Naturally the first thing I noticed when they opened the doors of our air conditioned civilian airline at Cam Rahn Bay, Republic of Viet Nam, was the heat It took a while to adjust to it.

Most of the soldiers in processing at the “Repo Depo” were there and gone in three days. The infantry guys stayed for two weeks. It would be nice to think the army was thinking ahead and making sure we were acclimatized before we hit the bush but really I just think they needed men for details. They used us for perimeter guards, KP., and other misc. details. It wasn’t all that bad and it did give us more time to adjust to the heat. I was picked as a guard. We pulled guard every night but were off during the day. Sleeping tho, was not a easy thing during the day. The barracks had a fan on each floor but unless you managed to get in the first three bunks, and it was pointed directly at you it didn’t help much. The guard was the standard 2 hours on and 4 hours off, but of course the getting up and getting down time was not included. That made it really more like 4 hours up and 2 hours down. It was still sweating hot at night and the fans just kept running. I wonder if they were ever turned off. The guards were allowed to go down to the beach during the day. I went a couple of days, the water was the clearest I have ever seen. I could walk out til I was neck deep and still look down and see my feet moving along the bottom. Sunburns were a problem. The warned us that if we got sunburned so bad we couldn’t pull our guard we would get an Article 15 (punishment). I, of course, got a pretty good sunburn that was very painful. Still pulled my guard of course. One of the guys fell asleep on the beach and was burned so bad he had big blisters all over his back. I helped him get his radio pack on and off at guard. It was quite a mess, don’t really remember if he finally went on sick call, but I think he toughed it out. We pulled guard at different places around the compound, just whatever post we happened to pull that night. I remember walking the edge of a creek or river as one post I had a couple of times. Also a gate area that was locked at night. Another was at a ammunition dump. There was an explosion there one night but I was on another post and don’t know what happened. It felt strange at first, carrying a loaded rifle, but you get used to it pretty quick. We carried the M-14 for guard. I used the M-14 in Basic Training but had trained with the M-16 during AIT. Now going back to the M-14, I could hardly remember how to break it down. Every once in a while you would see someone just in from the bush. They would look pretty dirty and “unkempt” in comparison to the “remf’s” working around the Repo Depo. “remf” stands for “Rear Echelon Mother Fucker”, an obvious term of disrespect used by the field soldiers towards anyone not going to the field regularly. Another term heard often was “Saigon Soldier”; meaning someone who looks good, and talks a good game but hasn’t been to the bush lately if ever. “Eat Shit and Die Motherfucker” means exactly what it says. The “World” meant the good old USA as in “Hay Man, When I get back to the world I’m gonna Par--ty!”. “Ain’t no big thing” used as we might as well do it and get it over with, I can handle it. “F.N.G.” meant “Funny New Guy or Fucking New Guy depending on how bad he had screwed up. “Bought the Farm” meant just what it had in W.W.II, somebody’s Army Life Insurance could be used to pay off his parents mortgage. “God is an AK round” from the rifle used by the NVA the AK-47. “War is hell but contact is a motherfucker”, contact meaning a firefight.

I went from the Cam Rahn Bay Repo Depo to the 101st Airborne Division Repo Depo at Camp Evans. That was in I Corps, way up north in Quang Tri province next to the DMZ. At Camp Evans we received our “in country” or “P” training. This was about 2 weeks of refresher training given by the 101st to their own people on what they thought we really needed to know. Things like “If you ambush the enemy and are going out to search the bodies, the first thing you do is put one more bullet into their heads before you search them. That way you can be sure they won’t roll off a grenade and grab hold of you so both of you will die. That’s experience rather than the manual talking. Also training in the LAW (Light Anti-tank Weapon) more often used on bunkers. The 90 MM recoilless rifle (also used on bunkers). The M-79 Grenade Launcher, explosives, and other stuff like that. Of course the also threw in some briefings on the Language, Customs, ETC, of Viet Nam. We also pulled guard here, tho not every night. I don’t think a night would go through that someone didn’t get nervous and fire off a couple of rounds at a rock or bush. And it is true that if you look at something long enough at night it will “move”, even if it is a rock or tree stump. It was at Camp Evans that I met Jim McLaughlin. Jim was a little older than the rest of us and had some special forces training, so he kind of stood out amid the rest of us FNGs. It was also here that they sent all the Airborne qualified men to a separate briefing. There were about 40 -50 of us including myself and Jim McLaughlin. The briefing was from a representative of the 101st recon unit L Co Rangers, 75th Inf. He briefed us on the company and what they did and asked for volunteers. About six guys volunteered, including myself and Jim. After our 2 weeks of “P” training everyone went on to their units. Our group of six guys got on a 2 1/2 ton truck and had a dusty ride down to Camp Eagle just outside of Phu Bai and Hue.