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into our positions for the night—50% security—one Marine awake in every position. I established my position near the center of our perimeter—my platoon Sgt., radioman and myself dug our positions in close proximity to each other for communications’ purpose. I rested from time to time but checked on squad leaders and various positions throughout the night.
The platoon sergeants and squad leaders did the same. We were all tired—from the initial landing, the extreme heat ( 90-100 degrees ), the constant movement, the preparation of our positions and admittedly a little anxiety! The first night or two was pretty much like you would expect—a lot of false alarms—the troops were having to get used to noises they hadn’t heard before and on everyone’s mind was when Mr. VC would come calling on his new neighbors. The nights and days were hot and we tried to sleep when we could in between patrols to cover our assigned region and maintaining security at our position. The days were spent improving our positions, cleaning our weapons, eating our c-rations, drinking plenty of water that was helicoptered in five gal. ‘jerry’ cans. We literally ‘bathed’ out of our helmets—all you could do was pour a little water in the helmet shell and use a rag to wash off the best you could—same with shaving—which we required, even in the field when in a fixed position—the exception was extended patrols when shaving wasn’t required. The patrols were run during the daytime hours and were squad sized since we weren’t sure of the VC numbers and their activity at this point. The range of our
Sgt. Ingerson on point
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