The hootches were all the same: the architectural essence of the 101st. These modular buildings dotted all the base camps. They were elevated on cinder blocks laid on the earth. Floor joists ran from block to block and to these a flooring of 4 x 8 half-inch plywood was nailed. The standard building was sixteen feet wide and thirty-two feet long, stud-framed to a height of five and a half feet with a pitched roof rising to ten feet above the long center axis. The sides were again 4x8 sheets of plywood laid horizontally and tacked to the stud framing. This allowed eighteen inches of open space running down both sides for windows. Roofs were corrugated galvanized iron sheets which absorbed the dry-season heat and made the hootches ovens or resounded with and amplified the rain of the monsoons
