Ron McCarville and I (Ron Heath) arrived in Oceanside at approximately 12:30pm and went immediately to Bruce Bastien's beachfront condo. We had 5 hours to catch up on 32 years of being out of contact with each other. The beer certainly helped. The feeling of never having been away from each other helped even more. Combat creates a tie between Marines that can never be broken even over a span of 32 years. We spoke of old friends we are still trying to find and of friends lost. We reminisced about our funniest experiences in Vietnam and poured over old pictures trying to identify places and people. Putting names to faces after 32 years can be very tedious. Beer helped!

After our farewells with Bruce until next August in San Diego, we hit the road again and headed into Camp Pendleton. I had forgotten how large and spread out the base really was. I have heard that all things shrink with age and this must have been one of them. On the way to our first night's lodging, we were forced to seek directions at the Mainside bowling alley. We were directed to the snack bar where as the man at the front desk had said, "Some old war veterans were watching the last quarter of the Super Bowl."

We went into the snack bar and found a table full of Korean and WWII veterans who took us in like we were long lost family members and forced us to consume a small quantity of amber liquid. After the refreshment and the finish of the Super Bowl, they directed us to our first night's stay, Ward Lodging, Camp Pendleton's Motel. That night we slept as fast as we could in anticipation of the next days events.