He was a young American from Chicago, via South Vietnam. He was lean and clean and crew cut, and he was telling us about his experiences up there. Conditions were really rugged, he said. Charlie was unpredictable and vicious.
Addo asked him, “Who's Charlie?”
“VC,” he said.
"Oh well, I s'pose you have to be unpredictable and vicious to get a VC."
Peto said, “VC means Viet Cong, you mug. Septic Tanks don't get VCs. They get purple hearts.”
“Oh.” Addo said. “Must be all that ice-cream they eat. Sends their blood pressure up.”
The young bloke said that where he was stationed they didn't get much ice-cream. And nearly every night they got mortared.
Addo said, “Peto just gets bombed.”
Peto ignored this slander, and the young American looked puzzled.
Addo said, 'Anyway, what are you doing down here?'
“I came down on R an' R,” the Yank said.