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And, atop Signal Hill, I had me a hooch. Well, it was a sandbag
bunker but it had a roof and I felt secure with the likes of my
new fire team leader, L/Cpl. Charlie Booker of Memphis. Being from
Louisiana and having lived a sheltered life in a segregated town,
I found it novel to have a "colored boy" to be my boss.
The novelty wore off quick with a swift kick to my butt by
Charlie's boot one afternoon. OK, I got it, me and Charlie were
good friends after that. He was the boss.
Kilo 3/9 had just come out of the A Shau Valley and
Operation Dewey Canyon and they considered Signal Hill almost
R&R. It also meant there were a lot of new guys (replacing the
dead and wounded) who had gotten there just a week or two before
me -- including Mike Mayer from Chicago, Dave Bartosek of
Pittsburgh and Frank Bokan of Philadelphia. I also quickly got
attached to Charlie and a few other veterans like Dave Parker from
Oregon, Ike Likens from Georgia and our squad leader K.J. Jackson,
but I don't recall where K.J. was from. K.J. was a short-timer --
had only about two months remaining in his tour -- and was real
safety conscious, as in conscious of his safety ... (Please
see photo No. 5.)
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