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Bravo Company’s Barbecues
In late December 1967, we started examining options aimed
at improving our lot in Bravo Company, commonly referred to in military
jargon “as taking care of the troops”. Another factor highlighting the
difference between combat and support soldiers in Vietnam was access to
facilities considered essential for morale purposes. Most support soldiers
had access to a variety of facilities that were not readily available to
combat troopers, such as, Post Exchange outlets, movies, clubs, cafeterias,
libraries, sports facilities, etc. Our mission not only limited our access
to these facilities to the R&R leave periods, but also restricted our
options on what we could do to improve our lot. One thing was very clear, it
was up to us to take the initiative and after much speculation, we decided
on a series of super deluxe barbeques for the whole company and this
involved the fine art of “scrounging”. Scrounging probably dates back to the early days of the Army and it has always been a well-known and accepted phenomenon in wartime. In short, when your unit desperately needed something that was unauthorized or unavailable, you either did without or you tried to scrounge it. Needless to say, a super deluxe barbecue for 160 troopers was not available through “normal” supply channels and this is how we procured the necessary provisions. The first step was to select a suitable project manager and our Sergeant X had all the special qualifications required for these scrounging missions where discretion and an ability to make contact with the right sources were absolutely essential. For a successful scrounging expedition, you usually had to have something worthwhile to barter with and we had a huge supply of a very scarce product that every soldier in Vietnam longed-for - - a Czech Mauser rifle that could be taken back to the States as a trophy weapon because it was bolt-action and not automatic. Bravo Company always had a small supply of captured Mausers on hand, but this supply became abundant when we captured approximately 1,000 Mauser rifles in excellent condition. As a matter of fact, the metal parts of these captured weapons were still covered in preserving grease and each weapon was equipped with an attached swivel bayonet. ONE
OF OUR CAPTURED RIFLES (MN K44) FROM THE A SHAU VALLEY OPERATION
We all thoroughly enjoyed these company
barbecues and they were excellent moral boosters. In conjunction with the
super deluxe barbecue initiative, we also discovered that we had lot of
money in what was called the Unit Fund. A portion of the profits from Post
Exchanges was deposited in a special account for each unit, and these funds
were strictly controlled by a unit council and with detailed records on
decisions, disbursements, etc. In peacetime, these funds are used to
purchase items for the benefit of the troops, like furniture for a common
dayroom, but it was difficult to find items that would be beneficial to
troops in a war zone. As none of the money in the Unit Fund had been spent
since the summer of 1965, we had a considerable sum available. After much
speculation, we decided on purchasing several cameras that troopers going on
R&R could borrow. We also used the fund to pay the cost of making copies of
the platoon and company photos for each trooper. Other major purchases
included a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a stereo record player with a
large selection of popular records, and we made extensive use of these
during our company barbecues and when securing firebases.
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