LZ Bingo by Reid F. Tillery

Author:Reid F. Tillery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-10-09T15:13:02+00:00

Crater made by the friendly artillery round

John Gentry in his rapidly dug foxhole after tying in with B Company.

An F-4 Phantom jet provides air support, knocking out NVA positions.

Captain Charles Cosand,

Delta Company Commander during Tet/ Tet counteroffensive.

Captured NVA weaponry after the Tet attack

CHAPTER 19.

RETURN TO LZ HARDCORE

On the LZ once more, everyone returned to the positions they’d occupied earlier. Bill’s gun team set up on the east trail as they had done when they first arrived. For the first time in weeks, Hueys brought in mail in the familiar red bags. Bill got letters from his mother, his brother, and Robyn Ann Green. Robyn Ann wrote to him throughout his tour. Her letters often contained chewing gum and other goodies that made life in the boonies more bearable. Everyone in Second Platoon loved receiving letters from the AOPi girls, which often included pictures of them at some social function dressed stylishly, and probably smelling as good as they looked in the photos. Such images reminded everyone that life was still going on back in the world. Bill liked the pictures of Robyn in her FSU tank tops. He wondered if he would ever meet her.

Besides the mail, the Hueys also brought in clean clothes, and once a day, hot chow in large green mermite containers. When it was his turn to exchange clothes, each man would leave his position, and go over towards the CP, and select clean fatigues and underwear from among those laid out on a large tarpaulin spread on the ground. He’d shed his old clothes, leave them there, and don clean ones.

The Army had brought in a water wagon filled with potable water. You could fill your canteen from the wagon’s spigots, and drink the water straight, with no need to add iodine. The men finally got a chance to shave, and even wash up a bit, using their steel pot helmets as a basin. The AOPi girls had sent real soap, an added luxury.

Back at their machine gun position, Lieutenant Haas walked up carrying a large envelope. “Welch,” he said, “you got something from the Red Cross.” Red Cross messages could contain good or bad news. You never knew.

Taking the envelope from Lieutenant Haas, Welch opened it with optimistic expectations. Upon seeing its contents, Welch, broke into a huge grin, flashing his healthy white teeth. “Man, I’ve lived to be a father,” he said. “We’ve got a baby! Our first child.”

The envelope contained three cigars. Welch reserved one for himself, then gave one to Ronnie Williams and one to Bill. They shared the joyous moment as Jim Welch, half a world away from his wife and child, personally lit each cigar. Welch was quite the sight as he proudly puffed away, a handsome young man with a thick shock of black hair, dressed in an unbuttoned fatigue shirt, his dog tags hanging loosely around his neck. Atop this faraway hill from which they could see miles of Vietnamese countryside, the trio celebrated new life in spite of all the death they had encountered.

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