Rick Holt's Adventures in Vietnam
Letters Home from Vietnam, 1971
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Long Thanh North
August 2, 1971
Monday
8 pm
Dear Folks,
Figured I might as well write this letter while I wait for pappa-san to fill the water tanks to the shower.
As you can see the mission hasn't gone hot yet, but it is expected eventually. O'Briant and I went to Vung Tau to pick up the three radio racks this morning. We got on a chopper at 10:30 am. Went to Can Tho. I found that on a map. It's down in the delta on the bank of a big river. From there we went to Binh Tuy where we had lunch. I couldn't find Binh Tuy on my map, but it's not far from Can Tho. After that stop for lunch we finally went to Vung Tau. Got back here about 3 o'clock.
Just out of Binh Tuy the pilots did some low-leveling along the river and in the area between that river and the Mekong River. Buzzed a few sampans and rice paddies. It's really kind of scary going that fast, that close to the ground. You get the feeling you're going to run into treetops.
Well, it looks like I'll be spending at least one more night at Long Thanh. They keep everything about the mission a big secret. They'll probably tell us about 10 minutes before we're supposed to leave that we should get packed. I'm already packed though so I'm ready for them.
It's not too bad staying here since we're on standby. They can't put us on detail or guard because we're on 24 hour standby and have to be ready to leave at any time.
Got one letter from Dad with a picture of a bathing beauty.
Rick
A bummer is a rusty coke can.