Ice Cream on the Culvert

The presence of ice cream on a firebase was not accidental. Captain Wolf Kutter, who commanded D Company after Captain Neal, confirmed independently that ice cream was provided to the men on log days in the field — a standing order originating with Brigadier General Burton, the Brigade Commander, carried out through the battalion by its commanding officer. It was a deliberate act of command attention to morale, and it was consistent.

This explains how Larry Cate, Marvin Miller, and possibly one other soldier came to be sitting on top of a culvert on the firebase, eating ice cream after returning from the bush.

After a short time, they began to hear a sound: a light buzzing, followed by a thump. Then again. Then again. Several times — perhaps three or four — and none of them registered what it was or reacted to it.

After the third or fourth occurrence, someone came out of the mess hall behind them and said, words to this effect: "Are you going to let that sniper shoot at you all day, or are you going to get down?"

What had been happening: a sniper was firing at the men on the culvert. The rounds were passing over or past them and entering the mess hall, where they were striking canned goods stored at the back and knocking them off shelves. The buzzing was the sound of rounds in flight. The thumps were cans hitting the floor. The cook inside had been watching the cans fall and had correctly identified the cause before the men outside did.

The men got down.

The incident most likely occurred in mid-to-late July 1971, before Cate transitioned to a door gunner position — he remained in-country through late 1971, but in a different role. It was told to Marvin's son by Cate in the years before Cate's death in 2011, and is reproduced here from that conversation. There is no other known record of it.

When Marvin's son recounted the story to his father, Marvin was uncertain it had happened. He said he felt he would have known the sound of bullets passing nearby. His son noted a counterpoint: the sound of a distant sniper round at longer range is not the same as the crack of an AK-47 in a close firefight, which is what Marvin's experience would have conditioned him to recognize. The crack of a near-supersonic round at close range and the lower tone of a round in flight at distance are different sounds. Cate's description — buzzing, then thump — is consistent with the latter.

Marvin's skepticism is noted and respected. The story may have stuck with Larry due to his profound love of ice cream. The archive preserves both men's reactions and this context.