Tues. night
16 Dec. 1969

I have now seen more rain than I’ve ever seen before! We’ve had constant rain (not drizzle) for the past 3 days! My hooch has started leaking in places it’s never leaked before.

The hop I was to fly last night was cancelled, as were all the other flights, because of the weather. All the missions in the whole group were cancelled! I don’t think any flights were flown today either. My roommate and Russ Fyke diverted to Ubon the same night I did and still haven’t come back!

Guess what, I have a bad cold. It had been developing for a couple of days, but this morning it was bad! So bad, in fact, that I didn’t go to the orphanage because I would have been out in the rain all afternoon! I wanted to go, but the rain was just to bad.

I’ve been informed that I’m going to FAC school in January! Most people dread this news, but I’m glad. It’s a two week school in Okinawa!! They haven’t been sending RIO’s to FAC duty because there’s a shortage! So I’ll get to go to the school and won’t have worry about going FAC.

The reason I was chosen was because our Squadron was given a quota of three for the school. The qualifications were such that they could only find two pilots, so they picked me for the third. O.J. is one of the pilots. Even if I do go FAC duty, it’s only for three months and would probably be Feb - April. I wanted to be a grunt anyway.

I’m listening to the president’s speech (replay)! I heard it live this morning at 0700. I was disappointed that he only announced 50,000 by April 15. We’re all very anxious to find out who is leaving!

I found out yesterday that I have eleven points toward my third air medal! I have 41 missions and 51 points. So far I have seventeen missions this month and that’s three more than the next RIO!

Maj. Gibson, my pilot, has the most among the pilots. He has about twelve, I think. I can’t believe how I was so excited about getting that first twenty points, and now they really don’t mean that much! I wish they’d give me my medal, though!

I’m really proud to have the most missions! That means, sort of, that I work more. Maybe that’s why their sending me to FAC school! The school starts on the fourth, but I don’t know exactly when I’ll leave Chu Lai.

I haven’t done a thing all day except sleep. I had so much sleep to catch up I didn’t want to get out of bed. Also the rain wasn’t to conducive to getting out!

Photo - Buddhist monk in Thailand.