19 May 1970

Tuesday
19 May 1970

Seven months down and five to go!!  It is so hot here I’m soaking with sweat while sitting in the shade.  There is no breeze and the humidity is very high.  We’re still on Hill 45 and looks like we’ll be here for awhile as we now have some miniature artillery up here with us.  We have a recoilless rifle and some mortars - so we’re a small fire support base.

I had trouble getting to sleep last night - so I was thinking about the book I’m going to write some day about all this.  I think I shall entitle my book The Longest 100 Days!

I haven’t had a bath in several days - so I smell to high heaven!  I think some of us are going down to the water hole this afternoon to bathe.

I’m still eating all my meals with the Vietnamese.  They have some curious customs.  They only eat two meals a day - one about 1000 and the other about 1800.  When the meal is ready to eat, someone comes over and gets me.  In return for these favors, I give them C-rations which they cook, and cigarettes.

This morning we had rice, beef steak, onions, and some kind of melon.  They drink hot tea with their meals.  However - they don’t drink the tea until they’ve finished eating.  However they know how Americans like to drink as we eat, so they always pour me a small glass of tea at the beginning of the meal.  All the food is placed on the table in small bowls - smaller than, say, a cereal bowl.  Then each individual has a small bowl in which he puts his rice and then just helps himself to what ever he wants from the other bowls.  It would be kind of like each person, back home, getting his potatoes out of the main bowl with his own spoon, instead of using a large spoon in the potatoes. 

Of course the whole meal is eaten with chop sticks.  I’ve developed a liking for their food - mainly because of the seasoning they use.

I still have not heard anything more about me going back to Baldy for a week.  Tomorrow is the day I was to do so.

I received the pudding and cereal today - yesterday I got two Navy Times.  Three cans of the pudding was broken open, but was still fresh - so I ate two cans and gave the third to my hooch mate, our corpsman.  He may be an enlisted man - but I’ve found him to be much more educated than any of the grunts.  We’ve made a sort of tent with our ponchos to keep out the sun and rain.