Post by Anonymous Vet on Dec 22, 2002 4:54:13 GMT -5
October 12, 1970
Dear Folks, Our company has moved to a new area here at Chu Lai. It's really nice. We now live in air conditioned quonset huts. The huts are divided into four rooms. Two people live in each room. I'm living with Jeff Thommen, a good friend of mine. The rooms are about 12 x 30 and really nice. Jeff and I have real beds with springs now. I don't sleep on a piece of plywood anymore. We had to swipe the beds. They're hard to come by.
The mess hall is a lot better and I've been eating regular meals lately. It's surprising how much my stomach had shrunk. I bought a refrigerator and Jeff bought a TV. We have real sinks and toilets in the latrine. I still can't remember to flush the toilet. It's been a long time without one.
We're in the process of fixing the room up. We sectioned it off into two rooms. One is a bedroom and the other is for the TV, refrigerator and the bar that we're building.
I hear that Nixon is pushing for a cease fire here. I hate to see it in a way. It will be a good chance for the enemy to build up. We've been hurting their supplies lately and it's hard for them now that the monsoons are here. The highers are rationing our gunships on rockets now and that really hurts. You'd think that there isn't a war going on the way some people act who don't have to fight it. A lot depends on the gunships. They save a lot of lives with their firepower.
Yesterday, while we were on a CA, one of our ships (Editors note:actually a Dolphin, 174th AHC) in the formation had a power failure with six troops on board. We were at low altitude, but the pilot landed the aircraft safely without power. Unfortunately, one of the grunts figured that he could fly better than the aircraft and jumped out at about twenty feet. He was seriously injured. The lead ship broke off and dropped off his troops to secure the aircraft. He picked up the downed crew and the injured grunt. They carried him to an aid station but there, they decided that he needed a hospital. Someone threw the grunt's rifle back on board and it went off killing the peter pilot. We were in the process of attacking a platoon of NVA and because of the mishaps only five of them were killed. The gunships got them.
Click here for more about the loss of Dolphin pilot CW2 Peter R. Goodnight
I didn't get the LOH transition that came down. It went to another section. I expect to get the next one though. (Editor's note: That LOH transition went to Philip "Gooch" Eugene Richard, Minuteman 29. One day in a LOH, Gooch took multiple hits at one time,several in the chicken plate. Several weeks later he had an engine failure, crashed, and died the next day from burns over 90% of his body.) ~~~~
I've really found out how to enjoy myself here. I don't like being here, but I keep remembering that you always told me to make the best of a bad situation. Always try to be the best. Well, I may not be the best, but I try harder. A job well done means a lot of personal satisfaction and that's about all that you can get in a war like this. I try to do more than expected no matter what type of mission that I get. Some of the things that I do scare me later, but that is why the Army chooses people my age to be helicopter pilots. Even the Marines admit that we're the best. Sometimes we really hang it out, but we have to live up to our image. That's all we have to live up to.
I don't like the killing, but I've gotten used to it now. The war here is really odd though. The morale is terrible. We aren't just fighting the VC and NVA. We're having to fight for the American image. We have to fight the crazy politicians an the people who don't realize what the war is like here. It's such a big farce that it's sickening. People try to say that we're fighting for world freedom and peace, but it's all a big lie. The politicians can make all the fancy statements that they want to. I'll tell you how we feel. We aren't fighting for the freedom or for the United States. We're fighting for our lives.
Write as often as you can- I miss you both. Love, ----
Dear Folks, Our company has moved to a new area here at Chu Lai. It's really nice. We now live in air conditioned quonset huts. The huts are divided into four rooms. Two people live in each room. I'm living with Jeff Thommen, a good friend of mine. The rooms are about 12 x 30 and really nice. Jeff and I have real beds with springs now. I don't sleep on a piece of plywood anymore. We had to swipe the beds. They're hard to come by.
The mess hall is a lot better and I've been eating regular meals lately. It's surprising how much my stomach had shrunk. I bought a refrigerator and Jeff bought a TV. We have real sinks and toilets in the latrine. I still can't remember to flush the toilet. It's been a long time without one.
We're in the process of fixing the room up. We sectioned it off into two rooms. One is a bedroom and the other is for the TV, refrigerator and the bar that we're building.
I hear that Nixon is pushing for a cease fire here. I hate to see it in a way. It will be a good chance for the enemy to build up. We've been hurting their supplies lately and it's hard for them now that the monsoons are here. The highers are rationing our gunships on rockets now and that really hurts. You'd think that there isn't a war going on the way some people act who don't have to fight it. A lot depends on the gunships. They save a lot of lives with their firepower.
Yesterday, while we were on a CA, one of our ships (Editors note:actually a Dolphin, 174th AHC) in the formation had a power failure with six troops on board. We were at low altitude, but the pilot landed the aircraft safely without power. Unfortunately, one of the grunts figured that he could fly better than the aircraft and jumped out at about twenty feet. He was seriously injured. The lead ship broke off and dropped off his troops to secure the aircraft. He picked up the downed crew and the injured grunt. They carried him to an aid station but there, they decided that he needed a hospital. Someone threw the grunt's rifle back on board and it went off killing the peter pilot. We were in the process of attacking a platoon of NVA and because of the mishaps only five of them were killed. The gunships got them.
Click here for more about the loss of Dolphin pilot CW2 Peter R. Goodnight
I didn't get the LOH transition that came down. It went to another section. I expect to get the next one though. (Editor's note: That LOH transition went to Philip "Gooch" Eugene Richard, Minuteman 29. One day in a LOH, Gooch took multiple hits at one time,several in the chicken plate. Several weeks later he had an engine failure, crashed, and died the next day from burns over 90% of his body.) ~~~~
I've really found out how to enjoy myself here. I don't like being here, but I keep remembering that you always told me to make the best of a bad situation. Always try to be the best. Well, I may not be the best, but I try harder. A job well done means a lot of personal satisfaction and that's about all that you can get in a war like this. I try to do more than expected no matter what type of mission that I get. Some of the things that I do scare me later, but that is why the Army chooses people my age to be helicopter pilots. Even the Marines admit that we're the best. Sometimes we really hang it out, but we have to live up to our image. That's all we have to live up to.
I don't like the killing, but I've gotten used to it now. The war here is really odd though. The morale is terrible. We aren't just fighting the VC and NVA. We're having to fight for the American image. We have to fight the crazy politicians an the people who don't realize what the war is like here. It's such a big farce that it's sickening. People try to say that we're fighting for world freedom and peace, but it's all a big lie. The politicians can make all the fancy statements that they want to. I'll tell you how we feel. We aren't fighting for the freedom or for the United States. We're fighting for our lives.
Write as often as you can- I miss you both. Love, ----