Henry Weege

Contains strong language.

I got there and you're known as an FNGAn acronym for 'Fucking New Guy' referring to recruits fresh from the United States who joined established units in Vietnam. The term was used across all unit types, from front line combat to support and medical units. The FNG phenomenon grew out of the U.S. Military's individual rotation policy during the Vietnam War, under which individual troops were rotated in and out in twelve-month tours with already deployed units in Vietnam.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
FNG_syndrome > when you come into... when you get there. You know what that is? Fucking New Guy. And till you prove yourself you're an FNG.

I know it was Thanksgiving Day '68 was the first firefight I was in. That first firefight, I never saw anybody, I was so busy. We had 2,000 rounds, 200 hundred round cans of... those ammo cans. My job, besides driving, was to grab those cans, get up out of the driver's hatch, set 'em next to the cupolaA small rounded and domed structure used for observation from a tracked, armored vehicle.
< http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cupola > which is where the TCTank commander, armored vehicle commander. sits and he could grab 'em as he used 'em. And you'd burn that barrel out. The tracers would start going. Well then you had to replace the barrel. We only had one spare for every gun. I'd have to oil that barrel down. It was right next to my head. Sometimes them things would burst into flames and the whole barrel would be burning and I'd be wapping it with an old T-shirt or something. The object was never to sit still. We always went forward and back because you didn't want to give yourself as a sitting duck. At least you'd be a moving target. I mean it was work. And you're scared....not scared, cause you don't have time but you're pooped by the end. And it was Thanksgiving Day and there's always the commander... the regimental commander was flying above us, directing us.

Anyhow, all of a sudden things were dying down, we were... we pretty well... the battle was getting over and the lieutenant says, 'Weege, come on up here. Come on out of the driver's hatch.' And I says 'What?'... he says, 'There's someone up here wants to meet you.' And I go, 'Huh, jeez who the heck would want to meet me out here?' I got out of the thing and there's Col. Patton, George S. Patton standing on my tracArmored personnel carrier. A track vehicle used to transport Army troops or supplies, usually armed with a .50-caliber machine gun.
< http://www.1stcavmedic.com/glossary.html >. He climbed up there and he wanted to shake my hand and praise us for what we were doing And he says, 'You guys are getting Thanksgiving dinners when you get back' to our area where we were.