The original 3/39^th unit, having trained in the states at Fort Riley, Kansas together, had come to Vietnam on ships arriving just about the turn of the year in early 1967. They first went to Bear Cat and helped to establish the 9^th Division Headquarters there.  This was a rubber plantation area down the road from the Binh Hoa Airbase now cleared and leveled by a combination of bulldozers and Agent Orange.  A few months later, it was to become a sprawling complex which included a giant PX, with library and swimming pool, a miniature golf course, barber shops and yes---steam bath and massage stations. They even brought in young, smiling winsome lasses from the States to sell cars and expensive family bibles to the lonely soldiers far from home. Loneliness was the catalyst which turned many a GI into an easily manipulated customer.   By the time I joined the 3/39^th Infantry, in June of 67, quite a few of the original infantrymen had already been lost one way or the other and they were far from the ever-expanding luxury of Bear Cat.  The Delta village of Rach Kien, previously a Viet Cong controlled village, became the new home of the “Falcons”.  In October of 1967, the Mekong guardian fort of foreign legion vintage, Trai Linh Rach Cat, renamed “Fort Courage”, was to become our new home.

   You could faintly hear the far-away sound of the choppers coming to meet us.  Once you heard that, you know your day is planned, no skipping out now.  The early morning heat and humidity seemed to amplify the bass quality of the ever-approaching, ever-nearing rides.  No cameras for me or Paul today.  Cameras were left behind when trouble was expected.   It was sensed intuitively, since little info, about what we were heading into, filtered down to the infantryman’s level. One real good indication of trouble was when our scouts, former Viet Cong active in the area, would disappear for missions they didn’t like. They did not want to be captured by their old comrades.  They were not with us on the 8^th of November. More eagle flights-drop into a location, search and destroy, helicopter pick up and off into the next target area.

   The squad members got up off their seats at the edge of the dike and started to get into pick-up formation at the approaching sounds of the helicopters. Sweat rolled down my nose again as a result of the new movement.  My sleeve was already soaked and stained from the efforts to keep it out of my eyes.