Dear Mom & Dad

It's been pretty lazy the last couple of weeks. In fact there's nothing at all to talk about. We've had light to intermittent sniper fire but Charley just threw that in to keep us from getting lazy.

We spent the last six days pulling security at Dong Tam which is the largest base in the Delta. It's pretty secure anyway during the day so it was pretty easy. We just sat around all day and said No to Mamasan who kept walking around trying to sell cokes and dirty pictures.

In two days we'll be leaving the ships for about six weeks. We'll be at Dong Tam. It won't be as comfortable but it will be a lot safer. Lately the 3/60th has managed to get herself in trouble a lot. I guess that's because we go out looking for it so much. (Actually it's the battalion CO who looks for trouble. We would just as soon look the other way.)

Since I've been here the army has put me in a position to develop my physical stamina, balance, and agility. The inhabitants of this fair land, whom we affectionately call gooks, have also been a great help.

Physical stamina was the first thing they started to work on. Weight training is the most popular method. The first thing they did was give me an M-79 grenade launcher (6-7 lbs) which they told me to carry wherever I went. Then they told me I should carry 48 grenades (24 lbs) in case I desired to shoot it sometime. After this I needed a pistol belt, two fragmentation grenades and two smoke grenades, two canteens, a poncho and first aid bandage to wear around my waist to balance the weight (10 lbs more). On occasion they would let me carry either a claymore mine (5 lbs), machine gun ammo (5 lbs), or an M-72 antitank rocket launcher and rocket (4 lbs), or all three (10-20 lbs depending on amount and combination). To top it off they gave me a heavy steel pot to wear on my head (3 lbs), guaranteed to keep the sun out of my eyes, the shrapnel out of my hair and two aspirin in my stomach. Then they took me out to a muddy rice paddy, balanced me (I could barely walk) and told me to march. They had it all worked out. There was knee-deep mud to wallow and get stuck in, deep canals to try and crawl out of, rice paddy dikes to stumble on and jungle vines to trip over. After a few days of "humping" it they decided it was time for more advanced balance training. Vietnamese are very small, very light, and very coordinated. They build what are known as "gook bridges" on which they cross the numerous canals around which the country was built. The bridges are seldom more than poles thrown across the banks and they range from the width of a telephone pole to that of a broomstick. They are often given a coating of slippery mud and there may be anywhere from two kids to whole families standing by to have fun and watch the clumsy GI's cross the bridge. You can usually tell between the new guys and the old timers by how dry they are coming back from a mission.

Agility training comes naturally with experience. Reflex plays a part in it and it is taught by Charley. It is the ability to leap over tall dikes in a single bound and to fall in a hole almost instantly and with no hesitation. It is done so quickly that he who waits to think about it usually finds he is the only visible target left. Since Charley loves slow learners, it is easy to keep up with the class. I have become so good at this that if you ever turn the TV on to a western or war movie while I'm sleeping on the couch after getting back, you may find me cowering behind the coffee table. The other night while pulling security at Dong Tam I was sleeping in a hammock when some old lady stumbled on a trip flare. In an instant I was laying on the ground and wondering why. Of course I have always been the nervous type.

Well, for starting out with nothing to say I guess I've done alright. I'll write again in a week or two and tell you more of the fond memories I will have of Vietnam, ringworm, for instance, so you can enjoy them too.

Love
Robert

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