Tuesday, October 22, 1968
We were looking forward to the gun crews returning to Hill 65. The perimeter watch was stretched thin while they were gone, and the extra 50 Marines would make things a little easier. Having the Gunny back would boost morale. He had a special style of leadership (we missed his friendly sarcasm).
Sumo managed to hitch a ride to Da Nang in a Jeep, riding shotgun so I would be cooking alone for 400 at dinner. Reb said he would cut his sleep short to assist me, but I never woke him up. Spanish meatballs over rice was an easy meal to prepare, and it was accompanied with steamed cabbage. As it turned out, Sumo was back in time for the evening meal and added another choice — hand-cut fried onion rings.
India Company returned to full strength on Hill 65 and was reinforced with a weapons platoon of four deuce mortars. Lieutenant Handley brought in a thermal container for coffee. Tink had lifted it off a truck which was heading back to Hill 37. Handley asked me to remove the TAC marks on it and repaint it with Kilo 4/11 saying, “Wasn’t it you who said, Beg, Borrow or Steal?” * This was the way things worked in forward areas.
The bad news was: The bridge on Highway 4 at CAP 2-2-4 was washed out, and our guns were stranded on Hill 52 until the engineers could repair it. Hopefully, there would only be a short delay.
* See previous blog, “Supply Requests Filled” October 7, 1968
