While “taking a break” from whatever work they were supposed to be doing, some of the guys ventured into a nearby vacant building to get out of the sun and to hide perhaps. There, they found some rucksacks, complete with metal frames, which appeared to have been abandoned but were in like new condition. There were plenty of them to go around for the whole platoon. They had been taught ‘waste not, want not,’ and these rucksacks probably would have sat there dry rotting until we threw out the communists, won the war, and all went home. So, the only logical thing to do was to ‘liberate’ them. From that point forward, when our teams went into the field, they wouldn’t look like new guys with their duffel bags or tourists with their suitcases. They’d look like serious soldiers who were there for action.
Looks can be deceiving.
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