By Paul Churchill
Believe it or not we had picnic here too. We went down to the south China Sea and swam, pitched horse shoes, played ball and got sun burned. Boy, it was just great.
We really did have a picnic. What is left of our platoon was loaded onto six byes and hauled to the beach in a fairly secure area. As we were bailing out of the trucks we saw that there were two Hueys (UH 1 helicopters) cruising back and forth a few hundred yards off shore blasting away with their M-60’s every minute or so. We asked what the heck they were doing and were told “Oh, they are just shooting the sharks so you guys can swim”. Our swimming amounted to wading in knee deep, laying back and letting the waves wash over us. It was still a great four hour break from our little corner of the war. Later that evening we were back to reality.
The gooks are really causing trouble tonight. Somewhere hear here there is a pretty big fight going. The ground is shaking and noise is something fierce. I will keep writing as long as possible though I may have to quit if we are called to help whoever is getting hit.
I have some good news for you. Our move has been postponed indefinitely, until we can get some new men as we are so short for various reasons. A squad is supposed to have 14 men. We have 4 to 6 so as you can see we are hurting. We have been paid a compliment that we are all proud of. We have been told that we are about the only company that can get along without officers. To show that they weren’t kidding they took all of ours but two. Our platoon commander is now a sergeant.
Otto J Lehrack in his book about Third Battalion, Third Marines wrote “At the end of March 1966, for example, the battalion was twenty-four infantry officers, eighty enlisted and ten corpsmen short of manning level. The firefights continued”.
Yes, the firefights continued. As the replacements trickled in our routine of patrols and ambushes didn’t change. This was probably a good thing as it kept us on edge and allowed the new guys to become part of the team, to learn some of the things that might help them, no, might help us all avoid the mistakes that kill. Knowing how the man beside you, in front of, or behind you would react was key to building the confidence to do your job when things went wrong and things did go wrong! New guys who” knew it all” often did not last too long and all too often others paid for their mistakes. Fortunately these guys were few and far between.
