This letter was written on July 10th, eight days after the last one which means, I guess, that the 4th of July kind of escaped our notice. Also, I’ve started including my brother Steve in the greeting. I’ve mentioned Steve before. He’d been at college all year, but was now home for the summer and working with dad. On to the letter.
“Dear mom, dad, Steve and Sue, I was really sorry to hear about the accident where the young girl was killed. It seems weird that when we have so many dying over here that people back home die so needlessly and stupidly.” I don’t remember this specific incident and in the letter I immediately shift gears. “So when it is finally paid for, make sure you’ve got all the stuff. If you don’t want the coat suit, all you have to do is write them and tell them. As far as my allotment home goes, it takes a hell of a long time for that stuff to go through. I received a pay voucher that said it finally had, so you should get the increase this month. You keep asking me why I don’t save more of my money. You forced my hand and I’m going to tell you.
“We don’t get many chances to spend our money over here, and when we do get the chance we’ll usually go hog wild. Why? Because it may be our last chance to do it. All this money is no good to us dead.” Whew! That was rather harsh, wasn’t it?. “And this way even if what we buy is no good to us, at least we will have had the pleasure of buying what we want at least this once in our lives no matter what the future holds.” I had to read this several times for it to make sense to me. “As it stands now, I have over 400 dollars in my account with 4 more paychecks to go. I expect to spend 300 or 400 more when I go on my 7 day leave in a couple of months. After that, what is left I will bring home.
“Enough on these money matters. I honestly appreciate your taking care of these things for me. As for me being sued, I sure hope that’s being cleared before I get home. But I have to admit I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard since I’ve been here as when I opened your letter and read that I was being sued for $10,000. We all got a kick out of it. Pardon the expression, but I hope that old Jew drowns in his own piss!” Racist phrases were not uncommon in our household growing up. Dad had a lot of them and used them on many occasions. I think after I got home and went back to TCU and got involved in the anti war movement, I began to lose my racism. No I take that back. In our foxholes all men were brothers. Racism and ethnocentrism didn’t exist in our unit, at least I never noticed any. ‘Anyway, I can’t remember why I was being sued. The Army said not to worry about it. I didn’t, and it went away.
“Steve, mom tells me you’ve set a new record for nights at home. I think it’s good. Over here one begins to realize how much his family means to him. And mom, don’t worry too much about Steve. We drank together a few times at TCU and I’ve never seen him lose control of himself or even get drunk. I’m sure he’s not near as bad as his juice freak friends.” Ironic that I was the one who turned out to be the alcoholic.
“I completely forgot Rob’s birthday, but it doesn’t hassle me since the slob never writes anyway. What does bother me is that I missed your anniversary. It’s nothing new, but I hate myself for forgetting again.
“Steve, I’ll probably forget your birthday, but I’ll try not to. That goes for yours too, dad. I’m glad there’s plenty of work for you this summer, dad, but you could never get me up on a 60 foot platform – no sir, and if you want my help when I get out, you better plan on keeping me pretty close to the ground.” I did work for him the summer I got back, and I WAS the guy on the ground. I did not climb up the staging.
“Packages! I really don’t know how long they take to get here. I think usually 8 to 14 days, though I’m really not sure. Mrs. Kenny’s package made it quite awhile ago, but I never did thank her.
“Received a real nice letter a few days ago from John McRae. He shows a lot of concern about what is going on over here and it’s always a pleasure to answer his letters. He’s a great guy. Peni has been coming through also. She sent me some real nice photos of herself (which I requested). Everybody has been real good about writing and it’s only when I’m down that I don’t seem to appreciate it. But I’m beginning to feel short and I don’t hate anyone.” Feeling short simply mean’t that my time in Viet Nam was getting shorter. “4 ½ months to go. 3 ½ months left in the field – a little over 100 days. Would you believe only 144 days left in all. We’re due in at the LZ in a couple of days. We’re working from two LZs now instead of one, so our time in the field has been lessened to 10 days instead of 15. I hope It keeps up this way.” Even though an LZ was subject to attack, I seemed to have preferred hanging out at the LZ as opposed to being in the field. More creature comforts, I suppose.
“You’re probably aware of the lull in ground fighting over here at present. Most of us feel that it’s the calm before the storm, but our hopes are up for something better. As you probably know, an offensive was supposed to start early this month. So far it’s failed to materialize. We haven’t made any contact for almost 3 weeks. Please save this clipping on the attack you sent me. D Company was securing the LZ at the time and their company commander was killed when a 107mm rocket hit his bunker. The mosquitoes are killing me so I guess I’ll sign off here. Take care. See you soon, love Dave.”
This was more of a housekeeping letter than anything. I wish that I had spent more time writing about the guys I served with. Not sure why I didn’t. I did write about Marty and Max, my friends who were killed in action. I’m pretty sure that Max didn’t arrive until after Marty had been killed, so I don’t think they knew each other. I’m including another picture of both, the one of Max given to me by his family.
John Maxson
I think your rationale for spending money while in Vietnam was totally reasonable! Your parents were obviously thinking of what was appropriate stateside. Facing death would make saving for the future such a low priority! Having someone of any race or culture watch your back would also make a person’s race or religion a low priority!
The pictures of Max and Marty really make their deaths hit home. They had faces, and lives, and their lives turned out to be very short. It’s heartbreaking, especially from the vantage point of old age, having raised two children, one a son who is now 35, and both children are alive and happy.