Soldiers faced many challenges in Vietnam

A while back, I had written about how the 1st Infantry Division had got to Vietnam in 1965. We had gone over by troop ships, spread out from June to the latter part of August.

I went in August, we were 3,000 on the USNS Barrett naval ship. The trip took 21 days, with a stop in Guam to take on more water. With 3,000, water was in short supply, so we were just allowed one shower per week. 

Our ship then went dead in the water in the Philippine Islands due to motor problems, but that just lasted one day. As we approached Vung Tau, Vietnam, we could see helicopter gunships flying around, We wondered what we were getting into. Then we boarded landing craft, like they used in World War II. Lo and behold, when we hit the beach, instead of gunfire, there was a band playing tunes to welcome us to Vietnam.

We were then flown to an open field north of Saigon, where we set up tents in a temporary area. It was next to a main highway. The Viet Cong would drive by at night and shoot into our encampment. So everyone was jumpy. The second night there a company commander and his first sergeant were checking his perimeter, and something went wrong with the challenge and the password, and our own men on guard duty shot and killed both of them. 

There, we didn't have anything, no mess halls, no showers, no toilets. We had to dig a trench for a toilet. It was monsoon season, so when it rained, we would strip and shower. Then it would quit raining and leave us all soaped up! Our meals were World War II C-rations for I don't know how long.

Finally, we had a permanent camp in a young rubber plantation, northwest of Saigon. Still, we just had tents, still no showers. In fact, as to showers, someone devised a shower out of a 55-gallon drum, cold water, that is all I had for a year.

Finally, after about five or six weeks, we got a mess tent. We had been craving bread, and when some flour came in, it had weevils in it, but it was cooked any way, we just picked them out of the bread.

Roger Gregory served as a captain in the First Infantry Division in Vietnam. He is a native of Sandpoint. He is now a business owner in Priest River.