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Fastest-rising star is Sydney, Australia, which was only put on the R & R list two months ago; its appeal is great surfing, a change of diet ("No rice on the plate," says one G.I.), and a place where everybody speaks English. Says Lieut. Tom Ryan, of the 1st Airborne Division and Big Rapids, Mich.: "It's great just to see white girls with round eyes again." Major Norman G. Lau-meyer of Long Prairie, Minn., a helicopter pilot of the 1st Cavalry Division and a farmer in civilian life, took a day's flying tour to inspect ranches, explaining: "Here I feel like I'm back among my own people." Australians apparently feel the same way. Some 4,000 families have standing offers for visiting G.I.s to live at their homes during their R & R stay.
Midway Rendezvous. Curiously, the biggest R & R city is Honolulu. Its appeal is neither its hula dancers nor its beaches. It is simply that Hawaii is a geographical midway point for a rendezvous with a wife or a sweetheart for five brief days. The expense can be staggering, even though Hawaiian hotels offer a discount to military personnel. But month after month, more R&R-ers (some 7,290-odd) take the long trek to Hawaii than anywhere else.
At the end of their five days, whether their activities have been licit or illicit, cultural or psychedelic, they dutifully turn up at the R&R center for the trip back to Viet Nam, tired, probably broke, but almost certainly happy —or at least, happier.
-For combat troops, particularly those key men that commanders feel they can ill spare if the unit has to go back into the line, there are special camps within South Viet Nam itself, notably at Danang and Vung Tau. Here battle-worn troops are sent to recuperate on three-day passes that are technically R & R but really bonuses that do not jeopardize their basic five-day R & R leave.