Tag Archives: An Khe

If I Do Die, I Die as a Soldier

Arlington Cemetery 1984

            Arlington National Cemetery 1984

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well I just got back from R&R and I am now in An Khe so I thought that I [would] drop a few lines.

I sure enjoyed hearing your voices it helps a lot. It gives a person a little more hope and things seem a little brighter. I am so home sick when I think of hearing your voice, it brings back so many thoughts.

I maybe shouldn’t write this or maybe think it but I want to tell you because I never said it while I was in the States that if something should happen to me while I[‘m] over here I [want] you to know that you are the best parents in the world. You have shown so much love and have done so much for me. I deeply love you for it.

Mom you showed it the most out in the open and Dad you were to[o] quiet to show you once told me that you maybe didn’t show it but I know you loved us all. You can’t count the times that I’ve tried to picture you in my mind you sitting in the big chair upstairs looking out the window so quiet and Mom trying to catch up on the work she had to do. O[h] how I would love to see it once again it means so very much to me.

I could always count on you for help even over 10,000 miles away. But I am proud to be an Infantry man and if I do die I die as a Soldier fighting for what I think is right.

 

Letter home dated: November 9, 1967

We held the coastline, they held the highlands

Dear Mom and Dad,

Well we made that CA (combat attack) last night about 4AM they woke us up at 2 and had us get all our stuff together. We made the CA on a fairly good-sized village, it was 2000 meters long. As soon as we landed our company setup a blocking force on the outside so I’ve been sitting all day while the village is being searched. Continue reading →

Camp Radcliffe, Vietnam

Vietnam soldier holding coca-cola at Camp Radcliff

Dear Mom & Dad,

Well here I am at Camp Radcliffe (it’s our base camp) near An Khe. It’s been raining almost all the time that I’ve been here. The rain stops as fast as it starts but after a hot day it feels good to have that cold water on you.

I arrived at Bien Hoa on Tuesday at the 90th Replacement. There I stayed for two days then we flew to An Khe to the First Cavalry Replacement where I waited for more orders. It took about 2 days for those orders. I’m in Co. B, 1st Bn, 8th Cavalry, which is part of Continue reading →

Machine gunner at LZ Geronimo

On patrol Vietnam countrysideDear Mom and Dad,

Well here we are at LZ Geronimo (that famous Indian) we came here from LZ English and I think that we will be staying here for about a week because we are getting a new captain. That’s a good thing.

(He spends part of the letter frustrated by loved ones at home who don’t take the time to write to him) If she thinks she has trouble finding time she should be over here, walk up and down mountains all day; dig a foxhole; set up a tent; eat. Continue reading →