- B O R I N
G! This war is damned boring! I called, after several connections, the
OPO folks at the Pentagon, asking where my next assignment would be. The
assignment officer said he had no notice of my DEROS, and I kinda blew
my stack at him, saying the damn well sent me to Nam, and they could God
Dammed well bring me back, and that I wanted to know where. I pointed out
all the other engineer officers I lived with (actually only two) had their
damn orders three months ahead of time - then I said something that maybe
OPO took better care of the fucking ring knockers (West Point graduates)
than they did us Christmas help (reservists on extended active duty). He
said that was no way for an officer to talk, and I asked, "What you gonna
do, send me to Vietnam?"
Son of a Bitch, he put a colonel on the line who asked what my problem was, and I said I was due to come home in 53 days, and I wanted to know where I was going and that OPO had apparently forgotten about me. He apologized to me, and said I should hear something official in about two weeks (slow mail to your location, you know). Then he offered up Leonard Mud in Missouri, Fort Polk, Fort Benning, or Fort Belvoir. I said I would prefer to go to California, but definitely not the South, and Ft Belvoir would be O K.
Other than that, this is just another in a string of really boring days.
Every day I call the division advisory team S-1, and ask him if he has found out what I am to do with SSG Bell's stuff, and when I would be getting, not only a replacement for him, but for me, too! He, too, sez he didn't know I was getting short! FNG! Everyone down in Bac Lieu that was there when I arrived in January is gone! And these FNG's think we all have as long to go in-country as they do.
When I had Prumven drive me back to the MACV House after work, we ran into four or five of the maids leaving, and they all pointed to me, jabbering something or other. This pissed me off, and I tried to get Prumven to tell me what they were saying, but all he could say was Dai Uy Number 10! So, back to the battalion, where I found SSG Phong, my interpreter, and asked him to ask Prumven what the maids were saying. Since my calls had been made from the hooch, and my maid heard me get mad, she was telling the others about it, and they were calling me the Big Mad Dai Uy! I asked Phong what Dai Uy Number 10 was about from Prumven, and he said it was him trying to say that the maids were talking about me!
Joel, the only one of my original roommates left, told me at the chow hall that he had received a letter from our friend Dave Zenter, who had extended for six months in March, and now was R&R officer in Sidney, that he was recommending we stay at a little hotel in Coogee Beach when we went on R&R in four weeks. I said, beech, beer, Australia, all sounded good, and to write Dave back that it was fine. Joel agreed.
I am looking forward to the R&R. The next milestone of this stupid year. Four weeks to Sidney, a week there, two weeks back here, a week processing out in Saigon (shudder), and on to that Freedom Bird! God! It seems like a long time.
ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: There is absolutely nothing to write about for several weeks. It was the same shit, day after day after day after day!
