|
 Upon arrival in Viet Nam I
was assigned to 3rd Shore Party in Da Nang, and was sent north to Alpha
Company in Dong Ha. The main function of the base was ammo and supply storage
for units operating near the DMZ. Shore Party dealt mainly with the
logistics of moving supplies which were flown in by C-130s or brought up
the Cua Viet River by Navy landing craft to
eventually be disbursed where they were needed. Dong Ha was often hit by
artillery and rockets fired from inside and behind the DMZ, but most of
those were hitting around the airstrip.
We always ate well, lots of barbecued steaks and beer. Not a real
challenging job for a corpsman. With the exception of two rainy weeks out
on Mutter's ridge around Thanksgiving, I spent most of my time playing
cards.
Just
before Christmas our unit relocated to Thuan An near Hue. It was a day’s journey by a Navy landing
craft down the coast. Thuan An was a sandy island at the mouth of the Perfume
river. While there we traveled to the city of Hue by truck to a site across
the street from the university and across the river from the Citadel, which
was the ancient capital of Viet Nam. Landing craft would bring in supplies
which were unloaded by forklifts. Except for a minor irritation of spending
a rainy Christmas in support of some obscure operation in the A Shau valley, life was good.
|
|
 New Year’s Day I received new orders reassigning me to 3rd Battalion,
3rd Marine Regiment an infantry unit. The unit is simply referred to as
"3/3" (pronounced three three). The marines assigned to infantry
are referred to as "grunts". They lived in muddy holes in the
ground in isolated areas and existed on C-rations. That was not at all what
I had been used to up to then.
At Phu Bai I boarded a C-130
and flew back to Dong Ha. Upon landing I proceeded to 3/3's rear
(administrative) area, a muddy field across the road from the Air Force
Station on the north side of the airstrip. I reported in to the Battalion
Aid Station and was issued jungle boots, jungle utilities, steel helmet, a
.45 automatic pistol, flak jacket, and a field medical kit. I was then
instructed to catch a ride on a supply convoy to Lima Company somewhere out
on Highway 9.
|
