A grunt's-eye view from Bravo Company, 3/60th Infantry in the year of Tet, 1968
MOST RECENT CONTENT UPDATES
Feb 28, 08: Fictionized account of battle near Can Tho
Nov 12, 07: Letter from Mac Nov 22
TO BE ADDED: other bits, pieces, and links.
This site consists primarily of three sets of letters from the Vietnam War.
First set. Letters I wrote to my family from the time of my arrival in country, early February, until I left three months later as a casualty.
Second, are the letters sent home to my friend Larry. This was my diary. It is what I really felt and experienced.
Third. Letters from my friend Daniel Lee McKechnie. We stood six men apart in the induction line in Oakland. I know this because our 8-digit service numbers were identical up to the last digit. His ended 3. Mine 9. We knew each other only casually in basic training, but bonded when assigned 11-Bravo (light-weapons infantry) and Ft. Polk. We were the only two of our small group of buddies guaranteed infantry and Vietnam. Learning a lessen from the induction line, we promised to stand in all future lines together. Thus, we were assigned the same unit for advanced infantry training at Ft. Polk, and sat together for the long plane ride from Travis to Hawaii to Clark in the Philippines to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Siagon, where we became separated. A week or so later we both turned up at Bravo Co, 3/60th Infantry. Standing in lines had worked after all. These are the letters Danny (Mac) wrote to me after I was wounded and eventually sent home. He wrote the last letter, November 23, 1968, two days before he died.
"Wounded!" is my account of being shot. It was rejected by the Readers Digest First Person editor in the summer of 1970.
"My Last Day in the Field with Mike and New Guy" is my short story of events covered in the letter to Larry of March 13. Setting and events are mostly true. Characterizations and dialog are more subject to the demands of fiction. I was New Guy in real life, not the narrator. What the narrator observes about New Guy's actions are generally true up to the point where New Guy disappears from his viewpoint. In real life, I stayed with the group. Many of the narrators other thoughts and observations were my own. Mike and the narrator represent actual people with other names, but I did not know them well and make no claims about them.
Other items include a photo taken by a combat photographer and passed on to me through Danny's mother, and a list of first names or nicknames of people I knew who entered Bravo company within a few days of each other. All on the list were either killed or wounded.
Not sure when I will complete this project. I began Jan 2007, my first experience building a website. As it is in my nature to do things the hard way, I will have to learn something about HTML and web design along the way. It's taken me about 39 years to get this far but I'm starting to get the hang of it and hope to speed things up. Now (mar 4), I am collecting my own memorabilia. Later, I will expand to include others.
Comments and suggestions are welcome. I especially would like to hear from any who know me, recognize my List, or have shared my experiences. I sometimes check my email marcuson@gruntseyeview.com My name is Robert Marcuson
