9 Things the Army Gave the Rear in Vietnam That Grunts in the Field Never Got

Ice cream trucks, three hot meals a day, cold beer in the clubs, twelve swimming pools at Long Binh, a PX full of cameras and stereos, and new gear on the shelf while the field took what was in the pile. The Army built America in the rear of Vietnam, a few miles from where its riflemen slept in the mud, and the biggest difference of all was the chance of going home. Chapters: 0:00 Forty-one days, then a swimming pool 2:07 Two or three men behind every rifleman 3:01 Ice cream and fresh milk 4:30 Three hot meals a day 6:33 Cold beer and the clubs 8:00 A bed, a shower and a roof 9:41 Swimming pools and Bob Hope 10:58 The PX 12:34 The new gear and "the pile" 14:14 The medals, and the one badge the rear could not get 15:57 A better chance of going home 17:41 REMF, FOBbit and the divide that lasted 18:37 Back at the pool Your turn: rear or field, what did you have, or see, that the other side never got? Unit, place and year, one line is enough. Sources: - Meredith H. Lair, Armed With Abundance: Consumerism and Soldiering in the Vietnam War (University of North Carolina Press, 2011) - Library of Congress, Worlds Revealed blog, Long Binh Post; HistoryNet, "Easy Living in a Hard War" - Defense Commissary Agency history of fresh milk in Vietnam (Foremost, Meadow Gold) - U.S. Senate, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, hearings on fraud and corruption in the military club system (1969-1971) - USO, veterans' memories of the Bob Hope Christmas shows #VietnamWar #VietnamVeterans #MilitaryHistory