Thank you.
But especially the one with my Duck. This is DukDuk. He (or she) was the best "friend"/Pet I ever had. I took him from a kid that had him tied by his feet from his handlebars on his bike and was going to have him for lunch. I gave him some C Rations.
DukDuk would stay by my side my entire time there (when I was on the Firebase) and if I walked away, he would run after me and sit in front of me. He slept with his head on my shoulder and all night, very quietly, he would snore. It was like quack, quack, quack very softly. But as soon as it started getting light he would go QUACK, QUACK in my ear, very loud until I got him something to eat which was crackers from my C rations or rice that we captured with prisoners.
When I flew in a helicopter, which I did a few times a week, he would come with me. But he would think he was flying and I had to hold his wings down. DukDuk sadly couldn't fly. He was clipped.
In that above picture where I am holding my M-16 you see those 105 shells banged in the ground. That was where he stayed when I had to leave for something. I had a little pond in there and a culvert for shade.
Remember this was all in a big clearing in the jungle and I was on 14 of those LZs or Firebases.
This is the LZ (landing Zone) from the air. This one was Firebase Illingworth where I had the worst day of my life. You can read it here if you are interested.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250055286