Sgt. Gregory headed our squad, leading the way diagonally across the rice paddy, I followed about 10 yards apart and Paul Risinger followed me.  Not only was the water deep, but the mud below the surface allowed us to sink more deeply than usual under the weight of our bodies plus equipment and ammunition.  Each step became a struggle and resulted in more sweat pouring from the top of the head from under the steel pot, across the forehead, with a generous portion going into the eyes and then further down to the tip of the nose.  I could taste the salt which further ran across my lips.  Using my forearm as a wiper served to shift the salty mix to the side of my face.  Paul was smart that way, he had a military green towel which he kept around his neck and would soak up infinitely more sweat than my jungle fatigue sleeve.  I didn’t have an olive green towel and certainly wasn’t going to wear a white one around my neck, so my sleeve had to do.  That was one advantage of the Army’s attempts at reducing individuality, cause you didn’t want to stand out of the crowd here. Nobody wanted to wear a bigger bullseye than the next guy, but we all knew we were wearing one.  It’s never me, it’s always the other guy.

   That pack that Paul was carrying had become even more lethal.  They had sent us cases of old TNT to use in our mission of destruction and told us we had to use it instead of the safer and multi-purpose C-4.  Paul simply replaced the C-4 with the TNT and packed it in his inherited backpack, along with the blasting caps, wire and little hand operated squeeze-generator to provide the necessary electrical charge.  On top of that he had his rifle, magazines of ammo, grenades, water, c-rations, smoke grenades like everyone else.  The jungle fatigues were a great design-you could be soaked by rain one minute and you’d be dried by the sun 10 minutes later, that is if you didn’t wear anything else.  Underwear and t-shirts were not worn, they were excess baggage and kept you wet longer.  That is why the feet were often a problem, because you couldn’t wear the boots comfortably without sox, which meant your feet would be soaked longer.  Stripping off the boots and socks would reveal loose white skin underneath and it often seemed that you could easily strip off the flaccid skin as well as you pulled off the socks.