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

Return to my Vietnam page
Return to my Vietnam Letters page
Return to my Home page


Da Nang
April 26, 1971
Monday
9 pm

Dear Folks,

I was supposed to fly tonight but as usual it was cancelled again. Word has it that we're going back down south Wednesday.

Had another rocket attack last night. Three big booms. By that second boom I was already under my bed. Had a little trouble getting there. These bunks are so close together. The siren didn't go off till after it was over. They all hit close by but none inside the compound as far as I know. That was about 3 am in the morning. The siren went off again about 3:30 am but I didn't hear any incoming. We were on a yellow alert last night. Supposed to be on yellow alert  for about 9 days.

There was a band last night. When we found out the mission was cancelled last night I went to the RPI to watch it. Didn't stay too long. Came back to guard my bed. There are more people than there are beds. When I came in this afternoon I found my bed bunked on top of Seacords. They squeezed a few more bunks in here while I was gone. Have to make a deal with Seacord where I can sleep on the bottom bunk to get full benefit of my fan. Also have to make a deal so he doesn't step on me if we have a rocket attack tonight. Make sure we hit the floor on opposite sides of the bed.

Managed to squeeze quite a bit of activity into this one day. Went to the PX at Gunfighter Village this morning and bought this writing paper and some Vienna sausage. About 1 pm Kelm, Seacord and I took off for China Beach. Stopped at the China Beach PX and bought a beach towel or what I thought was a beach towel. Turned out it was just two bath towels. Also got a mirror. From the PX we went to the USO for a while. Had a hot dog and coke there and then headed for the beach. Stayed on the beach for about two hours just laying in the sun. Never did go in the water. Went to the snack bar at the R&R center and had a coke. That place is for R&R personnel only but they usually don't say anything. They asked us once if we had R&R orders. We just told them we didn't have any orders with us since we were in our bathing suits and they didn't bother us any more. We left the beach about 3:30 pm and caught a bus back home.

At six o'clock we went to see the movie "You can't win em all" at the main Air Force compound.

And that brings us to right now. I'm sitting here writing on a new pad of paper. Can't get use to the paper with no lines on it. Had to find a sheet with lines on it to use as a guide.

The old mamma-son was glad to see us come back. She shook our hands and jumped up and down. I heard she sat here crying the day we left last time. According to the latest word we'll be running out on her again.

Time now for a shower. The water was turned off all day. They were fixing the sinks. The RPI was closed today for inventory so I'm drinking warm coke that I got from the pizza window at the NCO lounge. Signing off now for a Vienna sausage and a drink of warm coke. Ah, delish!

Rick

(read the next letter home)