As mentioned previously, mom wasn’t the only person who saved my letters. My friend Jennifer did as well. We were communicating by letter 2 years before I got drafted. I read one of my letters to her today and discovered several things of note that I had completely forgotten. First, I had actually been a member of ROTC. If I hadn’t flunked out of college and been drafted, I wonder how that would have turned out. Second, for you folks in Fort Worth, I had volunteered as a guard for the press/radio room at that year’s Colonial Invitation Golf Tournament and got to meet its winner, Bruce Devlin who made a whopping $22,000 for his 1st place finish. I am so grateful to Jennifer for saving my letters. Now, on to Phuoc Vinh.
“Dear family, August 25
I don’t have any news this time. But my teeth don’t bother me, and my jungle rot seems to be clearing up a little. Things remain quiet here in Phuoc Vinh, I’m happy to say. I sent home another magazine with a record in it. Let me know if you get it and what you think of the record. I haven’t heard it yet as no one has a record player. Reading the song titles though, it sounds like a stupid record. Do you save all the letters and junk I send home to you? I’ve also decided to send that film home. If it gets there, I’d like you to get it processed. Also enclosed with the film is a single slide of yours truly and Ed in a helicopter. I’d like one slide and two prints made from it. You can keep the original slide, but would like the made up slide and the two prints to be sent back to me.
“I’ve been following the hurricanes and hope they don’t go your way. If they do, please take precautions to insure your safety. Don’t count on it not to do much damage.
“The letter mixup seems to be working out ok. I’ve already heard from Peni and she didn’t get Susan’s letter. Susan, Ray Jennison assures me, has cooled off and is waiting for my return, but I haven’t heard from her since the nasty letter she sent. Wow, what words the feminine gender can come up with. Whatever happened to the gentle sex? Letters continue to come from Aunt Louise and gram and gramps. Aunt Louise sends me the ‘family’ letter, appears she may get a raise and a promotion. I hope she does. My wife will not work for our living .” Boy, did I get that wrong. “If she does it in the beginning, she may want to keep doing it, but I won’t have it. Have to wait and see how Mexico goes.
“Got a chick writing me from Hong Kong. She says she can’t wait til I get there. 97 days to go! I’m afraid I’ll see at least one and possibly 2 more moves. But I wish I could finish my tour here. I really feel good about being here. What can I say – I’m getting very anxious, entering the home stretch. It’s bad enough being here, but every time we hear the news and read the papers, the problems and troubles back home are disturbing. If everyone did a tour in Viet Nam I feel there’d be a lot less trouble back there.
“I must say Rob’s correspondence since I’ve been here has really been a let down.” Remember Rob was in the Marines serving stateside. “Steve didn’t do much better. Somehow I expected more. My friends, except for Ray and Mike Carmean, were also a let down. Susan, Peni, and Brenda came through like champs. And every once in awhile Jennifer came through
“I sort of look forward to getting home and telling you about the pictures I’ve sent and the people in them, some have gone home, some wounded and sent to the rear, and several killed. John Maxson’s wife wrote me a second letter and asked me to visit when I got home. Time and money allowing, I’ll probably do so.” I didn’t, but wish I had. “If I don’t make it now, what a waste. I shouldn’t say that sort of thing, but my thoughts often get into my letters. I’d really like to burn up my thoughts to someone back there, but I’m afraid you’d all worry. But I guess I’ll make it. There are rumors of a drop due to the troop withdrawals, but until further notice – plan on Dec 1. If I stop in Texas to see Ray or Susan, it may be the 7th or so, and if I go up to see Peni, I won’t be home until the middle of December. Just have to wait and see how things go. Right now 97 days seems like a long time. So, love to all, Dave
PS: I got your package with the pens ok.”
But wait! “Here’s some more rap. I’ve been thinking a lot about kids Susan’s age and older.” That would be sister Sue. “And I have to agree 100% that kids today seem to force themselves to have fun. They don’t know what fun is and how it can be achieved so naturally with so little effort. Drinking definitely seems to be a bummer. Sure, I did my share, but I’ll agree that compared to kids today, drinking with us was a fringe benefit. It accompanied us, but rarely did it ever control us nor did we drink solely for the purpose of getting drunk. I’ll admit it happened occasionally and was the exception rather than the rule. And drugs, here’s where we’ll disagree. If grass is good for nothing, it is good for a heart condition. It would have to be except for the fear of getting busted which can make an individual paranoid. There is only one similarity between grass and booze – in the hands of minors it can be dangerous both physically and mentally. Therefore, I would like to see it kept from high school kids. But on the whole, marijuana is less harmful than booze. It is physically impossible to become violent after smoking marijuana. Let me rephrase that. It is less probable that a person will become violent on marijuana as compared to alcohol. If you’ll give one the chance and remind me, I would really like to talk to you about this when I get home. I want to talk to about Aunt Julia’s kids compared to your own. I want to talk about kids today, American kids as compared to those I’ve run into here and in Hong Kong. I think we’ll all get something out of it, plus the fact that I enjoy talking. I guess that’s it. Take care all – love, Dave
“PS: Did you ever get my sandals repaired? I’m going to want them when I come home”
I wonder if when I’m not talking about daily life in Viet Nam, the reader finds the letters boring. But they are really eye opening to me. Did my interest in kids lead me to my eventual career in education? The more I read these letters, the more I become convinced that my life, the good, the bad, and the ugly, bears more of a relationship to who I was as a 22 year old in Viet Nam than I have given it credit for over the years. I think I have the picture of Ed and I in the helicopter.
I think your time in Vietnam definitely influenced your work as a teacher. You learned some pretty serious lessons about life—which included death—and were motivated to help steer young people onto roads that would keep them safer and happier than you and your comrades were in a war zone.
I see that your parents saw to it that you got the pictures you wanted. No doubt, they’d have sent anything within their powers to you to help alleviate the misery you were in. Do you ever flash a peace sign nowadays?
I’m glad you’re attitude about women who work morphed over the decades! And I do believe your year in Vietnam heavily influenced the rest of your life. How could it not have? I think coming from a loving family has also influenced your life in a good way. One cannot overstate the importance to a happy adulthood of growing up loved.