Feb 21
Dear Family

I started to write a couple days ago but 2 ARVN battalions got themselves surrounded by a battalion of VC and we had to go scare them away.

I'm attached to Company B of the 3/60 inf. I've got it pretty easy for an infantryman. Base camp is the USS Benewah which is a barracks ship housing part of the 3/60 infantry battalion. The 3/60th is one of two battalions which patrol the Mekong River and its adjoining tributaries and canals, streams, swamps, rice paddies and mud. Riverines travel by boat till we get to where we're going. When we get off the boats we still have to travel by water, but we walk instead.

It's nice though. It's a long way from the DMZ and when I come back from an operation there's a comfortable bed and hot food and showers. I've only been on one operation which lasted 20 hours but the average is 2-3 days. They may go up to two weeks or so but other infantry units may be out two months and longer. Some men only see base camp twice their whole year in Vietnam. Once coming and once going.

It's also a relatively safe place to be. These ships are the only base camps in Vietnam which haven't been hit in the Tet offensive. Every night they move up or down the river a little ways. The VC never know where we'll be. They can't sneak up on us either. The river is at least as wide as Clear Lake and each ship has a flotilla of small gunboats and armed LSTs attached to the sides or floating about. Bravo Company is also one of the safer companies to be in. They've had only one man killed in 6 months and 12 in the last year. Alpha on the other hand is always getting in trouble and once not too long ago they were all but wiped out. They've go a gung-ho CO.

That mud I was talking about comes up past the knees. That's all mud no water. On that operation I was crossing a canal which was temporarily empty because of the tide. I was in the middle knee deep in mud. I had at least 20 lbs of ammo on my back plus the rest of my equipment. I fell to my knees which was okay till someone came to help me. The second he touched me I fell over. Have you ever wondered how a fly felt stuck in flypaper? It took two guys to pull me out.

On that same operation I learned to respect the enemy. It was a large operation, which is uncommon for the riverines, with both battalions involved. Because of it we had artillery and helicopter support. The Cobra is a gunship which flys at 250 miles an hour and fires rockets and machine gun tracers. When the miniguns fire there's a solid red line of machine gun rounds. It sounds at 500 meters like a buzz saw at ten feet and fires 12,000 rounds a minute. We had air strikes, cobras and artillery, all of which tear the ground up as thoroughly as a tractor. It's amazing that the VC dare stand up to such firepower.

We never found out what happened to the VC. There were only three bodies seen and those were killed by Arvn's.

Actually Charlie company was the only group to make contact with the enemy and that was a brief long-range firefight. I'm glad we don't have fights like that very often. The VC only got three from Charlie Co but the cobras got five. Most action that Bravo is involved in is from snipers, and snipers couldn't hit a tack with a flyswatter. My squad leader tells of the time he and three others were surprised by machine guns on both sides at twenty meters. Nobody was hit and when fire was returned the ambushers fled. There's a lot of wounded though. Mostly from booby traps. If you're lucky you get sent to Japan. Otherwise you're back in the Company in five days or so. One guy, I hear, was hit by an artillery flare which broke from its parachute. It broke his leg and they sent him home. The flare case is now an ashtray which hangs from my bed.

You can send me that small chess set. Also a pair of thongs and a plastic cup. They are short of cups in the mess hall and I like coffee. Send them airmail or I'll be home before they arrive. All other mail can be sent regular postage. All Vietnam first class mail goes by plane anyway.

Love
Robert

P.S. I just heard on the radio that we're named the unit of the day. The announcer also said since the unit's been in VN (one year) it's always been able to get back home under its own power. (Which means, I guess, they would rather have us walk than fly.) P.P.S. I want to know if this money got home.

Love again
Me

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