This letter home dated Nov 17 is another short letter, and there is only one more letter after after this one. I will probably discontinue the blog after that. I have lived a life more interesting and exciting than a lot of people who have written autobiographies, but this blog is as close as I will come to writing a book. I will leave the website up for awhile. It has been suggested that I do a prequel, but the only source I have for that is letters that I wrote to Jennifer while I was still at TCU before I was drafted. I will read her letters and see if there is enough there to make a prequel interesting and factual. I also have some letters that I wrote home during my training. I will look at those as well. My memory of those months is foggy at best so it will depend on what is in the letters. I will make that decision by next week when I post the last letter home before exiting this year long bad dream. So, to the letter.
“Dear Mom, dad, Rob & Sue, Cu Chi Nov 17
“My third day in the hospital slowly comes to an end, and I still know nothing. I haven’t been eating much. Yesterday I couldn’t keep anything down, but today has been ok. My temp is normal. The food is lousy and that is another reason I don’t eat much. I’ve had so much quinine shoved into me in the last 3 months that the doctor decided I’d better have an ear test. Apparently quinine can affect hearing, but mine’s still ok. It’s not great, but it’s ok. You’ll probably hear me saying ‘what?’ a lot of times. Although my temp is normal, I still feel sick. That’s also from the quinine. Sometimes I think the cure is worse than the disease.
“Like I said, still no word on where I go from here or when. The doc said I’d be here a few more days, then I go to Cam Ranh Bay for a couple of weeks. At this point the nurse said something which I didn’t hear. The doc turned back to me and said, ‘We’ll probably keep you a few extra days.’ This leaves me to believe that I’ll probably be home on schedule. Thirteen days to go. You people can’t possibly imagine how glad I’ll be to get out of this place. So hang loose everyone, just a few more days. Whatever happens I’ll be there on time. My love to all, Dave. PS: Hope Peni will be there, too. I may not have the energy to drive to Canada. I’m at the 12th Evac Hospital at Cu Chi, Ward C-7.” Spoiler alert. Peni was not at the airport and I did end up driving to Canada. I’ll wrap it all up at the end of next week’s letter. Be good to yourselves and I’ll see you next week.
I'm posting two previous pics to show the difference between green soldier Dave and seasoned soldier Dave,
