Great blog. Re: the Marines getting hand me downs...some things, sadly, never change. I remember that from Vietnam, steel canteens(sure are noisy when you don't want them to be) when the army had plastic, M14s (not bad really, I preferred the M14) when the army had M16s, standard issue fatigues (heavy cotton) while the rest of the troops had the light weight jungle fatigues.

Your description of the troops is also how I remember Vietnam. We were kids really, well-trained, lethal kids...horseplay to warplay in an instant.

Keep the faith, and keep your head down!