10 April 1970

Friday
10 April 2010

I should be selected for Captain this time - if they promote as many as they did last year.  However, I probably wouldn’t actually get promoted for a few more months.

I took a shower today!  Of course I had to build my own shower and get people to poor water for me!  I suspended a bucket, with holes punched in the bottom, from a bamboo pole near the well in this hamlet.  Then two people poured water into the bucket while I showered beneath it.  Then we switched and I helped pour water for the next man.

I found out today that I’ll be going back to Baldy on Monday - probably.

I got a package of Hershey’s from my folks today.  It was the candy they had sent to Chu Lai and it just now reached me.

They are burning all the houses in this village.  The village chief and hamlet chief say that this village and all the people in it are VC sympathizers.  Seems that the Vietcong live here until the Marines come, then the VC all leave and only the women and children stay behind.

So this hamlet which I said was so prosperous, is being completely destroyed by the very people who, supposedly, govern it.  I don’t know who elected (or appointed) the chiefs (mayors), but I’ll bet the people who live here didn’t have anything to do with it.

I got a couple of good pictures of my friend taking a shower.  They may be obscene!  He also took some pictures of me on his camera.  We’ll probably exchange pictures when they get developed.

We’ve been in this position for 4 days now, which is really great.  I get tired of having to walk to a new place every day.




(following is from diary entry dated 10 April)

Today I tired of being dirty and lazy so I remedied both by building a shower and recruiting two men to help me shower by pouring water.  I, in turn, poured water for them.  We, jokingly, labeled ourselves “geisha guys” and toyed with the idea of hiring out our services as pourers.  Idea rejected!

This beautiful hamlet is a shambles because Marines live like pigs!  But, never mind, we’re allowing the hamlet to be burned down by the local officials (?) who claim this is a VC hamlet.  I wonder who elected these officials.  Also, how much profit do they pocket from the sale of the confiscated rice which we gathered up and then turned over to the village officials.