MUD! MUD! MUD!

We moved into an area that was soaked...MUD, MUD, MUD everywhere. We only stayed here two days. That was about all the track vehicles could take without getting buried up over the tracks. We only had two or three fire missions during this time. Every time the guns fired they sunk deeper into the MUD! Since I had been promoted to 1LT, I was made Officer in Charge (OIC) of Maintenance. Really what this meant was that I was Commander of the VTR. The VTR or Tracked Recovery Vehicle (the military has to mix up the letters to confuse the situation). What this meant was that I was in command (Husky 53) of the Rear of the convoys. It seems my whole career I would be associated with the rear end of many things. It was during this movement toward Nui Dat that I began to get a feeling for the way the Aussies and New Zealanders view their concept of combat and perhaps life, in general. That is "All's fair in love and war." I overheard one member of the 3rd Cav Regiment confide on the radio shortly after an engagement along the banks of a nearby river. "The most beautiful sight in the world is a "Zip" looking down the business end of your 50 cal."