I’m not sure how to start this letter. This is the last one that I sent home, and yes, I was still in the hospital at Cu Chi, 10 days before I was supposed to be on a flight home. My feelings right now are all over the place so I think I’ll just get started. You’ve probably noticed that I always start with mom, then the other family members who were living at 150 Red Brook Harbor Rd at the time. ‘Mom’ was usually capitalized. ‘Dad’ usually wasn’t. And of course I always capitalized the names of my siblings. In this letter, ‘mom’ was not capitalized. Not sure why. Anyway…….
“Dear mom, dad, Rob and Sue, Cu Chi Nov 21
Sorry about this paper, but it’s all I have handy at the moment. Today I volunteered to work in the Chaplain’s office as his assistant. How does that grab you? I didn’t have anything else to do and I thought it may make the day go quicker. All I have to do is sit here and answer the telephone.
“Things aren’t looking so good anymore. I may be a few days late. The quinine treatment lasts 10 days. That means I’ll stop taking quinine on the 26th Nov. If they then send me back to my unit to sign out, I’ll be late by two or three days. If they send me from here to Bien Hoa – I’ll still make it. They still won’t tell me exactly how it will be. I’m so close to being home I can taste it – and I hate this writing in the dark. But I have to be patient and I hope you all and Peni will be, too. I don’t really expect her to wait – not knowing when I’ll be in, so I guess the best thing to do is give her a call when I get home.
“I’d like you to get hold of the Nov 10 issue of ‘Life’ if you don’t have it already, and hang on to it for me. There’s some good stuff in there.
“Also enclosed is a little half ass map of some of the places I’ve been over here and their relationship to Siagon. I’ve never been to Dau Tien. I just put it on there because it makes the news a lot. I’ve never been to Lai Khe either, but the Cav used to be there. Now it belongs to the 1st Infantry Division.
“The Chaplain told me this morning that Tay Ninh was hit by about 17 big rockets last night. The nurses quarters took a direct hit, but he said no one was hurt as they live underground. Bet it shook them up some though. I hope no one was hurt in our area.
I guess that’s about it for this letter. Bear with me for just awhile longer. It won’t be much longer. Take it easy everyone, Love Dave.”
It irritates me that I have no memory of my last days in Viet Nam or the journey home. This letter may as well have been written by someone else. I became the Chaplain’s assistant. No memory of that at all. Although this was the last letter before I left, I am going to end this journey next week with a summary and my thoughts about the blog. I will also post a couple of pictures. Below is the little map I drew. On the other side of the page, I drew a large peace sign. Til next Monday then.
Dave – this blog has been very interesting and i look forward to your final thoughts next week. You reconnected with the Maxson family, which probably by itself made this blog an important project as it helped them bring closure to a sad chapter in their lives. It also brought the reality of soldier life In Vietnam home for many of us that only knew what it was like from news and movies. An interesting PS to this blog would be your transition from what seems like a somewhat brainwashed infantryman to a card carrying member of the VVAW.
I followed your blog with interest and will continue to do so if you continue.