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These were taken during a recon flight in Pedro.

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the local plant outside the base where they made cocoanut based milk:

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It wasn't too bad, once you got used to it.

Part of the Thai base that connected to us:

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On the other side we had a Army base that connected to us but was mostly controlled by the Thai Army at this point. Their Black Panther Division moved out of Vietnam and relocated there.

Mortor flares coming down near our hooch area:

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If you watch films from then you can see things like this and in the background you can hear a sound like, whop...whop...whop. that's the sound made by the two pieces of the 81mm mortor shell tumbling back to earth after releasing its block of phosphorus. All you can od is stay where you are and listen. It's coming down in your area so you might as well stay put. We had one hit and went through the hood of a jeep and another one crash through the roof of a gate shack. Fortunately nobody was inside. The common practice at night was to be outside and in the dark until someone approached the gate.

Whenever flares were fired, 81mm, 40mm, or slap flares, once things settled down, the nearest ones to where the flare landed would try to collect as many as possible. Not only were they souveniers, some guys would take them down town and either use them as trading material or give them to the local girls. In a way it could still be considered a trade I guess.

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