Rick Holt's Adventures in Vietnam
Letters Home from Vietnam, 1971

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Long Thanh North
September 30, 1971
Thursday
8 pm

Dear Folks,

I hear the familiar sound of the TV -- a sports announcer giving a play by play account of the Baltimore Colts playing the New York Jets.

Never did go to sleep today. After I got back I went out to help Sylvester check the radios in 009. We got paid today at two o'clock. Got last months pay plus this months pay. A total of $711. To get out of the orderly room I had to pay $5 for hooch maids for both months and $2 for KP's. Then I stopped and bought a case of coke to stock the frig. So I'm down to $700 now. I'll keep $100 and send $600 home. That should bring my savings to $2100 if I remember right. If I don't do a lot of spending I might even break the $3000 mark by the time I get out of here.

The mission went on 1 hour standby at about 4:30 this evening. According to the news this is a pretty big operation. Something to do with stopping a possible attempt to disrupt the elections. I hear that Tay Ninh got hit pretty hard today.

Starting another good month tomorrow. October is even better than September because it's closer to Jan 24th. In 15 more days I'll be a two digit midget. Of course,  I may already be a two digit midget but don't know it yet. Sure would be nice to know whether I was getting a drop. A 30 day drop would suit me just fine. By the way, Pxxxxxxxxx didn't get a drop. He just said something to the first sergeant that you're not supposed to say to first sergeants and he got stuck on permanent guard duty for it.

No worry about me getting that permanent tower guard I asked for. When Mr. Johnson the Avionics OIC found out about it he put a stop to the idea real quick. He won't release me from the section. Guess I'll have to settle for volunteering for burm detail every chance I get.

Got a compliment from the CO today. He said, "Holt, that was a good job you did in handling that situation yesterday." I haven't figured out what situation he was talking about yet.

Rick

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