Norman Bowker's Diary

Today I was presented with a thumb necklace from Mitchell Sanders. It had been cut from a VC boy of 15 or 16 he had been badly burned with flies in his eyes and mouth, we had found him in the bottom of an irrigation ditch. I guess he thought it was a sign of luck or something the men were always carrying things of superstition. For example Lieutenant Cross carried a good luck rock presented to him from his pen pal Martha an English major at Sebastion College in New Jersey. Another Comrade Dave Jensen carried a rabbits foot, many of the men and my comrades carried things like these to not get killed. I carried this thumb given as a gift from Mitchell Sanders it weighed about 4 ounces at most it weighed the least of what we normally carry depending on who we are but we are ALL called grunts who carry ammo and M-14s, RPGs and the like. Most of what we carry weighs at most between twenty pounds to at least thirty and then there are the small things we carry like tobbacco, safety pins, flares, candles, canveses of soda pop, iced beer and canteens of water to keep ourselves hydrated, and many more. Some carry things that remind us of home like the Lieutenant he carries what he likes to pretend are love letters from Martha in New Jersey. We all take turns carrying the ginormous scrambler radio which was 30 pounds with the battery.