Dear Mom & Dad,
Greetings once again from Vietnam. I trust everything is fine with you.
Things here are going good. I finished school today. Tomorrow I join the troop
in the filed. I wish I could tell you where they are but I don't know myself.
So if you should here anything on the news about the 11th Armored Cavalry, that's where I
will be. Being a Cavalry unit they move around quite a lot. So, I should see
quite a lot of Vietnam while on operations.
As of yet, I haven't had a letter from you. But I'm looking forward to hearing
from you. I imagine that you have a lot of questions on things that I might not have
been too clear on. I try to be as informative as possible in my letters. One
of your questions might be "if I'm going to be in the field so much will I be
safe"? I don't care where you are, there is a certain amount of risk wherever
one goes. But like I have said, being a cook I will be located in what they call the
"trains area" which is a secured area away from the line troops who make
frequent "contact" with the VC (Viet Cong). The chow is most frequently flown by helicopter or trucked by convoy to the line
troops. So in a sense, I will be far more secure than most people over here.
I have no fears of going to the field what-so-ever. In a way, I am looking
forward to it. It's better than sitting here waiting for Charlie to drop a mortar
round on you. No one knows that it is like to be in constant fear that the first
round in might be on you. Of course, by the time the second one comes in you are
underground just riding the rest out. One must learn to except it, though. The
chances of a mortar round getting you are one in a billion. So, I'm not loosing
sleep over it. The one major factor in defeating this fear is being aware of the
devastating firepower that we have here. From the individual M-16 bearing soldier to
the huge 105 mm Howitzers of which this unit has 24. Also, one can not overlook the
many "gunships" (helicopters) that are always present here. Three
"gunships" have the ability of destroying a whole regiment of VC. Charlie
seems to avoid us as much as possible. I don't blame him.
I am truly proud to be serving with this fine unit. We are a highly skilled and
professionalized Cavalry Regiment.
Well, I will sign off now. My next letter will be from the field. When?
I don't know - perhaps tomorrow or the next day. I will have much more to
tell you then.
By for now!
Love,
Bob
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