13 August 1970

0630
Thursday
13 August 1970

66 MORE DAYS!!

This will be brief - - because I’m beat and have to get some sleep before my 1030 brief.

I got very little sleep during the night because of my “duties” as the defense platoon commander.  I had to check our bunkers on the perimeter twice during the night to insure that the men were awake and alert.  The Marines man 15 bunkers on the southern sector of the Chu Lai perimeter.  These bunkers are spread out so far that I had to drive from one to the next in a truck.  This procedure took about 1 ½ - 2 hours each time.

I flew one mission yesterday.  It was a LZ prep mission.  We dropped 1,000 pound bombs on a hill to blow away the trees so helicopters could land there with troops.

Thursday night

I flew one mission today.  Our target was a suspected enemy base camp.  The targets we get these days are so bad we just seem to be wasting time and money dropping bombs on them!  We're just marking time until we leave.  We have so few airplanes now, that we can only fly about 6-8 missions per day - we used to fly 25 - 30 missions per day.  So you see how much we’ve cut back.  If the flying doesn’t get better I won’t get my 200 missions.  I need 22 missions, and we only have 20 flying days left.

We had a water survival exercise this afternoon at the beach.  The purpose of this was to train us for being picked out of the water by a cable lowered from a helicopter.  Before I got my turn, the hoist that raises the cable, broke, so we couldn’t finish the exercise.

It’s really amazing how much warmer the ocean is here than at Hawaii.  It’s probably at least 10 degrees hotter.

The movie tonight was another of those mediocre offerings we get here so often - so I shall read awhile and retire early.  I’m still pretty tired from that duty (and lack of sleep) last night.

Photo - at Luau while on R and R.