July 23, After breakfast, I walked back over to our company area and took a shower in the company stall, a big tank that had to be filled by hand with five gallon water cans. The shower tank held twenty five gallons. After the cool shower, I went back to my tent and began cleaning my rifle.
As I was putting my rifle back together, one of the men from the bush came into the tent. He was covered from head to boots in caked-on dirt and mud. Sweat came through thin places in the dirt. He was the dirtiest person I’d ever seen. He wore and NVA pack, a cartridge belt full of canteens and two bandoleers of M-16 Ammo.
The first thing he did was drop his pack and gear in a pile and say, “I’m going to take a fucking shower.” As he was walking out of the tent, the office pogue came in and said, “Get your shit together and be ready to leave for the bush in thirty minutes.” He showed me where to put my sea bag and all the gear that I wasn’t going to need. Three other men were going back out into the bush with me. We were supposed to hitch-hike a ride to Dong Ha and catch a truck convoy that was going to Landing Zone Stud, a base which had taken the place of Khe Sahn since it had been almost over run.
By the time we were ready to leave, it had started to rain. We had to walk all the way across the base to get to the road to Dong Ha. We were soaked when we reached the gate. We waited at the gate for about an hour for a truck or something large enough for all four of us to get a ride in. We finally got a ride on the back of a large truck headed for Dong Ha.
Once we were at Dong Ha, we had to walk halfway across the base for the motor pool from the convoy was leaving from. By the time we got over to the motor pool, were were covered with mud and the convoy had already left without us. But we didn’t mind not going to the bush. We walked back to the main road and caught a ride back to Quang Tri. We reported back to the company rear and told them we were too late for the convoy since we were delayed by the rain. The First Sergeant told us to go and put up our gear and get to mess call before all the food was gone.
After chow, we sat around and played cards and listened to the other men talk about their experiences. Once it got dark, we went outside and smoked a couple of joints and talked about things that were going on back in the states, like the anti-war demonstrations and Bobby Kennedy getting assassinated. I went to bed about ten on my cot.
