Life in the Field: Part II
by Ken Hornbeck

L ife in the boondocks implied being shot at many times. It meant looking after your ass and helping the small, especialy tight group of which you were a member.

Often, just finding food was a small victory, for the rains might ground the resupply choppers at awkward times and for extended periods. Finding a supply of fresh water was a victory. Keeping cigarettes dry on a stream-crossing was a victory.

And all of this was before, during, and after the firefights, which was the only part that might get on TV back home.

The battles against the enemy and the battles against the U.S. military establishment sometimes took on equal importance. Sometimes they intertwined.

When M-16's were first issued and jammed all around Vietnam, GIs and Marines wrote plaintive letters to a particular company in the states begging for the only cleaning solution that seemed to make the rifles work dependably.

Persuading the green second lieutenant to take an alternative route through the bush could be a major victory indeed. He couldn't smell Charlie like the enlisted vets and the obvious ambush site was avoided. Another day closer to home.

Packs got heavier as the operation went on, and Vietnam today is a cemetry for equipment that tired GIs "lost" and buried on their missions.


Ken Hornbeck
D/1/501: Vietnam 1969-'70