On the 1st of August we broke out of our ambush positions and started sweeping towards the bunker system. The next day Alpha Company located the bunker system, cleared it and destroyed it. From documents located in the system it was identified as 274's system. Later that day 3 Platoon Alpha Company contacted a lone North Vietnamese soldier ... poor bastard must have become separated from the rest of his unit during the battle.

We continued searching around the border area but only found the signs of the enemy's withdrawal. On 5 August the choppers came in again to pick us up and take us back to Nui Dat. What the hell was going on. We come up here, we go back, we come back here and then go back ... if someone was running this war, then they sure weren't telling us about it.

Back at Nui Dat we started lazing around again ... sure was a strange war. Whenever we were in Nui Dat we used to have a Pontoon School run by Dixie, Boodgie and Woody. I don't remember the blokes name, but I think he was from another Platoon or Company or something. Anyway this bloke came into the Pontoon School just to see what was going on. He had saved the deposit for his house in Brisbane and was going to send it home to his wife the next day. But watching the cards got the better of him and he had a small bet. The fates must have been against him ... 'cause he won. Well there was no stopping him after that, he started betting like a maniac. Finally he reached the limit (from memory about $20) and we told him to stop ... but oh no there was no stopping this bloke. He got another bloke to bet on his hand, so that he had two limit bets on the one hand. By the end of the night he had 4 other blokes plus himself betting on the hand ($100 a throw). Well he done the lot ... about $5,000. About half an hour later someone came into the tent to tell us that the silly bugger was in his tent crying and was going to commit suicide. So we had to go over and sit suicide watch on him for the rest of the night. We were forced to give the money back to him ... shit we were pissed off ... if he had won 5 grand off us, would he have given it back? Not on your sweet nelly! We were going to get charged and fined if we didn't give it back and the fines would have been equal to what we won. So we gave it back. Bugger me dead if the same bloke didn't come into the tent the next bloody night and want to play Pontoon. Boodgie showed him the business end of an armalite rifle and told him to piss off before we finished what the bloke didn't have enough guts to do himself the night before.

We shopped at the PX, took photos of everything around us, had BBQ's, went tothe movies, got drunk and generally got into trouble. Some of the boys broke into the Seargant's boozer one night and liberated a good quantity of alcohol. Unfortunately they got sprung by the meatheads (MP's). It was bloody funny watching the Meatheads chasing blokes throught the rubber trees in the middle of the night. Most blokes got into the shadows and then crawled through the grass back to the lines. The meatheads were good, but our blokes were better bush soldiers.

We were getting bored and some blokes had some funny weed. So most of us tried it. I remember playing Rugby League against some 9 Platoon blokes ... unfortunately it always seemed that the rubber trees were the most likely to make a break and score. So I spent most of the game tackling the rubber trees. Despite their name they don't bounce ... and when I came back to my senses the next morning, I was sore as buggery.

We actually had a real game of Rugby League ... NSW versus Queensland ... real State of Origin stuff ... before State of Origin was thought of. Well the Cane Toads must have been sick of all the beltings that the Cockroaches had given them over the years ... 'cause they bloody stuck it to us. I had played a bit of junior Rep stuff and they had me marking this 6 foot bloody monster. Well he just kept busting us up. He came charging through late in the first half and I coat hangered him ... his head rocked back, his feet lifted clear off the ground and there was blood spitting out of his mouth. The ref called me over and said "You're off son!". Chatty came sprinting in and yelled at the ref "Piss off, you can't send him off. He's the only one having a go." I stayed on ... but kept out of the monster's way ... he had murder in his eyes.