Saturday July 3,1971 started out hot and humid like it always was in Quang Tri. There are no weekends in a war zone, so it was a day like any other except that I was outprocessing from the 1st Brigade, 5th Inf Division (Mech). My DEROS (Date of Estimated Return from Overseas Service), the most revered lingo in the U.S. Army, was only a day or so away. I turned in my steel pot, flak jacket, and .45 pistol. I gave my trusty M-1 Carbine which I really liked, but was on no unit's inventory, to a friend.

It wouldn't be the Army if there wasn't a ton of paperwork to fill out. The day before I had choppered down to Da Nang to be "debriefed. That was a catch all term meaning I signed more paperwork relating to my high level security clearance (Top Secret with cryptographic and Signal Intelligence access). Basically, I had to promise I would not give away any secrets. OK, whatever you guys want. I just want to go home. I finished my outprocessing back at Quang Tri, packed up my few possessions, and was ready to go. That night I went to the so called Officers' Club which was really just a big bunker, but it had booze and a bartender. I bought everyone there a round of drinks, said some good-bys, and went back to my SEA hut to go to sleep. I had it better than many soldiers. A SEA (South East Asia) hut has a concrete floor and one sheet of plywood from the ground up. It was then screened in from the top of the plywood to the roof. It is shared by 6-8 officers. I went to sleep.