Dreaded Duty

The Armies utilities weren’t the best in the world in Vietnam, but we got by. Here’s a brief description of the utilities we had and some of the dreaded duty associated with them.

Dreaded Duty

 

On Artillery Hill, in Vietnam in 1970, we had four three hole crappers in our area that we used to drop our load in when we felt the urge. Under each hole there was 1/2 of a 55 gallon drum filled initially with about 3 inches of diesel fuel. The crappers we’re build with trap doors in the rear so the half drums could be slid out the back side when they needed changing. The most dreaded duty on the Hill was changing the drums and burning the crap. Word around the Hill was that the guy who made the duty roster would look through the personnel records and pick the guys that had college degrees for this job first.

 

First I had to empty the ashes out of the drums that had been burned the day before and then put three inches of diesel in each one. Next, I had to pull the three drums full of crap out the trap doors in the back and slide them about 40 feet from the three holer. Then I slid the fresh drums with three inches of diesel in them into the back under each hole. The next step was to cover the crap in the full drums completely with diesel. Finally I would light the diesel in each drum and the black smoke would roll out of the drums for about three hours while the crap turned to ashes. I repeated this three more times and the duty was over for the day. The smell during all phases of this job was terrible. I can honestly say this was the shittiest Duty on Artillery Hill.

 

The urinals on the Hill were a piece of 8 inch pipe stuck into the ground at about a 60 degree angle. The piss just soaked into the ground. On the fancier ones there was a 4 foot section of 3 foot diameter road culvert placed around the 8 inch pipe with the back side open. The Vietnamese people who worked on the Hill often tried to use these pipes as crappers. Most of the time, they missed the pipe and made a nasty mess. They started wrapping screen around the top of the pipe for this reason.

 

We had community showers with about 20 showers inside a building. The Viet Congs favorite thing to do was to blow up our water supply, so about 50% of the time we had no water for showers.

 

Starting the dreaded duty on Artillery Hill near Pleiku, Vietnam.

Bare bones Piss Tube on Army Post in Vietnam

Thank you for reading Dreaded Duty,
Hawg Jaw Bill