Stories & memoirs

Long-form narrative: memoirs, the combat log, the register, travelogues, ancestor sketches, letters. Sorted oldest first; undated items at the end.

• The Elijah Chenoweth Jr. family register — primary-source Chenoweth births, 1744–1806
  register · 1744 – 1806

  The handwritten Chenoweth family register Roberta inherited — survived a 1970s flood. Two opened-page photographs preserve the deepest direct-ancestor birth dates this archive can document: Thomas Chenoweth Sr.'s twelve children (1744–1770) and Elijah Sr.'s nine children including Elijah Jr. (1762–1806).

• Johann Michael Wildermuth's Naturalization Petition, Philadelphia, 1 November 1853
  ancestor-sketch · 1 Nov 1853

  The actual primary source: the 1853 petition filed by 'John M. Wildermuth, a Native of Germany' in the Philadelphia Court of Quarter Sessions, renouncing allegiance to the Grand Duke of Württemberg six years after his New York arrival as a boy under eighteen.

• Way family among early settlers in Noble County (newspaper clipping)
  ancestor-sketch

  Newspaper biographical sketch of Edward Taylor Way (1812–1879, Isle of Wight to Noble County) and his wife Anna Ellison (b. 1821, Coppull, Lancashire), enumerating their nine children — including the Edward E. Way line that descends to Chuck through Victoria Anna Way Davis.

• Letter from Rev. Abraham Anderson to his daughter Margaret Anderson, 21 May 1894
  letter · 21 May 1894

  A Presbyterian minister writes his daughter on a rainy Monday in 1894 — the archive's earliest surviving family letter, ordering a new coat at Wanamaker's for her commencement.

• Wedding invitation — Lilly Dale Chenoweth and Charles Leonard Eesley, 9 September 1903
  ancestor-sketch

  The original engraved wedding invitation — Lilly Dale Chenoweth and Charles Leonard Eesley — Wednesday 9 September 1903, Methodist Episcopal Church, Harrisburg, Ohio.

• William Eesley Obituary (College Corner, Ohio), c. 1916
  ancestor-sketch · 1909 – 1916

  The most detailed surviving biographical sketch of Albert Robert Sr — Stratford-on-Avon, briefly teaching in the house Shakespeare was born in, Newark, Ayr, the Michigan mills, Toronto.

• Souvenir of the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Henry Eesley and Clemens Wilkins, 2 November 1915 (Midland, Michigan)
  ancestor-sketch · 2 Nov 1915

  A 1915 printed souvenir program from a different Eesley branch — Henry Eesley and his wife Clemens Wilkins, married in Blenheim, Canada in 1865, fifty years later sending greetings from Midland, Michigan with their eight children scattered across Detroit, Denver, Steamboat Springs, Wisconsin, and East Tawas.

• Letter from Lillie Dale to her son Len, 3 September 1922 — 'Wilbur's leg is that it isn't you'
  letter · 3 Sep 1922

  The earliest letter in the family archive. Lillie Dale Chenoweth Eesley writes from Grove City, Ohio to her eldest son Len, on a cross-country car trip to California — fifteen-year-old Will is at home with a broken leg from falling off a roof, and Len is to visit the Chenoweth cousins in Pasadena.

• The 1937 Marietta Flood — Robert Earl Wildermuth's childhood at 413 Harmar Street
  ancestor-sketch · Jan 1937 – Feb 1937

  Four feet of water on the first floor of the family house, the wooden fireplace mantle floating around breaking every window, and 13-year-old Robert Earl paddling his father's boat door-to-door selling newspapers at flood-time prices.

• Helen's journal — 1 September 1939: a dream of Dale
  memoir · 1 Sep 1939

  Seven weeks after her brother Dale drowned at Black Lake, fifteen-year-old Helen Eesley writes down a dream that he had come back — on the same day, at the top of the page, she writes one other word: 'War!'

• Lillie Dale Eesley's September 1939 letter to Leonard & Helen — "the involuntary feeling that Dale will come walking in"
  letter

  Lillie Dale's September 1939 letter, two months after Dale's drowning — Thelma's move, Lyle's two days of helping, and the line: 'It is hard to go back to the lake and no matter how one reasons there is that involuntary feeling that Dale will come walking in.'

• George E. Eesley Obituary, Fremont News-Messenger, 5 June 1942
  ancestor-sketch · 5 Jun 1942

  June 1942: George E. 'Bus' Eesley dies at 39 during surgery in a Kenmore NY hospital. Anchors the R. Albert Sr branch and names the next generation, including Dan Eesley of San Francisco.

• The 1940s Charles Leonard Eesley letter collection
  letter-collection · 1940 – 1949

  A large body of Charles Leonard Eesley's wartime correspondence in his own hand, held by his granddaughter Roberta Burnes — almost indecipherable, not yet read or digitized; the single most consequential undeciphered source still to come.

