Vietnam Jan '67 - Feb '68. Air-mobile 105 Howitzer battery in 9th Division, 2nd of the 4th Artillery.

Whenever we were in our base camp, an outpost in Rach Kien, near the Mekong river SW of Saigon, we had eggs to order most mornings. The cooks were top notch and we really looked forward to breakfast. Ate a lot of C-rations and we often had C-4 plastic explosive to burn to warm them up. I didn't mind them much. And we would regularly trade with each other in order to avoid those meals we hated most (you never knew what the luck of the draw would bring you when the C-rats were handed out). And when we had time off from fire missions we sometimes could buy prepared food from the locals, usually a treat.

When away on a mission beyond the practical range of our base camp's 105's (usually with just 2 of our battery's 6 guns) our commander always tried to fly a warm meal in to us every day. These warm meals were generally cherished over the C-rats. smile


"There's more to optics than meets the eye."--anon

"...most of us would be better off losing half a pound around the waist than half a pound on our rifle."--dhg