Rainy Season Mud on a Fire Base

Vietnam during the rainy season could become a mud pit dependent on where you were.

Both snapshots were taken on a firebase in July, about midway through the rainy season.  You can see how thick and heavy the mud was.  It had the consistency of wet cement.  When I walked through it, my boots would become coated with a layer of mud.  If I wasn't careful when stepping forward, especially if the laces on my boots were not tightly tied, I risked stepping right out of my boot and leaving it behind.  The ooze was like a magnet.  It was so bad, we built crude roads from logs as you can see in the picture below so small vehicles would not get stuck in the mud.

During the rainy season, mud was always a problem on a fire base.  Fire bases were built by pushing all vegetation from the center outward exposing the earth below the grasses.  I don't know what it was about that earth that made it so different.  It had a lot of clay in I think.  During the transition between the dry and rainy seasons the earth was at its best.  Not to wet and not to dry.  When overly dry it was like talcum powder.  But when overly wet on a firebase, it was a viscous, sticky mess.

Walking through the jungle, by the way, was fine during the rainy season.  Mud was not an issue out there.  Sure we were soaked a lot and had trouble drying our clothes when in the jungle.  But the grasses that made up the jungle floor was so thick and dense that even though water passed readily through it, our jungle boots did not.

Not having to deal with mud in the jungle may be the only good thing I ever said about being out there.







It was nasty stuff.