STEAKS FOR DINNER

A reckless driver loses his load;
the "stars" lose their steaks

During my 2nd tour of Nam, I was located on FSB C2, right on the edge of the DMZ.  I was leaving DaNang and had the payroll with me to go pay the troops. As I was taking that long drive back to the base, a refrigerated truck driver nearly ran over me! The driver belatedly stopped and got out to see if I was OK.  I asked what he was carrying that needed that much urgency. He said it was steaks and roasts for the General Officers mess. We discussed me reporting him- with my pistol already drawn - for reckless driving in the main compound, causing me to be injured.....or him just walking away, as if he were looking for something in the road like an injured dog. He liked the latter idea.

I drove away with the truck and didn't stop until I was clear of the 24th Corps compound. An NCO who had accompanied me went back and retrieved our jeep. 

Back at C2, it took about 5 days for complaints to begin surfacing about the constant diet of red meat. Breakfast; lunch; dinner - something no one paid attention to before.  But, some of the more carnivorous men silenced those complaints immediately. After all, it was an extremely rare treat to be enjoying fantastic steaks in Nam.....let's just say "it was way beyond their pay grade".

submitted by
Lt Bert Landau

Back