Dear Mom & Dad,
Well, here it is another day. Time is really flying by. I received your
letter Dad of May 8th. It was good to hear from you. It is always good to get
mail. I'm glad you're getting my letters as rapidly as 5 days. You can pretty
well keep up with my account of the war and the TVs account.
No doubt you have heard about the fighting in Saigon recently. Things now have
quieted down and everything is pretty much back to normal there. Three days ago when
we came through there things were quiet. As I told you, we spent one night in the
city (at the Phu Tho Race Track) before all hell broke loose and we have stayed in the
immediate area ever since. Right now we are about 5 miles outside the city to the
East. We are now reactionary forces. In the event things flare up again, we
will move back into the city. You said in your letters that you hoped that I wasn't
in on the fighting in Saigon. I wasn't personally but the troop was. Being a
cook it seems unlikely that I would be involved in any offensive fighting or even
defensive fighting. The only danger I am exposed to is getting mortared while we are
set up in the trains and the chances of getting hit by a mortar are about one in a
million. So I am pretty safe.
Talk is that we go back to Blackhorse in about two weeks. I'm looking forward to
that. Back there we will work shift. One day on and one day off. That
will give me more free time. Things are going good here in the field, though.
I'm getting plenty of sleep. Last night I got 11 hours. How's that for
combat? I've got a nice little shelter
fashioned out a a poncho for my roof and a shelter half for one side and two poncho liners
for my other walls. I have electric light (two flashlights handing from the
ceiling). air conditioning (when I open the flaps), running water (when I get up and
run down to the water trailer to get it) and all the comforts of home. Home here
truly is where you built it. I will take a picture of my split level (there's a rip
in one wall) and send it along.
I have taken two rolls of film and as of yet haven't had a chance to have them
developed. When I get back to Blackhorse I will send them in and then send them
home. You should get a kick out of them. They will all be color slides.
A lot more I hope than what I took in Germany.
This is really a beautiful country in places - not as tropical as I thought.
However, there are palm trees like Florida. In a way, this place remind me a great
deal of Florida. I think that it is why I don't mind it as much as some
people. This would be a nice duty station if the work wasn't so hard and you didn't
have to live under the constant fear that you might get zapped by Charlie. That's
the hardest factor here to bare. The thought that you might wake up one morning and
that being the last morning you ever see. Every night I go to bed I am so thankful
that I was allowed to live another day and I will feel this same way every night until I
return home and never again have to live in fear of not being able to awake to a new day
and to retire after that day is done.
By for now!
Bob
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