Cambodia Replacements

This snapshot was taken on a firebase in August, 1970.  There are five faces in this picture and the only name I know for sure is the guy on the right, Larry Hodge.  Larry was a ganja smoking buddy of mine.

The guy second in from the left is Michael Smith I believe.  I remember he was pulled into the Army soon after graduating from college.  He had been working as a teacher.  Mike was one of those older draftees.  Most of us were in our late teens or early twenties.  Mike had to be 25 or 26 years old; really old.  The names of the others I'm just not sure about.

What I do remember about all of them is they were replacements that joined us soon after the Cambodian Incursion.  We lost about half of our Company there.  When these guys arrived, I was one of the few remaining veterans in our platoon that had been through heavy fighting.  The rest were gone, either wounded, killed or had simply gone home because their tour was up.  Fighting had wound down to the point where it was almost non-existent.  And that is why in my eyes, I see an innocence in there faces that was long gone mine.

I was there squad leader and by the looks of them, we were getting ready to go out on patrol.  None of them have a pack on their back so we were not heading out overnight anywhere.  Those are smoke grenades strapped in front of Larry's waist.  We all carried smoke grenades to mark our location if necessary for helicopters, airplanes and jets.  Draped over both Larry and Mike's shoulders are 200 rounds of linked, M60 machine gun ammunition.  We all had to carry 200 rounds for the machine gunner.  Over the shoulders of the  two guys in the middle are bandoleers of M16 ammunition.  Everyone that carried an M16 had to carry twenty, eighteen round clips.

It was a sunny day and dry season had returned.  A good day for a walk in the jungle.