My Company

September 21, 1967

Over the last few days, I have met some of the men who will be traveling with me to join our company. First there’s Peewee, who I already mentioned. I’m getting to be good friends with him. Then there’s Jenkins. He’s from Fort Dix. He seems like an all right guy, but I don’t know him very well yet. The next guy I met was man named Johnson. He’s a tall, masculine guy from Georgia. I like him, but him and Peewee get into some arguments. All of us are black guys. I realize that these are the men that I will have to trust with my life. They are the ones who will be watching my back and fighting at my side. I hope we never actually see any fighting. I’m a little worried about my medical profile. It still hasn’t come through. Until it does, I’m going to have to be just like every other soldier. Peewee, Jenkins, Johnson, and me got our firearms just a while ago. Me Peewee and Jenkins got the standard issue M-16 rifles. Johnson has gone through machine gun training, so he got an M-60. It’s a huge beastly looking thing that makes our weapons look tiny. Peewee got a pistol along with his rifle. The armorer told us to make sure that our weapons were always clean and ready for combat. I hope that we never have to do any fighting, but I’m going to follow the armorer’s advice and be ready.