20 March
Dear Mom,

No action for three nights now. The Sgt. is getting a little impatient. We let five gooks (Viet Cong) get away two nights ago because we didn’t want to give away our position.

Our relations with our Regional Force Platoon are going to hell on a sled. Every time we get some chow they steal it. One of our guys had $125 stolen. We got a crate of eggs from the mess hall at headquarters and the R.F.’s steal them and sell them in the market place.

I get along fine with the RF’s because I don’t have anything to steal.

An RF named Chin is teaching me some magic tricks with string and coins. They’re very simple but they have to be done just right. I’ve learned three already.

The RF’s gave me some of their rice as a gift today. I don’t know what I’ll do with it but I’ll think of something. I guess I’d make a good public relations man or something.

There’s really not much to report. I’m feeling pretty well, doing my job and trying to get along.

The old timers are a little reluctant to associate with me because they’ve had five new guys killed or wounded last month.

There’s a little boy we call Dum-Dum that hangs around our CAP. His mother was killed by the V.C. He’s about two feet high. Kind of a mascot.

There’s really very little that happens around here. This letter is getting hard to write.

Orchids grow wild around here. It blew my mind when a little kid walked up to me with a really gaudy one the other day. It’s outer petals were deep red, while the inner ones were canary yellow with red polka-dots. It probably would have cost a fortune in the “World.”

Our corpsman treated an old lady in our ville who was hit by a truck on highway one the other day. We called an Army chopper to take her to a hospital in Da Nang.

Your pistol is the cat’s meow with the RF’s, they think it’s really cool.

I’ve been sleeping on the ground every night with no ill effects so far. I get a bath at a well every couple of days.

I gashed my knee crossing a wall the other night and bled like a stuck pig. It was just a little cut but it soaked the whole leg of my trousers and my sock with blood. Doc Doggett fixed me up.

I haven’t gotten any mail in a couple of days but expect I’ll get some tomorrow.

Like I said nothing is happening. A year is getting to seem longer and longer.

Will write again soon if anything happens.

Love,

Roch