CHAPTER TENEnthusiastic cooks, clerks, and supply personnel filled the battalion area in Cu Chi, preparing to host those companies returning from the field. Some busied themselves by erecting tents and cots; others separated clean fatigues and miscellaneous equipment onto long eight-foot tables. The cooks, adorned in white aprons and chef hats, were barbecuing hundreds of rib eye steaks on open grills throughout the area. Blue smoke from each rose into the orange-red evening sky, and the scent of barbecue sauce temporarily camouflaged the real stench of Vietnam.
Tents were set up across from the company orderly room. There were no walls, but the large canvas roofs provided sufficient protection from both the rain and sun.
Under each of the five shelters, a center aisle separated twenty-f
