Lovely Rita, Rita maid…. “Just a few more days and we go into LZ Rita for a 5 day rest. From what I understand it won’t be much of a rest. That place is hit every day by rockets and mortars. It’s almost safer out here.” 20 year old David is now on the front lines, whatever that mean’t. Playing soldier around Phouc Vinh was not the same as being one around LZ Rita. It’s amazing how I write about rockets and mortars and then ask mom for more cookies, that the last ones had arrived unbroken.
I then answer questions from home. “You’re right, I have no choice about where I’m sent. Tay Ninh is a city north of here 10 or 15 miles. I think Quan Loi is the province. We’re just about 7 miles from the Cambodian border. Am I hearing regularly from Peni? No, I’m not – 2 letters in 2 months, not very good I’m afraid, but where there’s life, there’s hope, so I keep writing anyway. Heard from Mrs Perry twice. She’s a good woman. It’s too bad their family is such a mess. She signs her letters “Mother Perry.”
I then proceed to give family advice about mom trying to match make my brother Steve and then this; “Oh yes, a ‘bummer’ is an uncomplimentary term. Means the same as a bad time, or when referring to people – a creep, or a waste of time. Such is life.”
“Now a little about what we’re doing. We try to get ‘Charlie’. We ambush his infiltration trails every night, but as I said before little contact has been made. Tonight some gook rockets flew overhead. They were fired from around 800 meters from us so we guided artillery on them. They probably took off before the rounds came in though. But it’s the same old story. We move through the jungle all day and camp at night. Haven’t had a hot meal in over two weeks.” C-rations was the name of the game. If I remember correctly, C-rations came in a box, and in that box was a can of entree like spaghetti, a can of fruit, a can with a roll or biscuit in it, a tiny roll of toilet paper and a 4 pack of cigarettes. Just delightful.
The next topic in the letter concerns a debt I had to a friend going to TCU. I owed him $80 dollars and I asked my parents to use money I sent home to pay him back, talking about what a great guy he was. I recently tried to find him, but the most recent search led to financial difficulty with a Dallas church in which he was pastor back in 2009.
I finish with the following: “I’ve got athlete’s foot on my left foot, but there is nothing I can do about it except put foot powder on it. It’s not serious enough to send me to the rear. I’ve also got some kind of brown stain on my front tooth. Also not good enough to get sent to the rear, but I felt a sharp pain in one of my teeth a couple of days ago – and if I get it again I’m going to ask for a dental appt. I guess that’s it for now. I’ll write again as soon as I can.” I don’t remember ever going to the dentist from the field. And that’s the way it was Feb 9th or 10th, 1969.