October 1968
1St platoon sent to Camp Eagle by way of LCU to Hue.
October 8 Talk of being attached to the 101 down in Hue. Alexander no longer CO. Ended up a CO of company in 1/77. We lost a great CO.
October 20 Now attached to 101st north of Ha Vong Pass (sp). Raining for six days.
Lt. William McShane
November 1968
6 Nov 1968: Nixon elected president. American troop strength is at 540,000.
Returned to Quang Tri.
From Lt. William G. McShane 3rd Platoon 1968-69
Nov 6 Prior to this date we break off with the 101st and drive north past Wonder Beach again. Remember Sgt. Platt taking the lead tank over a bridge shaped almost like a perfect arch, semicircle, going about 5mph and praying the damn thing didn’t drop out from under him. Peg sent a plastic pumpkin for Halloween. Hung it between the whips on the track.. Got more smiles and thumbs up from guys as we drove around country with that orange glow between the whips. Nice to cheer up people.
Bill McShane
On Nov 8 I was pissed about something and I wrote “Point #2. Our president must be and idiot. I am far from a war monger, yet I don’t like to be shot at by artillery from the other side of the DMZ. If the bombing halts bring peace that is fine, however the first one did the opposite. They dropped 130mm artillery rounds into Dong HA for two days straight after the first one (the 36 hour job of a few days ago) and managed to destroy one hell of a lot of government property, not to mention killing the Sergeant Major. All those halts do is let Ho chi and the boys hump down more ammo on their backs” etc.
In another instance I railed on about the news we were seeing of rioting students.