8 The Company Sign

I think I took this picture in November 1970 when we were all hanging out in the company area at Cu Chi waiting for orders to come down. That's Randy Gilstrap on the left, Mike McCain in the middle, and Mike Golden on the right. We were on our way over to the pool - see the towels? I think Mike Golden got to go home because he only had something like a month to go. Randy might have gone over to the 1st Cav. Mike McCain and I got orders to head up north to the Americal. I still remember that plane ride. We were waiting at the airport for hours - finally a C130 (I think?) landed and dropped its back gate so we could board. To my surprise there were no seats! We were told to 'squash in' and remain standing next to our duffel bags. When everyone was in, we were told to sit and relax! What a miserable flight - we flew through monsoon rains, and I always thought that the plane was leaking (because I was getting wet), but it was probably condensation or something? We did land safe in Chu Lai.