Rick Holt's Adventures in Vietnam
Letters Home from Vietnam, 1971

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Long Thanh North
September 30, 1971
Thursday
8:30 am

Dear Folks,

Sorry, no letter for the 29th. Had tower guard yesterday morning from six am to 12. I came back here to get some rest and at about 2 pm Sylvester came in the room and told me to get ready to fly.

I took off at 6:30 pm for Nui Ba Den, a big hill near the Cambodian border near Tay Ninh. I flew till about 10:30 pm when the next ship replaced us on station. We got back here about 11 pm. I laid down thinking I would be able to sleep all morning. But at 2 am a guy from operations came in to ask if I knew where Claybough was. I told the guy where to find him and went back to sleep. At 2:20 am he came back and said Claybough wasn't in his room and that I would have to fly for him. I found out this morning that Claybough was on guard last night. So I flew again at 2:30 am and got back here about 7 am.

In spite of all that, I had a happy birthday. Missed the steak dinner but I really don't care about that. I don't like steak that much anyway. Too much trouble to eat. I'll take a nice easy to chew hamburger any day.

Well, today is payday, finally. I haven't had any money to spend for the last week or so, but down here there isn't that much to spend it on anyway. Hope I'm not flying when the paymaster gets here. I'd hate to miss getting paid again. It will be hard to get a ride to Long Binh until after the elections are over.

That's about it. Hope you got the pictures I sent yesterday morning.

Rick

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