hide and move gently without leaving signs. He also
Me? I was the team leader, third man on patrol
had the leg strength to carry the 25-pound radio in ad- right behind Ronnie. I’m a desert rat from California.
dition to the other gear we all carried.
My father owned an automotive repair shop, and I
Then came The Mule. A Louisiana Cajun from found I had an aptitude for mechanics. I spent two
the Bayou country. The rest of the team was skinny, years at our local junior college and received my AA,
maybe 20 to 30 pounds underweight from too much but the war in Vietnam was heating up and I wanted
exertion and too few calories. We ate canned C-rations my piece of it, so I enlisted. Naturally, the Corps made
instead of going to the mess hall since the cooks made me a mechanic and sent me to Camp Pendleton. Duty
everything they prepared taste like a mixture of boiled in Southern California was good, but I joined the Macardboard and dirt. Not The Mule. When we were in rine Corps to fight, not repair motors. I volunteered for
the rear he ate at the mess hall three times a day and recon.
ate C-rats between meals. To save weight on patrol we
carried one meal a day. The Mule carr