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From: Bill Grohoski, Can Tho Tropo
Date: 2/24/2004
Time: 11:02:01 AM
Remote Name: 129.29.227.2
We lived in the 69th Villa, a/k/a CHEAP CHARLIE'S HOTEL, near, but across the street from the MP compound. It was almost directly across the street from TAJ the Tailor, an Indian. Stench? Well just outside the window of our sleeping room was a pig stye, complete with pigs and about two feet deep in beer cans. The room temperature would drop to as low as 96 degees F. just before sunup. Stench? What Stench? I think the pigs complained about the stench coming out of our window... Our detachment was in CHEAP CHARLIE'S from Aug '67 til about Thanksgiving when we got into the jungle barracks built on the airfield. (Plenty of time to get settled in before they started to mortar them during TET.) Remember sitting on the second floor landing of the jungle barracks watching an AC-47 make lazy left had circles about sunset one day, BOOOOOP, the foghorn would follow the pouring of molten metal out the side of the gunship and somebody from downstairs yelled that COMBAT was on AFTVS. One of the guys had a B&W 12 inch set that would pick up a fuzzy picture from Saigon. Everyone but myself and another G.I. rand downstairs to watch. We stayed, drinking warm beer, watching the tracers, listening to the "foghorn" and wondering why anyone would give up seeing this real, live, live bullets and all to watch a re-run of some actors on TV. What Stench????