Letters From Vietnam
25 Aug ‘67
-3-
around billets. These women worked for 15₵ an hour. Think about that. In some areas, the laborers work for a cup of rice a day. The highest paid slope (A derogatory term for the Vietnamese. I soon learned the inappropriateness of this language.) in camp is the cook. He's an ex-VC who's been cooking for Special Forces about 5 years now. And he is one hell of a good cook. With an old gas fields stove he bakes Turkey (would you believe roasts), he bakes all our bread and is really an all-around #1 cook. He works from about 0630 when he starts cooking breakfast and at 2200 some evenings he’s still there making sandwiches, etc. for the guys sitting around playing cards. This is to 7 days a week. And the guy makes $150 a month. Figure that out by the hour for a cook.
Camp life isn't bad at all. Like I said before, it's the only way to come to Vietnam (SF that is). In our team house we have stereo tape recorders and two refers which we keep stocked with beer and coke. Two days ago a C–123 came in with a pallet of beer and a pallet of cokes. Of course we're
(IF memory serves, we paid 10 cents per sode and 15 cents peer beer through the BX [Base Exchange].)
