or anything." Had made other requests for various things, including one of those little immersion heaters: "The day after they arrived was cold and  rainy so hot coffee made with the little heater tasted real good." Sent some pictures with that letter - "The strange looking poles in some of the pictures are part of an obstacle course and the wooden buildings with the tin     roofs are barracks." About three weeks later I said "The socks you sent fit well and are comfortable under boots and I am pretty well set in that department for now. As for sending liquor over, either premixed Manhattans or martinis put out by Hublein would be fine.    There aren't any regulations against shipment in this direction but shipment from here to the States can't be done because of duty and all." At some point during my tour, parents sent a plastic flask full of 151-proof rum. Ate into the plastic enough to impart an awful taste and I had to throw it out. Boy, was I pissed!!

          On New Year's Day 1968 I wrote "Am just starting to recover from a party which started Christmas Eve and ended sometime this morning I guess. Bob Hope was here Xmas afternoon but arrangements were poor and to see him would have meant sitting in the hot sun for 3 or 4 hours to get decent seats so I didn't go. Am pretty busy right now getting ready to go to Hong Kong on the 8th for my first R&R. Didn't write again until 1FEB when I said "Had a great time in Hong Kong but was there for only 5 nites and 4 days which was not nearly enough time to see everything. It was much more modern and quite built up and spread out, parts of it reminding me of New York, San Francisco and even Scotland I guess."

          In the same letter I noted that "As you may have seen in the papers we had a little activity in Bien Hoa and Saigon a few days ago but nothing here at Bearcat. I don't know what the enemy was trying to prove but most of them were all doped up." How's that for a description of the Tet Offensive?

          "Finally got promoted, effective Jan.1 and so I get a nice pay raise, about $50 a month. No change in responsibility or anything." Promo was from PFC to Spec4 and I remained assistant team leader under Frost. Call sign was Raker 19.

         "Could use some pepperoni or salami, white bread which usually keeps pretty well on the way over (one did arrive FULL of maggots), mayonnaise and tuna fish. The bread over here is not so good." On 1MAR "There has been a lot of mail tied up in San Francisco and they have had to send a lot of it by ship so it takes over a month to get here. Things are pretty quiet here and Bearcat was about the only place in the country that wasn't hit during the big offensive." Another reference to Tet Offensive. "The weather has been beautiful, a little dusty with no rain in four months, but not too hot and I won't be looking forward to the monsoons." Beautiful weather? Can't believe I wrote that!

          Some three weeks later I wrote "They put a limit of $200 on money orders that can be sent home starting April 1st no matter how much you make. This seems like a stupid law and I can't see any reason for it but it shouldn't be too hard to get around.....Have moved out of Bearcat to Dong Tam which probably isn't located on any maps but it's about 6 miles west of My Tho. I like it better down here and the food is a lot more edible." I have no fond memories of either Dong Tam or the food! "Getting liquor over here is no problem so don't worry about sending any. A liter (40 oz) of vodka costs a dollar so the mixer runs more than the liquor.....There are some pretty lousy card players although some pretty good ones too. A crap game once in a while but mostly poker. I only tried craps once but made $80 in all of 20 minutes.

          In a 3APR letter I noted that I'd gotten a package mailed 3FEB on 29MAR. Mail service sure was screwed up for a while! Went on to say that I'd come back to Bearcat for a few days and hitch hiked to Long Binh to see brother-in-law. "Had quite a time finding his outfit which is way out in one corner of the Long Binh post and no one had ever heard of it. He is involved with anti-aircraft missiles, a tremendous waste of money for over here but that's the way the Army works and it's why taxes are so high." Then said "A good friend of  mine, Herb Frost leaves here the 20th for a 30-day leave and then comes back for 6 months so I told him to stop in sometime."

          The end of April I wrote "Got another R&R instead of a 7-day leave which I am still eligible for so I will be going to Taipei on May 6. Australia is awful hard to get since we only get one allocation a month but I was lucky to get a second R&R so soon and to a place I wanted to go." Later I noted "PX's are getting better stocked foodwise and even have tuna at times now but there are a couple of things I could use - couple small jars of mayo, lemonade, orangeade or grape mix but _not_ Kool Aid, small cans of Hershey choc. syrup, smallest they have, and a couple of rat traps - Army doesn't have them and there are rats around!"

