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Actually Gary, you've brought something up that I was going to ask. How often did you bathe? Were there proper showers in your fire base? If not, how long would you have to go without one?
Joe.
Joe,
let me put it this way; you stunk real bad! How bad? When we cruised thru our batallion area in transit the first thing that happened was their showers were warmed up and there was plenty of soap. There would be fresh clothes. More often than not they'd simply burn the old stuff.
When I was down on Gator watching Colon Powel fly by every morning we had a shower built out of the biggest napalm tanks out there. But alas there was no heated water, and you really didn't need it when it got hot. When we were out in the Que Son Valley there really was no water to spare for anything formal like a shower. But there was a small stream down at the base of the hill we were on if you dared! (we had one guy who went down there unarmed and butt naked everynight at 6:00pm) Some places you begged for rain just to take a shower and others were much better. Still if you planed on operating out of that base camp for an extended period you'd often fabricate somekind of shower (usually a pair of wing tanks)if you had a source for water. Thien Phouc had a nice river flowing near by, so every afternoon we'd all go down there in twos and threes with a bar of soap (we had lots of soap but no water a third of the time). But when the monsoon season rolled around you were not going to the streams to get clean. They would stay in a semi flood stage for about three months, or untill the rains letup for about a week. Then you'd see a bunch of guys dancing around naked in the rain with a bar of soap. We had a five ton truck with a weld fabricated tank on it and a water tanker in tow when we were down on Gator and places like that. They would create a detail that would drive the truck into the water purification plant there. The big tank was full of non-potable water (showers and things like that). The tanker trailer was drinking water and mess hall use. When the guys got back (after going to the Americal PX and chasing some of the local scenery); they go from gun to gun filling up all their water cans and then head to all the other squads. Last stop off was the mess hall; where the trailer was parked. Then we'd do the whole route all over again with the non-potable water supply. Plus fill the shower tanks. Then the truck was parked right behind the showers for a refill when needed. Needless to say this was regarded as most desirable duty! Of course when your out in the middle of no where you wont need the five ton with the water tank, but you will need drinking water.
Some details were worse that others, and some looked a lot worse than they were. We never hauled ammo on the road, and Service Battery did all that unless we were out in the field. You had to learn how to play the game.
The main thing about Vietnam was picking of a fungus or ring worm. Jungle rot was fairly common place. It was hard to stay clean unless you were stationed in the rear. Some places were so bad that they'd actually rotate five or six guys thru the batallion area just to get cleaned up. Batallion always knew in advance who was comming in and about what time they'd be there. That way the showers would be hot and clean clothes would be ready in the correct sizes. I remember once hitting the Battalion A.O. after dark with the showers dry, and Honneycutt leading the way. Be thinking pain and suffering!!!But the best part was Honneycutt's cleaned uniforms. They gave him a set with PFC stripes on them instead of First Sargents stripes. It was a very bad night for the REMF's (almost forgot the water tanker was empty as well).
gary
