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Poge 12-Port Angeles Evening News, Thursday, December 7, 1967First of series 1 ■*«■- 1 1~' 1 ■ll'- ll- -Letters from VietnamFresh from a year of combat in Vietnam, during which he managed to send diary-type letters home, Capt. Greg Williams will be reunited with his family at Neah Bay this weekend.His wife, Christine, has saved his letters, reproduced them In four mimeographed chapters, and semis them to their friends. The letters give an insight into the strange war as only the pro* fessional soldier on the spot can tell it.Mrs. Williams and their two-year-old son, Thomas, have been staying with her mother, Mrs. Mary Bussanich, while the husband and father has been overseas. She has kept busy by sub. sHlutp teaching in the Neah Bay elementary school.Williams is due home this week and his wife is in Seattle awaiting him. They’ll be in Neah Bay on the weekend. After his l^yve, ho Is to be stationed at Fort Lewis.He wont overseas a year ago this month with an advance part of the 39th Division, which followed aboard ship. Attached to an engineer battalion at first, hp helped set up the division's camp area, then went into line duty as a company commander.Here are excerpts from his letters home;Kien, Vietnam. Rach Kien Is a nice, quiet, peaceful Viet CongDec. 2f — Had quite a holi-day yesterday — worked all day. It has rained every day, but yes. terday e'per ten red our first real good mnnsoon-type downpour which lasted about an hou'*. Then, as usual, the sun promptly came out.Jan. 2 The battalion ar. rived yesterday. Don’t worry about what I wrote on the 30th — we had one hell of a fire fight but it was all one-sided. An animal or something set off a mine and the people on the perimeter got Jumpy and started firing everything they had. There was absolutely nothing out there to shoot at. We have not had a single round come into the lt;amp since ?'ve been here, ex. cept two days ago a lone snip, er took a couple shots at Major Walker and myself. They were not close, and after the first one, we were so close to theground that I looked up and was looking at an ant's knees.bathtubs, being in the field. Actually, despite the rich living conditions, it is an important ope ration. We are attempting to secure an area that has been under complete Viet Cong control.The village has a population of about 1,400 with about five people on our side. The rest have been giving support to Charlie in one form or another. Most give support out of fear, and it is hard to stop them because Charlie has been here so long. They are afraid we will leave and the V.c. will come back and hit them harder than be. fore.Today is payday for the vil-lagers who work on the surrounding rubber plantations.Many are trying to sneak out of town to the jungle and pay Charlie the ta’ he has been taking, 50 per cent of all earnings. We have road blocks and check points all around town, stopping as many as possible. This will undoubtedly make Charlie very mad.Feb. 2 — In jungle fighting, one needs the time to thoroughly search your objective areas and destroy all of Charlie's umnels, bunkers, etc. On one operation we uncovered a very large bunker and tunnel com-plpv, but because we had to meet a time schedule going from point to point, we had to leave it almost untouched. I'm surei n i m ^ i 11.1 .1____stronghold. We are completely cut off from other areas except by air orheavllyarmed convoys. Been here for four days and so far it has been quiet.We only occupy part of Rach Kien. We patrol the rest during the day, and have listening posts and ambush patrols around it at night. But, I still think Charlie comes in and out, because the road coming into town from the highway was mined today, we found the mine field before my convoy got to 11, and cleared it in a couple of hours.It's a stinking kind of war down here. Gone are the jungles with their undergrowth — in-stead there are nothing but rice paddles, with a few scattered clumps of trees. Some patrols spend their entire time in paddies up to their waist and higher. When they get back to camp,feet can dry.Feb. 23 — Had quite an experience this morning when we went into the part of this village ofRach Kien that we do not occupy. Went with our Medcap Team, which is our Medics, We send them out two or three times a week to villages and hamlets to treat the local people. Today we also flew the divisionbandinand had a «musical. ’ It was a religious holy day here and the village chief asked us to bring the band right into the pagoda, which we did, after playing awhile at the Med cap area.After the concert the village chief asked us to stay and take part in the ceremony and have lunch. Captain Cramer, Lt. Davis and I stayed. Had quite a time.Don't know what our church officials would think of sitting down in front of the altar and having a couple beers/ but that Is what they gave us. After a half hour the ceremony started.We all stood and moved the chairs back; then a couple of boys came in with the Buddhist priests. The boys took turns chanting, with a lot of prompt, ing from one of the priests. Then, between one and three men came forward at a time and went through a ritual of offering in-cense; during all this time someone was beating on prayer drums and a large gong in another room of the pagoda.After this ritual had been re. peated several times, the priest ofrered each of us an incense stkk. We had watchedtheothersorigin. Everything I ate wassurprisingly tasty, especiallythe three raw duck livers. Dessert was a rice candy, something like rice pudding, and cookies.The only utensils were chopsticks, and you know how absolutely grn ceful lam with some-thing like that. Captain Cramer and I were sitting on either side of the village chief and he Insisted on always refilling our bowls.With the meal out of the way, out came tea and fire whisky. Boy, what stuff! Yon can feel it burning your throat while it is still being poured out of the bottle.Several toasts were exchanged; in fact, one v/as made by e-eryone present however,thankfully, their custom Is that only the person making the toast drinks; everyone else applauds. The applause, I think, is not so much for what you have said, but to congratulate you for being able to drink the damn stuff.The village chief had the toast just before me and said he hoped we would kill many Viet Cong. Well, being that probably half of the men in the room were Viet Cong, I said that we would be glad to but we hoped the Viet Cong would come over to the government's side and live as peaceful citizens.All in all, I think the day was quite a success. The people seemed to be very pleased that we would take part In their ceremonies.March 12 — General Westmoreland has been here and gone. Spent 45 minutes with him, first in a briefing, then a short tour of Rach Kien (the part we occupy). He leaves no doubt as to what he expects and wants done, and continuously interrupted the briefing with questions and comments.April 7 — Been real busy. Changed jobs finally. Am now' out of the headquarters company and XO (assistant com. pany commander) of Echo Company (E CO.). Am getting my replacement oriented, a senior captain who has never worked in logistics before.My first day in E Company I had to answer a congressional inquiry, work on a hardship discharge, a compassionage transfer, and write two sympathy let. ters to next of kin. The last should really be done by the C.O. but he did not get abound to it all day, so I did them up for his signature.Received your's and mom’s surprise. Great ideal Hope I don't lose it. Most of the guys can’t believe It when they see me pull it out after eating.EDITOR'S NOTE: Greg requested toothpicks, which we sent. However, these are used up quickly, so, we had a gold toothpick made, engraved with his name, and encased in leather. Should last him awhile.(Editor’s Note: Letters from Vietnam will be continued Friday.)Band borrowedJan. 20 — We are in the field — If you can call living and working in a French villa with lights, running water andwe have them wear shower tongs, Instead of boots, so that their
Newspaper Details
Port Angeles Evening News
Port Angeles, Washington, US
Thu, Dec 07, 1967
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Cindy C.
WA, USA 27 Jul 2021
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