          On 27MAY I wrote "Glad to hear Frost stopped in finally. He should be back here any day now. Guess he's pretty mixed up since this is his second time in the Army and I guess he doesn't know what he wants to do." Then "I have thought about extending over here for 120 days and would then get out of the Army in Oakland but I don't know yet." At that time the Army was discharging people who had 90 days or less left in their commitment to active duty. Due to the huge number of troops returning from Nam, this was later changed to 150 days which I did take advantage of, needing to extend only 60 days rather than the 120.

          Was back at Bearcat again on 19JUN and wrote "Saw Frost and thanked him for stopping in. He seems to be a lot less enthusiastic about the Army after being back in the States. He put on quite a bit of weight on his leave and really hated to come back." Later in letter I said "Kennedy (that was Bobby) getting shot was quite a surprise. Still think Nixon will get it for the Republicans and am afraid Johnson may reconsider and run again." Also in letter was "The Army is getting rid of the grades of Specialist so I guess I am a corporal now."

          On 2JUL I said "Just found out that our Commanding Officer (that was Dickey) sent everyone's parents a ridiculous letter about mail. Don't even bother to read it. I can't understand why it was written in the first place because everyone seemed pretty happy with the amount of letters they were getting."

          Mid-July I wrote "Am still a Spec4 which is the same pay grade as Corporal. The Army was supposed to do away with the Specialist grades June 30 but at the last minute decided to keep studying the matter." Frankly I still find this to be asinine; an E-4 with an 11B MOS (that's infantry for all you civilians) should be a Corporal and not a damn Specialist. Later I said "We get a pay raise of $19 a month effective July 1 which will be nice. Another change which went thru is being able to get out of the Army with 5 months left instead of 3. That means I'd have to stay here another 60 days and will be home and out of the Army in 135 more days, which is probably what I'll do. Extending 4 months would have been hard to do and I still don't know whether I would have or not." Later I note that "Frost is now Platoon Sergeant which is great. He is still thinking of going to OCS if he stays in the Army. He'll probably extend over here another six months because things are so easy and he saves so much money."

          In 6AUG letter I wrote "Got a ride the other day on something new - an air-cushion boat which goes over land and water and will get up over a 3 or 4 foot high river bank. They go about 70mph on water and maybe 40 over land. There was a problem on one - it had a flame out and came to a dead stop from 60 in what seemed like 10 feet. The whole thing was quite an experience and hopefully a couple of pictures will come out of it (they didn't or I lost them). Not many people can say they have ridden on one."

          Apparently I didn't write again until 17OCT or more likely the letters were lost. On that date I said "Frost is in Australia on R&R and should have some good info when he gets back (evidently I had an interest in the place for future visits). He is going to extend again and will either go to Australia or Europe on his 30-day leave. Looks like I won't be able to get down there and will go from here to Dix (Fort Dix, NJ) to process out. It should take about 72 hours from the time I get on a plane over here until I'm out. Should leave here on the 27th (that would have been November) but may be 28th as planes have been leaving quite late." Closed letter with "Finally got promoted." That was to Sgt. E-5. Thanks for taking so long Dale.

          Was walking back from mess hall in early November and ran into Kohart who had been in our outfit and was now involved with R&R's. Asked him if he could get me one and he said he'd see what he could do. Got back to Operations (I was Operations NCO then) and about an hour later the phone rang. Kohart asked me if I wanted to go to Penang in a couple of days and I said sure, never heard of it but it'll get me out of the country for 5 days. Hung up the phone and had a big shit-eating grin on my face. LT Smith asked me what I was smiling about and I said I just got another R&R. He called me an SOB and said he hadn't even gotten one yet! Anyway, wrote last letter in Penang on 14NOV and said "There was a recent issue of Life which had a picture of 6 or 7 people in our unit - story was called The Vote in Viet Nam and the picture covered about a page and a half. Would appreciate you saving it if the copy is still around. Some of the names were Stone, Lafferty, Hanlon, Selby, Jones.....Frost is home now and will stop in when I'm there. See you in a couple of weeks." Parents did find copy of Life and I still have it.

          All of the above was taken directly from letters sent home which my Mother saved. The quotes are exactly as I had written except for items in parentheses which I have added for clarification. Frost had dinner with my parents and myself not long before Christmas 1968. Said he was going back for one last tour and would be done with Army at that point. Said he'd be home in late June so I called his home in early July, expecting to get together for a few drinks. His mother answered and I asked for Herb. She inquired as to Junior or Senior and I said I didn't know, was looking for guy I was in Nam with. She said he was killed day before he was to come home while on mission. We both started crying.