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When I arrived in-country, that September, Service Battery was located near Bien Hoa, Alpha was at Bearcat, Charlie and HHQ were at Phouc Vinh and Bravo was heading north to Gia Linh on the DMZ, attached to the 2/94th Artillery. I believe I started out with Charlie Battery and eventually was assigned to Alpha Battery while they were briefly in Lai Kai in December of 1966. In January we (Alpha Battery) located to Quan Loi. Each firing battery had four, self-propelled, artillery pieces. Two were 8-inch howitzers with a range of 16 miles and two 175 mm guns with a range of 32 thousand meters (as I recall).

I spent several weeks in Phuoc Vinh becoming acquainted with the unit and was assigned the “new guy’s” role as the unit’s forward observer. I conducted countless aerial missions with Army pilots in two seat, fixed wing, single engine, L-19s. I quickly discovered that I was very susceptible to air sickness. I tried every thing to avoid being ill: no breakfast, lots of bread, no coffee, lots of coffee. Nothing relieved my problem and the pilots offered no mercy, flying in tight circles, diving suddenly to give us a better view of potential targets. They took great pains to avoid soiling their aircraft by banking sharply to permit me to discharge the content of my stomach well away from the fuselage.  Once I  got