When I returned from R&R, my squad was sent to guard Bridge # 9 on QL-1..After a few weeks, and a shuffling of personel, we moved to Bridge 10. During an eventful night I became acquainted with the guys from two of the Battalion Recon teams. This proved to be of greater consequence than I knew at the time. Below are photos of two little girls from the ville near Bravo Nine, Lei on the left and Lin on the right. They used to make us coffee, clean the bunker and generally wait on us for a few spare C-ration meals.

Two photos of me from Jan. 1970, (above) Holding my M2A1 Carbine on Bravo 9. (below) Inside the bunker on Bravo 10.

"Bravo Niners" helped us deal with the BS...They weren't as big as "Bong Son Bombers", but were stronger and tasted better!

Waiting for a flight to Cam Ranh Bay, May 1970.

For the last few weeks of my 1st tour I was in charge of "the illumination gun", an 81 mm mortar, on LZ English. This was an assignment for short timers and it was pretty "cush" duty. My two R&R buddies, Jim Guilliams and Dick Dreher, who had both been humping with line companies for the last couple of months were assigned as my squad. We had to be ready to fire the mortar at night , and we were, but during the day we were pretty much on our own. Needless to say we took advantage of the situation and partied our asses off during the day! DEROS, the big day, came unexpectedly. I got an early out and went home on 2 May 1970.