World: A Half Step Toward Home

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For most, it was simply in recess for a few days while the formalities of transferring to another division were completed. The base camp scheduled U.S.O. entertainment and each company bought nearly 300 cases of beer and soft drinks for its men, a ratio of about two cases per trooper. Then, after four days, the men lined up for new immunization shots, dog-tag replacements, their most recent paycheck and whatever ribbons had been awarded them. The last stop, before boarding a bus for their new assignment, was the camp tailor shop, where half a dozen South Vietnamese girls busily sewed on the shoulder patch insignia of each man's new division.