The best meal from Uncle Sam

[John Peeff]

My best meal was around Thanksgiving of 68 somewhere on Hwy 20 in 3 Corps near the 2 Corps border. I was with an ARVN Cav troop guarding miles of road that was being repaired.It was a 2 week operation that stretched out to 45 with nothing but C rats and Vietnamese rice. I stopped a Vietnamese truck loaded with cabbages at gunpoint, he wasn't going to stop, and grabbed a cabbage. Got some vinegar in the nearby ville cut up the cabbage in my steel pot and had a cole slaw salad! I guess to most of you it doesn'tsound good but it was pure heaven! I still love cole slaw with oil/vinegar a little salt and pepper.

[Vern Humphrey]

No, our artillery was SP 155s, standard for mechanized units.

[John Peeff]

Vern, what ARVN unit/units in the 18th Div were you with? I was with them 67-68.

[Vern Humphrey]

Vern, what ARVN unit/units in the 18th Div were you with? I was with them 67-68.

Mostly 4/48 at Ap Dung Dap, Regimental HQ at Tan Yuen, and Division HQ at Xuan Loc.

[John Peeff]

I was with 3/48 at Tan Uyen Dec67-June 68 then the Div Recon Co out of Xuan Loc for 3 months and finally 2/5 Cav

[Vern Humphrey]

How about that? You got there about four or five months after I left. As I recall, 3/48 was in that old triangular French fort (at least when I was there.)

When I first got there, the division was the 10th, but people got to calling it "Numbah Ten!" and they changed the number to 18.

[John Peeff]

We had one company in the old French fort and the rest of the Bn was about a mile or two away Khanh Van(?) The French fort was overrun, I stepped on a booby-trapped 105mm shell there that initially didn't go off. During TET we got in a 2 day fight on the island across the Dong Nai river from the 48th Hq we had about 20 KIA as I remember but killed at least 50 NVA. One of the Air Force FACs has an excellent web site on Xuan Loc, he was stationed there from 66-68 . Look up "Xuan Loc Flying Association" on Google.

[Vern Humphrey]

We had one company in the old French fort and the rest of the Bn was about a mile or two away Khanh Van(?) The French fort was overrun, I stepped on a booby-trapped 105mm shell there that initially didn't go off. During TET we got in a 2 day fight on the island across the Dong Nai river from the 48th Hq we had about 20 KIA as I remember but killed at least 50 NVA. One of the Air Force FACs has an excellent web site on Xuan Loc, he was stationed there from 66-68 . Look up "Xuan Loc Flying Association" on Google.

Ah, yes, Khanh Van -- local VC headquarters. We operated with the 1st Infantry Division (US) there -- Operation Huntsville. We had a US platoon leader fall down a well there and was hung up aboutb 10 feet down by his PRC-25. We only found him when a radio operator wandered over that way close enough to accidentally pick up a signal.

I flew several times with the FACS when I was up at Division -- we played with peanut butter bombs.

[Doug Douglass]

1966 USCG Air Station mess hall, Floyd Bennet NAS NY, Friday fish frys, at least 6 types of fresh fish including crab and lobster for .45 cents.

[noslack 327]

I remember this one it was the best.

Best was the last. Just returned from Nam and going thru out-processing at Oakland. 2am, steak and french fries.