Dear Mom & Dad,

Today we were supposed to make a CA at 8:30AM but it was raining too hard so they called it off for 24hrs. They put us on 15min standby; we have to be ready to leave to help someone in 15min in case they hit something. It’s now 2:35PM and we will be on standby until 6PM so I don’t think we will have to go.

We built a fire in our tent. We took a can and filled it with gas, the smoke gets you black but it keeps you warm. I dread to think about going out to the field we will be wet all the time and won’t have a chance to dry.

If you want to know what I want for Christmas it’s a rain outfit. That will keep me dry and at the same time. But I’d like to get it as soon as possible since the rains have already started. I’d like to have one with a hood and also a piece in front that comes up high on the neck so the water that drips from my helmet wouldn’t drip down the inside of the coat. It has to have some type of insulation on the inside. Because I dread monsoon without one.

Well that’s about all the news I have so I’ll close and try to write more tomorrow.

Your Son

Letter home 8 October 1967