Article 4

Arrival at D Company, 40th Signal Battalion, Qui Nhon

Upon our evening arrival I was picked up along with the other replacements at the Qui Nhon airport moved to the company area. We were shown our temporary bunks and stowed our gear. Mike Massey, Bob Carpenter, and I went over to the EM club to get something to drink. The place had nothing to eat and of course the chow hall was closed. Back to the billets and for some much needed rest. Of course we had no mosquito nets.

The following day we in-processed the company and were assigned permanent bunks with our respective platoons. We were pole line construction and the following day I worked the pole line for half a day. Before going back to work the line after noon chow Mike Massey and I were called to the orderly room to see the operations sergeant. He offered us cable splicing school in Long Binh. We had not been in Qui Nhon for 3 days and its back to Long Binh for 3 weeks of in country cable splicing school.

Nothing eventful happened. What I do remember was that you had to be an E-6 or above to use the ice machine in the mess hall. In other words you could get ice tea for without the ice. This was one of my first indicators of the poor leadership that I would experience over the coming months in this outfit... This ice problem was later corrected with the help of the inspector general and some disgruntled troops. I also remember trying to get a mosquito net. Our platoon sergeant tells us to go to the supply room and of course the supply room has no nets. We were told to get one off someone rotating home. Of my 33 months in Vietnam I never received a net from supply. I don’t ever remember receiving much of anything from company supply. Anyway it's off to Long Binh.