January 1967

14 January 1967:

“I’m way out in the mountains. I’m at Pleiku, up in the central highlands, the climate is great right now—just like Lexington in the spring. Saigon is like Texas in the summer—really humid. The bad thing up here is the dust. We’re upon the top of a hill & there’s always plenty of wind which keeps everything saturated with dust. The terrain here is also similar to Lexington but not as green. I’m with the 3rd brigade of the 25th division. I have a medical platoon with the first of their two battalions.…."

A soldier stands in front of tent in a mountainous landscape.

Lt. Rasmussen at one of the half-dozen different forward command posts established across the Central Highlands by the 3rd brigade in 1967.

“I couldn’t ask for a better assignment. This is not much of a camp as most everything is in tents, but I live in about the best building here—the battalion dispensary —with several of my NCO’s which is somewhat unusual. My platoon sgt. reminds me of Sgt. Bilco on TV. He’s managed to come up with the best of everything in here for us—everyone else lives in tents. This place is as safe as any over here I suppose. The airfield was shelled several nights last week but it’s about a mile away in somewhat of a valley. They wouldn’t have much luck attacking this camp. In fact I’m much safer than I should be. The brigade is out in the field most of the time, but I will be here at the base camp most of the time, and the battalion surgeon stays in the field with the troops! They want a medical officer here to handle odds & ends. The battalion is 150 miles away at the moment with the 1st cavalry division. I’m going out tomorrow for a few days to meet the doctor & the rest of my men. There’s no action out there at the moment—they can’t find any VC although this area is crawling with them. We’re only 14 miles from the Cambodian border here which is where most of them are. Of course we can’t go over there to get them—Cambodia is ‘neutral’. It’s the same situation as Korea. We’ve guaranteed the enemy sanctuary & he knows it. I’m afraid so far that we haven’t accomplished a damn thing in this country. The people are lazy as hell & especially around Saigon—and are getting lazier all the time due to more U.S. aid. The South Vietnamese are traditionally lazy & worthless. This has got to be the filthiest country in the world. The poverty & filth I saw in Morocco & Mexico was nothing compared to this. The French of course didn’t help a bit—being basically filthy themselves. Saigon is similar to Paris in parts."

The monsoons for both the central highlands (April/May through October) and the central coast (August/September through December) were over in January, but on days when the sun did not shine, the rugged mountainous landscape of the highlands could still seem remarkably grim.

27 January 1967:

“… [S]ince my last letter I’ve only been back [at Pleiku] one day. The battalion surgeon wants me out in the field with him, which suits me fine because I would just be doing administrative stuff if I were back at Pleiku, which I hate. He’s on leave at the moment so I’m the doctor. I’m at the battalion forward CP (command post) usually which is at the moment on a plateau way up in the mountains, which are as high as the ones around Lexington, but much worse because of the thick jungle covering them. We couldn’t do anything here without the helicopters. The CP consists of the battalion commander (a colonel) & his staff, the battalion aid station, the battalion’s artillery (which is airlifted by helicopter), & one of our 3 companies as a guard. [A company could consist of 50 to 150 soldiers.] The other 2 companies go out looking for the enemy in the general area—here’s where the danger is, but our casualties have been light so far in this area. We’ve just discovered some tremendous cave complexes in the area which are hq. for a North V. Regiment & have got a good number of them trapped in these at the moment. This is a big find, as these hills have never been probed before. Oh yes, I’m very fortunate that the doctor is really a good man, since one of the brigade surgeons is not worth a damn. One of the others is one of the doctors (in fact the one I liked best) from Ft. Stewart [Georgia ] who just got over here on short notice…."

“The monsoon in our present area is over. Today the sun shone. It’s hot but not humid up here in the mountains—can’t complain about the climate here now that it’s stopped raining. This battalion has got the highest kill ratio of any unit here, but also the highest malaria rate, which is our big problem…."

A group of five soldiers, shirtless and wearing green fatigue pants

Medics under the command of Lt. Rasmussen. Front row: John Wise, Jerry Spulecki, Terrence Rusch; back row: unknown, Val Liepins. In 1967, the army’s procedure for the positioning of medics was in transition, because helicopters, increasingly in use, could transport wounded to hospitals often as quickly as to the aid stations of the forward command posts. Consequently, each battalion surgeon was allowed to place the medics of his battalion where he chose. Though assigned to the brigades’ medical platoons, most medics were imbedded in the field with the various combat platoon units. Generally, each combat platoon (of several dozen soldiers) was provided with one combat medic.

“Well I’ve got to go check on some of my men; they’re manning 2 bunkers tonight since 1/2 of ‘C’ company is out on ambushes leaving only half here to guard the CP. We called in some air strikes on several of the surrounding hills & are hoping the enemy hasn’t fled. I’ve got some pretty good medics I think—I keep about 5 here at the CP usually. The doctor has trained them very well—they don’t get as good a course at Ft. Sam [Houston] as I had, although they should. The doc is quite dedicated & my kind of person completely."

“Don’t worry about me; you never hear of colonels or doctors getting killed & I know God’s looking out for me.”