Humping in the Monsoons

In the late fall of 1970 I boldly and assuredly unwisely volunteered to go out in the jungle with an infantry unit.   At the time I had been a writer/photographer for the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam for several months.    Ours was a combat division but I had not technically been in combat.  The lieutenant I worked for asked for one of us to go out to write a story with pictures for our division's magazine of a unit's "humping" (moving about) in the jungle.   Within minutes of entering the jungle, I had leach on my temple.  The jungle was so consistently wet that leaches crawled up onto leaves.

The unit I happened to end up with was Echo Recon, 1st of the 7th Cavalry, a small but competent group of guys.   It only rained periodically but the dense jungle we were in remained soaking wet.  I spent the next five days soaking wet, finding it hard to get dry even when sleeping under a poncho tent.   I found out why skin diseases such as ringworm, jungle rot, and boils were so common among our troops.  And it was uncomfortable - I swiftly became clear why grunts had a long suffering look to them.  It was no act - they suffered.

Getting photos while they were moving was difficult because the paths we broke through the undergrowth were narrow.  This was one of the few where I managed to show soldier carrying packs.

The camera I was using - a Leica - had a terrific lens - but there was just enough light to take pictures.   Most of the time I had my little camera and light meter in a plastic bag, to keep them dry.   I was amazed at how well the photographs came out.   One of the key tools of the patrol was the radio telephone, used a radio to communicate with the senior officers at a distance directing operations.

The packs were heavy - 100 pounds or so -  so it was a pleasure to put them down after a tramp.

This soldier is putting away the poncho he'd used as a shelter during the night.

The sergeant leading our patrol is talking on the radio telephone.   This best shows how wet it was.  Note his muddy hands and the plastic cover over the telephone receiver.   It would have been hard to imagine what it was like if I hadn't gone out myself.