Friday night
31 Oct.1969

Another day, another dollar, I guess!

I still haven’t received any mail, maybe tomorrow, I hope. It’ll be two weeks tomorrow since I left home.

The squadron is having a party tomorrow night and then we have a stand-down (no flying) on Sunday to recuperate! I think each squadron is supposed to have a stand-down day twice a month.

Rumor around here is that there are a lot of VC around Chu Lai and there may be some kind of attack. I don’t know how true this is but it’s exciting to think about. Right now I hear explosions in the distance that sound as though we might be shooting artillery at the bad guys. Russ Fyke said that last night his flight bombed three miles south of the airfield! There’s no real danger to me because my hooch is about a mile from the perimeter of the base and the VC (we call them Charlie) would have to do a lot of fighting to get this far.

Today I flew a “LZ Prep” (landing zone preparation). This is where we bomb a landing zone prior to helicopters landing there to let out troops on a patrol, assault, or whatever their mission is. Theoretically, we kill all the VC in the area so they can’t shoot our guys when they land. This particular LZ was in the foothills and was a meadow surrounded by woods. There were streams and waterfalls all over the area and it was very green and beautiful. What a shame we have to fight and kill in such pretty countryside.

I read that Tech won their game with SMU! It’s a good thing, maybe I’ll give them another chance!!

I’ve rambled on ‘til I’ve run out of anything to say.

No rain today!!! Hooray.

Photo - officer's shower room, Chu Lai.