Scenes not east to bear and the importance of a remote hilltop.

In a way, I look on this story as a letter to the families and friends of the men of the Third Battalion, 9th Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. There are some pictures which are not easy to bear-of men wounded and killed. But they are all professionals, practicing a trade for which they volunteered. In ten days at Con Thien-though this seems hard to believe-I never heard any griping at being there. The men view Con Thien in the same light as Tarawa and Iwo Jima and are proud and happy to have this hilltop in a remote land. It is a place every one of them seemed to believe important. Perhaps my pictures will add meaning to the letters the men themselves write home.