26OCT67

Hi there,

Doing any leaf raking lately?  Or is that still to come?

That's one of the nice things about being out here is NO trees!  A pretty poor place for a dog though, huh?

We're in sight of the DMZ that divides the two countries.  We've been firing at least one of our guns 24 hours a day for the last two days now.  They don't tell us too much about what's going on but it must be pretty big.

How are things around Galesburg?  I hope you're having a pretty fall.  There are so many things in life a person doesn't notice too often until these things are gone.   The 4 seasons are truly on of the big things in life.

We haven't had too much excitement since Sunday when we had 7 or 8 NVN prisoners.   3 of them were wounded so we had to take care of them here on the ship.  They were in a boat that was blown up by some aircraft.  War is hell.  We took them down to DaNang where we off loaded them and returned up North for more fire missions just before we came back down to the DMZ.

You'll never guess who walked up to the window here in the pharmacy - lab this morning.   That's right - Buck Lanier from San Diego.  He's a civilian newspaper reporter who just happened passed looking around and somehow he said his name and away we went.   He seems to be good friend of the Admiral, here on the ship.  We shot the breeze for well over an hour.  (note: I never heard from this guy again!)

I'm enclosing the front page of the ship's paper from a few days ago.  The paper comes out almost everyday.  We have closed circuit TV movies, plus movies on the mess decks, and a radio station that plays pop music.

I am also learning a lot about anesthesia because in our two "Appy's" I was the "knocker outer".

Must close for now,

Mike