I'd rather been steaming The ship was tied up in deep water in Sattihip at the Air Force base in Utapo. Sand bags and watch towers were all over, surrounding the air field where the bombers and fighters were sheltered and took off and landed. Heavily armed guards were all around and guard dogs to go with them. Fifties and bigger were behind the sand bags to inflict any damage they needed to. This base was not popular and I wondered why we ever pulled in there in the first place. The Airman were extremely nice to all of us, showing us where we could make unsupervised calls home and even arranged talks with their Chaplan. It all sounds corny but don't bet on any show of kindness as being corny. The world over there was Extremely dangerous and G.I.'s stuck together. We all had been staying in this hotel in Bangkok some 90 miles from the ship. We found that in Bangkok, just behind the American Embassy, a place where pretty young Thai girls stood in small room with large plexiglas windows. They could see out as you looked in. On them was a number to distinguish which you might want for five American dollars. Now to make something clear, this was not a brothel. This was a massage parlor which went almost all the way. The girls would bath you, lay you down on a table and give you a good massage, sometimes more, but mama son walked the halls and made a practice of banging on the door very sharply and squaling like a wild banshee if the girl was spending too much time with you. It was an experience cut short, however, worth the bott you paid. I left a new boy. We all commenced to drinking as much swill as we could. The swill was in quart bottles, no little eight ouncers there. Eventually the Thai Navy signalman that we hired on the pier in Utapo found us some private girls who would participate but, was not of the professional sort. Remember, life over there was hard and everybody was poor so, sometimes these girls did a lot to save their families and children. We were all doing what we thought was fun and spending money just like they wanted us to. After two months on the gun line and you didn't care though. Gino's girl was sitting on his lap when she jumped like a rabbit and took to squirming. It seems Gino had grabbbed an ice cube and slipped it between and up something that wasn't meant for anything that cold. It never stopped! Bangkok...never go without a shirt or spit on the sidewalk or make a negative remark about the king. Big trouble and no getting out of it either. Hot, nasty, smelly...there are few other words to explain it. All through the country were great temples with golden curls at the corners of them. Silver and gold, red, blue all colors you could think of. The temple held things that only those people believe in. Bright orange robs were everywhere and the skinny little guys who wore them had shaved heads and walked everywhere. Along every path or road the were small temples or shrines for those traveling. It was not uncommon to see people at these small shrines bowing and worshipping. It was not at all uncommon to have to watch every move you made in Thailand either, as there was always someone wanting Everything you had at what ever expense to you. They would rob you and leave you with nothing except one or two peices of clothing. They would knock you in the head or worse without remorse. Should have had some of those campus hippies there to experience that. Flowers in your hair...boy would that have changed. Gino and I were where we weren't supposed to be as usual. Back in the jungle away from the bungalows, which were also off limits. Never do this. It was night and we sat under a tin roof held up at each corner by a pole. Under the roof was barrels with boards laid across them. If you stayed there you sat on a broken chair or five gallon can or anything that made a seat. We had two quart bottles of Thai beer and I gave the little guy an American five dollar bill. That would have bought fifty of those nasty tasting brews. I asked for my change but no reply. Later, "How about my change." but there was none. Gino got wise long before I did. I asked once more and then knew for sure. It seemed the joint had taken on more customers. All were in shorts, flip-flops, jibbering a hundred miles an hour and smiling like a lot of little ants ready to jump on larger prey. Darkness, except one solitary light, no smiling faces, no change for my five, more of these skinny little Thais and there we were right in the middle of that little, nasty, sweaty smelling jungle hooch drinking beer. Pay attention to these signs. Golly... who walks in but that little Thai Navy signalman with the BIGGEST smile and a clear way out of there. Hi dee! He led us through a maze of hooches and bungalows like a native and we followed, much braver, for we had faced a soon to be bad situation with grave consequences. This Thai sailor lived better than most. We walked over planks of rough wood rotted by time. The water was stagnant and fowl as something dead. There were wooden Stakes driven deep into the water and mud and tied where they crossed. The long rotted planks were laid across these wooden stakes which made a support for them. They went on for what seemed to be miles. Littles bungalows, one after another, all with a common wall and a cloth across the door. The stagnant water was putread. How could they live like this? How could they not live like this!? Time for some more hippies to experience something. We arrived finally at the Thais house. He entered first showing custom so we would not be embarrassed. Off went the shoes and so did ours. We could not touch his shoes nor did he touch ours. Tradition...I wanted to see his military shoes however the lower you go on the body the less sacred and the feet were just as off limits as the hooches we had been to. He had two pretty little girls and a very nice and humble wife. They offered us food, in the form of rice and we ate. The beds were woven mats of some flimsy reed. During the waking hours they were rolled up and during the night they were unrolled. There were a couple of shelves and a cabinet of which he and his wife was quite pleased. How do people have so little? How could others have so much? The world is weird sometimes, however, they were there and we did better...no more to be said. You may never touch one of these people on the head, not good. Remember, the higher on the body supposedly the better...had to guard that. He wore a budda in a plastic box around his neck. He showed us where he took a hit in the leg mentioning proudly how the bullet had passed through giving the credit to the little plastic figure in the little plastic box. Figure. There is no understanding or figuring how he and his family survived in the stink and filth, or how they lived in the little six by Eight foot bungalow just three feet across from the others...all with a common wall. I hope I may never see such again. It's certain I haven't forgotten. Gino, Bob, Petey all off the third floor and into the pool! Idiots, that's all you can say. I was not there for that one. I was so hungry I could take no more and went to search for real food. Wow...Milk, goats milk or cows milk with four or five spoonfuls of sugar mixed in. That's the way they drink it. Meat, not so good as was the the rest but, I ate it anyway. Glad to be on my way, I watched the country pass by. I was hung over so bad and would be glad to return to the gun line to heal up. Let me mention that as soon as we left Sattihip and Utapo, the communists attacked and blew the base pretty badly. What a life...Why in the...?