April 13, 1968
Dear Mom & Dad & Christa & David & Laurie
I guess I should never have complained about the field or the USS Benewah. When I think of all the wonderful things we were able to do to pass the time like cleaning weapons and hiking around the countryside, I almost get nostalgic. At the hospital we wait turns for a wheelchair so we can sit outside and watch 50 yds of traffic on a secondary Saigon street. After that we usually find amusement in washing our faces again or watching the fans go round.
And then there's chow which is, I guess, a mournful experience at any hospital. After a meal of invigorating jello and beef bouillon I begin to wonder why I kept throwing away those cans of "Ham, with Water Added, and Eggs, Chopped." Oh well, I guess some people are just destined to be complainers.
I guess the doctors have just about given up trying to help me, I'm always one step ahead of them when it comes to healing. I shouldn't have described myself as having been shot in the belly. I was shot in the left side. In the movies, a cowboy with my kind of wound would grab his side with one hand and shoot his antagonist with the other. But the Army describes any wound where an intestine is exposed as a belly wound because for emergency first aid they are all treated the same.
I will not be going back to the field, in fact in a month or so I will probably be in Japan. I will probably be home on convalescent leave long before the end of the year. Once I get my full strength back I'll be able to go out and dig ditches with the best of them. Even now I'm walking and it hasn't been ten days.
Actually, I pride myself on the way I conducted myself when I got hit. Some guys will scream bloody murder for a medic for a wound they could have treated themselves. And medics are sometimes in very short supply and heavy demand. I never paniced at all and remained conscious the whole time till I got to the operating room and they put me under. That's something to be proud of after losing 3/4 of your blood and when you know that nobody really expects you to live anyway. And they didn't. I was hit about 8-9 o'clock at night and in the morning I found out my gear had been inventoried. They don't do that for people they expect to see again.
Well that's all there is. See you sooner than expected.
Love Robert
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