By Paul Churchill
Yes I made third April 16th and my cough is better. As for taking care of myself, believe me I’ll try.
When I left for Camp Lejeune and Viet Nam I had a severe cough that had persisted for several months and did not seem to be getting any better. The day I went into the field with my unit the cough was gone. Not even a sneeze the whole nine months I was with the line companies. The day I reported to D- Med in December the cough was back, One of the many miracles of my time in Viet Nam.
No I haven’t gone bald yet but if things keep going like they are I might be. Boy! I am talking about the riots that are going on in Da Nang. These people are down there shooting each other up and we can’t do anything because the people and the Popular Forces are on our side. Boy that’s a laugh. Ask some of the people caught in the middle.
I will tell you one thing though. The Viet Namese Marines sure know how to handle these riots. They will stop at nothing to get the people and the rest of Viet Nam’s military (the P.F.s, the ARVN’s – the biggest little cowards in the world) and the people themselves settled down. They are a great outfit. We have great respect for them but would rather go out on our own than with the P.F.s or ARVN’s who wind up in the vear no matter where they start. Oh well. That’s the way it goes.
As time passed and we were involved in some other joint operations I would gain new perspective and respect for some of the ARVN’s and P.F.s. The quality of performance, I found, depended a lot on the quality and confidence of each unit’s leadership and some were very good.
