Why Every Grunt Wore a Towel Around His Neck in Vietnam?

Look at almost any photograph of an American infantryman in Vietnam and you'll find the same piece of gear: a green Army towel draped around his neck. This file traces how the cheapest item in the supply catalog became the most versatile tool of the war — from hundred-degree heat and sixty-pound rucksacks to glowing M60 barrels, paddy-rotted feet, and coffee brewed over burning C-4. Sources: Alfred M. Allen, "Skin Diseases in Vietnam, 1965–72" (Internal Medicine in Vietnam, Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army) Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried" (1990), including the chapter "Stockings" FM 23-67, "Machinegun, 7.62-mm, M60" (Department of the Army) The rediscovered Vietnam photographs of Charles Haughey, 25th Infantry Division, 1968–69 Veterans' memoirs and oral histories of Mekong Delta operations (9th Infantry Division / Mobile Riverine Force)