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Chapter 10
Beauty and the Beast
Viet Nam was a beautiful Country. It was stark in it’s contrasts. The flat lands, the rice paddies, the shoreline villages contrasted with the rapidly rising high country, the dense jungle growth and the high jungle canopy—the steep mountain terrain. The greens were very green and the blue water was very blue. I could see myself enjoying living there—- The simple, ageless villages and hamlets were picturesque—the Vietnamese people were hearty, simple, hard working, family oriented folks who were simply trying to get along the best they could. Many did not understand what the war was all about—why Americans were tramping thru their villages, ransacking their humble shacks and destroying their rice harvests and frightening the children. Marines from the first platoon, Echo Company, 2nd. Bn., 7th. Marines carried out our missions to destroy any
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