By Paul Churchill
It’s about 7:15 in the morning and lam just sitting around to see what is up for today. If we don’t have a patrol this morning we will have classes instead. They are teaching us how to run patrols and fight the VC. I just got back from an ambush about two hours ago, but I would rather go back out than sit through another of these classes. We have had them all at least a half dozen times already. They couldn’t just let us sleep a little to catch up on what we lose on patrols and ambushes. Oh well, maybe someday we will learn what they are teaching us and they will leave us alone a while.
Yes, I guess I could see someone about my ankles but lately they haven’t been bothering me except for some aching. I have been trying to build them up by taking extra patrols and doing some running in the sand here. I think that if I can keep this up for a while without twisting one of them again that they will be all right
I had been having a lot of trouble with severe ankle sprains but did not want to leave the unit because these were “my guys’ and if I went to the rear for treatment there would be no guarantee that I would return to the same outfit. I had injured one ankle while at Camp Lejeune and was on crutches the last couple of weeks there and turned them in the day we got on the plane to start our trip to Viet Nam. The other was injured a couple days into operation Georgia Neither of them had a chance to heal properly because of the rough ground that we were constantly operating on. This probably contributed to the following problem.
About a week ago I got a real surprise. My trick knee did it’s fabulous trick twice in about 15 minutes. It hadn’t done anything for over a year so it came as a shock to me when it started getting funny on me. It was stiff for a day or so after but is giving me no trouble now so I guess it was just a freak sort of thing. I was sweating it a bit for a while though.
I had injured my knee when I was on my high school wrestling team and “forgot” to mention it so I could get in the Navy.
Was glad to hear that Dave is well and that the operation is going smoothly. Could you tell me what outfit he is in, all the way down to the Company level. You see Lima Company and the rest of the third battalion is supposed to be sent to Okinawa to get replacements and training as it is just about gone. I plan to get transferred to another outfit. I would feel a bit guilty about leaving here for 2 or 3 months while so many of my friends are still here. Another reason is that if I do go back I would return to Viet Nam with an all new outfit with the exception of about 10 to 15 guys….the main reason is that I don’t want to leave here knowing that I must come back. It was hard enough to get here the first time. At any rate I am fairly sure that I will request a transfer. I will take any outfit I can get if I do but if I can I’d like to try to get in a unit fairly close to Dave so that possibly I could see him once in a while.
The rumors were flying fast and furious about 3/3 (3d Battalion/3rd Marine Regiment)
being rotated to Okinawa to get replacements and re-equipped and additional training for the new guys coming in due to the losses the unit had suffered. It did not happen as quickly as was anticipated but 3/3 did eventually rotate to Okinawa as planned and as you will read later I did remain in Viet Nam.
The weather is getting worse here in some ways but better in others. The heat and humidity is getting worse during the day except when it rains (which is getting to be quite frequently now) and then the humidity is all that bothers. Along with this change for the worse the nights are getting cooler so that if you aren’t on patrol you can sleep fairly well. The only trouble is that it won’t last. The rainy season is getting started now and before long we will be real mud sloggers. Oh well, such is life.
We didn’t know it but this transition time from dry to wet season would be the most comfortable we would be in Viet Nam as far as weather was concerned. The worst was yet to come.
As the humidity increased we were presented with yet another unexpected surprise.
During the dry season we had had some problems with leeches when we had to make stream or river crossings but now the air had become so heavy with moisture that the darn things were in the trees and brush and would just hang there and drop on anything that moved under them, which turned out to be us. We would return from a patrol with 10 or 20 of them sucking on us. When a squad returned from a patrol you could see them sit in a circle and start inspecting each other and carefully clearing leeches from the man in front of them. You couldn’t just pull them off because leaving the head behind would cause some pretty bad infections. The guys that smoked would zap them with the hot end of a cigarette and they would let go real quick. We also could sprinkle salt on them or squirt insect repellent directly on them. We looked like the baboons in the movies sitting in a circle scratching and picking lice or fleas off each other. The wetter it got the more trouble we had with these oversized pests.
