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Field soldiers in Vietnam were ANY men (soldiers, airmen, marines, etc) living in the field...NOT LIVING in a large base. Sometimes, depending upon how primitive it was, a Firebase could be considered living in the field. But if the Firebase had been established there for a while, and had all the luxuries of a large military base (showers, small PX (called a canteen), night club (called a EM, NCO, or Officers club), heavy maintenance section, armory, etc.) then men stationed there might not be considered as "living in the field"; especially if ambush patrols are being sent out every day and night...those men going on patrol & living in the "field" for days at a time would be living in the field. And the men at the Firebase have evolved into "REMFs" (Rear Echelon M- F-'s), whilst the men outside the perimeter are now men living "in the field."

That's how the big bases like Quang Tri Base Camp, Camp Evans, Camp Eagle, Phu Bai, Pleiku, Tan An, Bien Phuc, Tay Ninh, etc. got started. They began as Firebases then evolved into big army compounds. The hundreds (possibly even closer to a thousand) of firebases scattered thru out the country were truly living in the field, and those small firebases were abandoned after weeks or months, or maybe a few years; they were like "forts in the American frontier in the 1800s." Amounting to nothing but a fortified camp of soldiers with a battery of 6 field guns emplaced within their compound.

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13y ago

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