Troops would round up villagers, burn their hooches and relocate them from their ancestral lands into squalid refugee camps.
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For them, Vietnam was a war of humping the boonies on a constant search for an enemy that didn't want to be found, sloshing through rice paddies, hacking through jungles or rummaging through hooches.
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Soldiers played it in their hooches on top-of-the-line tape decks they'd purchase cheap at the PX or via mail order from Japan; they listened to it over headphones in helicopters and planes.
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In February 2015, three brand new barracks were opened on the installation, allowing the "hooches" to be torn down and personnel reassigned to better housing. Volleyball courts, barbecues and "bohios" (covered picnic areas) are also located throughout the base. All the domestic facilities, like the post office, library, dining facility, fitness center, pool and base exchange, are clustered together within a five- minute walking distance. Apartments and dormitories are replacing some of the 270 wooden hooches used for decades by permanent party personnel that are now used by permanent party and temporary duty personnel.
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In an article for Salon, Joe Conason described Hoffmann as "a cigar- chomping former Vietnam commander once described as 'the classic body-count guy' who 'wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.'" Salon.com: Smear Boat Veterans for Bush. May 4, 2002.
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Metal dormitories are more permanent structures and have air conditioning. Both contain beds and other furniture, televisions, refrigerators and microwaves. The hooches and metal barracks had no running water. However, latrines, shower facilities and laundry rooms were centrally located within the living areas.
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The Constitution of Honduras does not permit a permanent foreign presence in Honduras. A "handshake" agreement between the United States and Honduras allows JTF-Bravo to remain in Honduras on a "semi-permanent" basis. This agreement, an annex to the 1954 military assistance agreement between the United States and Honduras, can be abrogated with little notice. Soto Cano lodging for U.S. personnel there consists of "hooches" with a tin roof, with air conditioners and fans for cooling.
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The movie camp set, which was constructed on an isolated hill within Fort Benning, had barbed wire trenches, punji sticks, sandbagged bunkers, mortar pits, towers, support buildings and hooches. Several tons of dynamite and black powder were then used to largely destroy the set during the filming of the battle sequence. Other realistic "Vietnamese village" sets were left intact after the shooting ended so they could be reused by the Army for training troops destined for South East Asia.
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American soldiers in South Vietnam sometimes called the dwellings of Vietnamese civilians "hooches" (possibly a borrowing from Japanese 家 uchi, "dwelling"). Thus, the Vietnamese civilian women who maintained the dwellings were called "hooch maids". These women typically worked six days a week, cleaning and maintaining the rooms and belongings of the soldiers. If their work quality was deemed to be sufficient, they could be given goods from the base exchange, which could be turned into extra income on the black market.
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