Only 2 1/2 weeks til the Mike Platoon re-union in Gatlinburg.
It's been over 47 years but I still remember -
Writing "Free" on an envelope instead of a stamp
APO 96345
Packages and letters from home
MPC's
"Stars and Stripes" and AFVN
dog tags - US527-----
Bien Hoa, Long Binh, Tan Son Nhut
Dian, Quon Loi and Lai Khe
Loc Ninh and the Michelin rubber plantation
NDP's named after past battles
such as Oran, Gela and Remagen
sandbags and concertina wire
hooches of engineer's stakes and panchos
bunkers
powdered eggs
c-rations such as ham and mf's
C4 - also for heating c's
and P38's to open them
red ants, mosquitos and leeches
bug juice and malaria pills
water purification tablets
the monsoon and crotch rot
steel pots, jungle fatigues & jungle boots
but no underwear
a green towel around my neck
a pancho liner, but no pancho
canteens on a D-ring
frags, smoke grenades and claymores
my M16 - serial # 860945
15 magazines, each with 18 rounds
REMF's & FNG's
basecamps & stand-downs
Filipino bands playing American pop
RnR - Sydney and Manila
ammo pouches and bandoliers
the starlight scope - everything's green
cutting thru bamboo with a machete
carrying ammo for the M60 machine gun
Gomer pullin' point
LP and the "F" you lizard
carrying the PRC 25 (prick 25)
RTO - Mike Whiskey Kilo of Mike Platoon
"negative sit rep, break squelch twice"
the M79 - the blooper
arty - the 105's & 155's
walking 17 klicks
infantry - grunts - 11 bush
sweeps and cloverleafs
swamps and bomb craters
mama san, papa-san, GI #10
Montagnards
NVA, VC, "Charlie" with black pajamas
firefights, the crack of an AK
the smell of death
napalm
mortars and RPG's
slicks with doorgunners, prepping the LZ
APC's with names like "Rice Paddy Daddy"
shithooks and LOH's
Cobras with miniguns
short
deros
Freedom Bird
The World
some of the music:
"We Gotta Get Out of This Place" - Eric Burdon & the Animals
"Galveston" - Glen Campbell
"Comin' Home Soldier" - Bobby Vinton
from "Flags of Our Fathers" - James Bradley with Ron Powers (pg 342)
"By the early 1980's, the men of Easy Company were in their 60's. Their families grown, their work lives nearing an end, many of them felt an urge, long dormant, to reconnect with one another; to remember with their buddies."
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