R AND R

R and R?
I was first offered R&R during the summer of 1966. I had been letting my pay "ride on the books" just for such an occasion and leaped at the chance to get out of the air, get out of the dust, and get away from all the noise, confusion, and madness. There were about 12 of us eligible to go at this particular time and we had just two choices of destination - Taipei or Australia. I had never been in an Asian country before, except Vietnam, so I and about 5 others picked Taipei. My head was full of questions - what do I wear? How much money should I take? What do things cost there? The Marines had already solved the "what do I wear" question. We all had khaki uniforms in country so that's what we wore. I decided to take the entire seven hundred dollars in my pay account, so the "what do things cost" question became a moot point. I was looking forward to those 5 days as eagerly as any kid looks forward to his high-school prom. Five days to just do whatever caught my fancy! No night-time sapper squads to deal with, no birds to fix, no howling sirens going off, no rockets or mortars to lullaby me to sleep, and especially good for me - no C.O.

On the Way

We were choppered down to DaNang where we formed up with everybody else going to Taipei. The Army SSgt that met us tried desperately to keep some semblance of order as he read names, checked lists, held roll-call and checked more lists. After we quit giggling and quieted down some, he gave us a little speech about Taipei, some Chinese customs, the exchange rate (it was 40NT to the dollar..40NewTaiwan dollars to each US dollar.....I did some math and figured I had 28,000 dollars to spend.) We also got the inevitable speech about VD. Soon we were herded to the terminal to wait for our flight.

It seemed like we spent hours on those benches, each of us with our bags with change of clothes, toiletries, etc, at our feet. Most of us were lost in our own thoughts, I guess, because there really wasn't much talking or laughing as we waited. I, for example, remember wondering if I cleaned my weapon good enough before I left and whether I locked my home-made footlocker. Left over boot-camp training, I suppose. Soon a loudspeaker informed us that flight number so-and-so was ready for us to board. I remember being so amazed that civilian passenger planes were actually flying in and out of a war zone and I was equally amazed that the pilots and crew were civilians. It all seemed (and still does seem) so absurd. We all strolled out onto the ramp and boarded the plane. We were greeted by a smiling stewardess and shown to our seats. Once aboard, another SSgt came on and took another roll-call and handed each of us our orders as we answered up.

Taipei

The flight to Taipei seemed pretty short. I don't have any idea how long it actually took. I remember the stewardess, though. They all looked so pretty and fresh in their crisp uniforms. Everyone of them took our teasing, remarks, and sometimes crudeness, in stride. I don't remember being served any food or alcohol, but I do remember the little chilled towels they passed out. Arriving in Taipei, we were met by yet another Army Sgt who took ANOTHER roll-call, gave us another VD talk, told us when and where we were to be on such-and-such a date, herded us to a currency exchange booth, and turned us loose. I and three friends caught a cab and told the driver "New American Hotel", which had been previously recommended to us by one of the roll-call sergeants. The ride to the hotel cost us something like 20NT which was 50 cents.

When we checked in, I got a room for myself, and my buddies decided to share one. As soon as I got into my room, I stripped myself naked and piled my dirty khakis on the floor. The next thing was to call the desk and order two quarts of cold beer. I hadn't had a cold beer in months. The beer and pop we got back in-country was always warm, it seemed. We even got warm kool-aid at the mess. I put some money on the nightstand for the beer and ran myself a tub FULL of warm water and just settled in for a nice soak. I remember thinking how all the grit and grime and smell was just dissolving off my body in layer after layer. Soon there was a peck at the door, and I said "Come in". It was a waiter with the beer. I told him to bring it in the bathroom and that the money was on the nightstand. He actually BACKED into the bathroom so he wouldn't see my nudity. I remember sitting there, feeling like a king, in the tub of water and slowly drinking that cold beer.

In the City

It wasn't long before my buddies were pounding on the door, anxious to hit the "ville". I told all three of them to go ahead without me because I wanted to clean up real good and get something to eat at the hotel restaurant. After another half-hour or so, I was dressed in clean khaki's and ready to order food in the restaurant. I was very surprised to see my friends waiting for me. We ended up in the hotel bar and never did get to the ville that night. I didn't get drunk. I didn't want to mess around with bar-girls and I couldn't sleep, either. I knocked on my friends' door sometime in the middle of the night and found them there. They, too, couldn't sleep. We ordered up a few more beers and sat around for the next few hours talking about- you guessed it--Vietnam. We talked about things that had happened, and the guys that couldn't come with us. We joked about some of the pilots, and we talked about the stewardesses on the plane. Looking back, as I often do, it was almost like we were homesick. It was as if, after looking so forward to this R&R, we didn't really know what to do now that we were here.

Heading Back

Well, we finally slept a little and we spent most of the next day bar-hopping and eating. We took cab rides around the city and we tried to put Vietnam away for those few days. The nights were the worst, though. A few days just wasn't enough time to get it together enough to actually enjoy our freedom. It was like we were out of synch. At least that's the way it felt to me. Can you imagine? I think I was bored with the whole thing. I didn't want to go back, but I didn't particularly enjoy my time away, either. Maybe it was shock. The shock of going from sand, extreme heat, walkways made of pallets, tents and hooches, so-so food, the sounds of combat, to all the luxuries we could want.

In Taipei were streets of asphalt, cement sidewalks, air-conditioned buildings, good food and drink, indoor movies, and plenty of pretty women to look at. Everything a Marine could possibly want, and I couldn't handle it! I felt vulnerable and I felt out of place. Before I went on R&R, I would lay awake and fantasize about how fun and exciting it would be to be out of Nam, even for a few days. I would have killed to get to Taipei. But there just wasn't enough time to get used to my "vacation". It ended up that I changed more NT back to green-backs than I spent. When I got back to Vietnam, got back to my hooch, got back to the very place where my life wasn't worth a plug nickel, I felt like I hadn't even been gone. I felt depressed and actually got angry with myself because I hadn't enjoyed my R&R.

I think that one of the reasons I extended my tour was because I just knew that if I went home, I would be disappointed in that, too. I will believe to my dying day that my R&R was a pivotal point that helped shape the rest of my life.