he mentions the smell of "jet fuel".
That's a good one. I suppose he means diesel fuel for the ship.
I'm reading "The Village" by Bing West, about a USMC squad in a
village in Vietnam. Several times Mr. West refers to grenades as "hand
bombs", and it's not because he doesn't know better. He was a platoon
leader in Vietnam. I assume he decided to make things easier for the
modern reader.
West is the guy who wrote the splendid account of the marines in Iraq,
"The March Up".
http://tinyurl.com/rv6q
all the best -- Dan Ford
email:
www.danford.net/letters.htm#9
see the Warbird's Forum at
www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at
www.pipercubforum.com