A Newfer's Burning Memory 

"Newbies" and "Newfers" were names given to soldiers newly assigned to the unit in Vietnam. Certainly, as the months past, there seemed to be a constant string of replacements who were moved into the unit, as other men left via Med-Evac, "freedom bird," or "re-upping," to get out of the Infantry. Here is one of my memories as a "newbie" in Delta Company.

One of my early memories, as a new guy, was one repugnant task shared by thousands of fellows who were in Vietnam. There was one duty that was hated above all others. If you were a "newbie" you probably "burned sh_t." No....literally; that was one of the new soldier’s duties over their. In base camps they had these long "out houses." There were six hole sh_tters and twelve hole sh_tters. For sanitary reasons, something had to be done with the accumulation. If you were a new fellow, you were ordered to take care of it. You were given a five gallon can of kerosene and some matches. You had to go over to the back of the long shack, pull up the wooden door which flopped down over the rows of fifty five gallon drums, cut in half, below the "thrones." These were usually perched in there on a support of "two by fours" and the critical part of the whole nasty experience was getting that heavy and vile smelling, loaded can slid out and eased down onto the ground without getting splattered as it dropped. The thing was dragged out away from the shack, doused with the kerosene and ignited. When one can looked as if it would stay burning, you had to move on to the next one. It was back to the shack and the stench. Up came the wooden door, etc. Down the line you would go. Soon a line of billowing smoke trails would celebrate your mission. The cans would burn and smolder for hours. Mondays were the worst day to catch the duty. There were two kinds of Malaria pills that we had to take. The little one taken on Mondays gave most of us the "runs".

Well, I realize that this is a vile account but one may consider that this duty probably held value as a way to see if a man would follow orders and accomplish his mission, no matter how degrading and repugnant. No doubt, it also served as a source of humor as the "old-timers" watched the "newbie" stumbled along through the base camp dust, off and up toward the "sh_tter with the can of kerosene and the matches. Unfortunately I caught this duty several times in the first few weeks that I was with the unit. I think, being a college graduate may have worked against some of us, since they wanted to check us out to see if we could handle life at the bottom. I must have finally passed their test because after a number of similar missions successfully accomplished, that duty eventually fell to another poor F. N. G..

In their book "Stolen Valor - how the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History," Redcathcer, B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley mention one latrine waste burning station near Khe Sahn that was a popular feature, of sorts, for TV reporters. "  Here is their account:

No doubt the American TV audience were mesmerized by the brave and  enthusiastic newsmen risking their lives for  "on the spot"  reporting to bring the true story of the war to folks back home.