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Chapter 19
Goodbye Qui Nhon—Hello Chu Lai
Oct 1965 was a transition month—our daily operations didn’t change much but some of our conditions improved as we were rotated back to hot showers, hot chow and more comfortable living conditions more often than mid Summer. We learned that our Company Commander, Capt. Fred Tolleson had been transferred and that Capt. Lee ( the battalion S-4 ) would be replacing him on or about 15 Oct. This was a sudden and mysterious turn of events.16 @ The change in command meant that E Company would have a different CO for the first time since the unit was re formed in Aug. 1964 at Camp Las Pulgas, Camp Pendleton Cal.. Tolleson had been our CO for over 14 months —his departure was never explained. Capt. Lee took over command with the help of our XO, 1st Lt. John Clancy who had been with our Company since May 1965. There was no noticeable change in our routine operations. Capt. Lee was a likable Marine Officer and conducted himself in a reasonable, professional manner. He respected the experienced troops of which he was now the Commander of. This was an ‘ironic’ situation since Capt. Lee had been an adversary of Capt. Tolleson since the Battalion had formed in Aug. 1964 ( Lee referred to this in his book 17@ ) The transition of Company Commanders produced little disruption in our daily operations. We continued to run squad and platoon patrols in our TAOR and we
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