Dancing-with-Baptists-Createspace-Final--A4

DANCING WITH BAPTISTS
CHAPTER 3
Camp Dong Tam, Mekong Delta,
South Vietnam
February 23, 1967
Greg and shirtless, cross-less Chap got back to Dong Tam just in time for 4 a.m.
breakfast mess. Chap and Greg each went to their quarters, got cleaned up, and met back at
0415 hours.
Camp Dong Tam was brand new. Only months
earlier the area was inundated with Mekong rice paddies. Now the silt and sand pumped off
the bottom of the
Song River over-filled enough rice patties to create a 600 acre muddy camp. General
Westmoreland, commander of all U.S. military operations, said Dong Tam was a place where
you could be up to your knees in mud and have sand blow in your eyes. But he had placed
Dong Tam there with a purpose. First, it was to be headquarters for the almost 20,000
troops of the 9 th Infantry Division. Second, it was to make a clear statement.
The Mekong Delta of South Vietnam was the operational base for a large division of
Viet Cong Việt
Nam Cộng-sản (a contraction for Vietnamese Communists). Westmoreland chose the location
as a strong message to say to the communists, “We are here in the Mekong and we are here
to stay.” _________________
Greg arrived starving at the mess hall. It appeared he had beaten Chap there. The
Buckinghams’ hit “Kind of a Drag” was playing on “Dawn Buster”, an Armed Forces Radio
Network program. The show still opened with “Gooooooooooooood Morning Vietnam!”
even though the Air Force Sergeant who coined the opening, Adrian Cronauer, had ended his
tour of duty months earlier.
Greg grabbed a tray and started down the line. Even at breakfast, a Himalayan-sized pile
of rice was on line for all the local troops that would eat there. Greg pushed his tray to the
eggs, bacon, hash browns, milk, and more section. With a loaded tray he started to navigate
the tables filled with too-tired, too-sleepy, toohomesick soldiers who had no interest in
unknown company.
Then Greg spotted Chap stepping into the line. Greg stood and waited and soon the two
crossed to the empty end of a just policed folding table. They had only been seated for a
minute when Chap said to Sgt. Franklin, “Come sit with us.” Oh great, Greg thought.
Greg had gotten to Dong Tam only a few days before Franklin arrived. They were both
the same rank. Franklin was a good surgical tech. He was a “never” guy. Never missed, never
late, never joked, never smiled. However, one “never” Greg would have appreciated was
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