Memoirs Part 13

“Jeep” is a military slang word for “new recruit.” Most ofus in Viet Nam went to basic training, a technical school and then straight to Viet Nam. It was preferable to go to a Stateside base first to get OJT, but there was a big need for ammo troops in Nam, so we were sent there directly. “Jeeps”would get tasked with the dirty work such as, cleaning up, changing tires etc. I was told to wash an RT forklift. This is a huge diesel engine forklift. Most guys would just wash off the mud and call it clean. Being a “Jeep”, and not knowing any better, I completely washed it to look like new. There wasn’t an oil stain anywhere. My boss told the other guys to be as good as I was when washing vehicles. That didn’t go over too well with the others, but I didn’t really care and continued to clean as well as I could.

We worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. If we were busy, many of us would come into work on our days off to help out. We were restricted to base so there wasn’t much else to do. It was pretty much work hard – party hard.