well the title says it all folks!

I was setting here thinking about my 1968 Christmas out at Thien Phouc awhile ago. It was cool with a light rain during the Christmas truce. We had the typical turkey loaves and actually got two whole turkeys to boot. The mess sargent was at onetime the head Nato Chef, till they decided to punish him for telling them he wanted out of the Army! He made a candy glaze for the turkeys. One red and one green. He made his own rolls and we had the usual fixings to go along with it. The colonel flew out and had dinner with us, and promptly offered the mess sargent the batallion mess sargent's position back in the rear. He basicly took it as a slap in the face and told him he would stay with his family. In otherwords thanks, but no thanks!

Little did we know that over the next 90 days several of us would not be there to share a beer with. The first sargent personally gathered up a huge pile of outgoing mail, and handed it over to the sargent major. They then went around with the Colonel and personally wished each and every man a merry Christmas.

At 12 minutes past midnight it was business as usual. Starting out by lighting up the southern half of the Hiep Duc Ridge with 155 HE and WP. On the 26th I flew out on an OP, and was only back long enough to get ready to head back home.
glt

Have a great one, Gary, & a super new year, too!
All the best, mate.

Joe.

you been OK? Have not seen a post from you in awhile. I'm getting back to work on my M102 diorama after some revisions. The grand idea of doing it with three howitzers was a but due to size alone!(about 48" in diameter!). So it will be a one gun segment of a three gun battery (want to keep it under 16").

Kinda locked down right now due to all this snow on the ground. But hope to be weaving landing nets tonight or tomorrow. Brother inlaw is going to make me a mold to cast 105 shell cases in lots of of 24 each. Then it's onto making ammo boxes (I figure I need at least a hundred). The howitzer is the easy part!
gary