It was the year 1970 and the Vietnam War was in full swing, people were coming in while their fallen comrades were being sent home in body bags. Fresh off the airplane, 20 fresh recruits stepped off, each filled with fear and excitement at the prospect of fighting against the VC and winning the almost lost war. After they were squared off towards the barracks, a spry slim soldier dressed in the green fatigues and scratching at his head of blonde hair walked to his bed and set his pack on it. One of the soldiers came up to him and introduced himself, "Hey, I'm Rick, fresh meat huh?"

The soldier turned around and smirked, his face causing Rick to grimace slightly at the sight of the large red birthmark that was part of the soldier's face, looking at Rick and nodded, "Hiya, I'm Robert and yeah, fresh meat, which sounds really good right about now."

"You a Texan?"
"How could you tell?" Robert smiled, knowing full well his accent was both rigid and annoying at times. Rick looked at him and said, "Oh I had an idea, so what part of the Longhorn state are you from?"

"A small shithole of a town called 'Newt', it's near Ft. Worth."

Rick nodded, he then said, "Well if you need anything, I'm here for ya, battle-buddies and all."
"Thanks Rick, so how long have you been in Nam?"

"Nine months and let me tell you how much it blows," Rick groaned, "So you got any family out this way?"

Before Robert could answer, a bellowing voice came from the entrance, "Bobby Sawyer!"
Robert looked over and immediately ran to the big soldier who was covered in grease and smiled, "Hey Tinker!"

Tinker "Tech" Sawyer was the damn best mechanic that Vietnam had ever seen, his two hands could fix and supe up anything on wheels or weapons. He was tall and muscular, quite imposing to his cousin, Robert. Tinker laughed and hugged his cousin, it had been almost a year since they'd seen each other last. He looked him over after the hug, "You don't look too bad, Bobby, they treat you good in Benning?"

Robert shrugged, "Ah yeah, they didn't serve good meat, but what do they know about meat?"

Tinker laughed again, his bellowing laugh could fill up the whole barracks, he shook his head and replied, "I bet the Old Man was pretty ansy about you getting drafted, especially after Nubbins got his dishonorable in basic. What did he say when you told him."
Robert put on an grumped face and said in a heated Texas accent, "'You bitch hawg, why don't you do something real instead of joining that rip-off!'"

They both laughed and Tinker looked over to see his crew returning to work. He patted Robert on the head and nodded, "Well I'll see you later Bobby, I gotta go back to work. Remember keep your head down and shut the fuck up."

Robert laughed again and waved him off. Robert had originally had second thoughts when he got on the plane to Nam, but now that Tinker in his camp, he would be happy and knew that this was going to be an easy tour. He walked back to his bunk and collapsed on it, he needed some sleep for sure, so that's what he did.