• 90th Bomb Group 'Jolly Rogers' and the 400th 'Black Pirates' Squadron — unit context for Robert Earl Wildermuth's WWII service
  ancestor-sketch

  The unit Robert Earl Wildermuth served in — 400th Bomb Squadron 'Black Pirates' of the 90th Bomb Group 'Jolly Rogers' — and what its operational record places around his 1944–45 Pacific tour.

• Robert Earl Wildermuth's WWII scrapbook — aircraft and the homecoming, captions
  memoir · 1 Nov 1944 – 31 Oct 1945

  Robert Earl's own typed captions for the B-24s of his war — GLADYS, BELLE WRINGER, the doomed CHEROKEE STRIP — and the aerial photo of the California mountains on the triumphal return, October 1945.

• The Big One: World War II
  combat-log · Nov 1944 – May 1945

  Robert Earl's dated WWII mission log as B-24 navigator — the mission-by-mission record running Nov 1944 (ferry departure) through the October 1945 flight home, in four phases: Hawaii ferry, the 22nd BG attachment at Peleliu and Tacloban, the return to the 90th BG at Mindoro, and the Ie Shima postscript that ends with the MGM newsreel cameraman over Nagasaki and 30 November 1945 separation from the army.

• Robert Earl Wildermuth's marginalia in Alcorn's *Jolly Rogers*
  memoir · 20 Dec 1944 – 28 Sep 1945

  A 90th Bomb Group veteran annotating the published history of his own group — Robert Earl's handwritten notes, keyed page by page to the official record, correcting and confirming it in his own hand.

• My Mother's Favorite Son — Charles Eesley's 12th-Grade Autobiography (c. 1964–1965)
  memoir · 1964 – 1965

  Charlie Eesley at seventeen, typewritten and dedicated to his parents, in five chapters with table of contents and outline — his voice five years before Vietnam, three years before the first surviving letter to Terrie, fifty years before the son's eulogy.

• Letter to Terrie, 13 December 1968
  letter · 13 Dec 1968

  The earliest surviving Charlie-to-Terrie letter, a year before Vietnam: Marietta College in his senior year, the Twain book the bookstore didn't have, Terrie just accepted to Maryland.

• Letter to Terrie, 31 October 1968 — 'I didn't care much for the Vanilla Fudge'
  letter · 31 Oct 1968

  The earliest dated letter from Charlie to Terrie in the archive. October 1968, before Vietnam, before the draft, before the engagement — Charlie at Marietta College, writing about a Vanilla Fudge concert he didn't enjoy and asking Terrie to set his friend Jay Ray up with someone for Thanksgiving weekend.

• Letters from Vietnam
  letter-collection · 1968 – 1971

  Charlie Eesley's letters home from his 1969–71 Army tour — plus the surrounding Marietta College courtship letters of 1968–1969 and a small set of family letters from the same years. A curated selection is published in full; the rest catalogued with bodies withheld at the family's request.

• Letter to Terrie, c. April 1969 — 'Cops are everywhere. People get arrested right & left'
  letter · 1 Apr 1969 – 10 Apr 1969

  Charlie on Florida spring break of his Marietta College senior year — burnt to a crisp on the beach, watching arrests on the sand, scheduling a Cleveland Federal Reserve interview and a Philadelphia Sears interview for the weekend Terrie wants to visit. The pre-draft career track that the Vietnam orders would intercept.

• Letter to Terrie, late 1969 — Christmas leave plans, '711 days left'
  letter · Nov 1969 – Dec 1969

  Charlie writes from stateside training planning his Christmas leave (18 December to 6 January), checking that Terrie can stay with him and his family if her sister Angela can't put her up, and counting down the 711 days remaining on his Army term.

• Letter to Terrie, late 1969 — refusing NCO school, and 'beginning to hate the army'
  letter · 1 Jan 1969 – 31 Dec 1969

  Pre-deployment letter from Army training stateside: prepping for a Saturday inspection, another company just shipped out (Germany, except its NCOs, who went to Vietnam), and the first 'I'm really beginning to hate the army. It is all so petty' that becomes the year's refrain — plus his firm decision to turn down NCO school if it's offered instead of D.C.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — reception week: 'Basic begins Monday,' and a visit planned for 20 December
  letter

  One hour to himself, spent on his bunk, before an hour of walking around a building tonight like everyone else. A short, tired note from the week before basic training starts: expect all A's from you, basic begins Monday and ought to be great, and I'll probably come up to see you 20 December.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — the D.C. guard interview, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
  letter

  The good news he's chasing: they need guards in D.C., and after 'this nonsense here' he'd go to Washington and become one — guarding things like the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, one day on and two days off. He missed his interview but gets to make it up next Saturday; if he passes, the chances are said to be very good. And he got drunk this weekend and forgot the army for a while, which was good.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — the first day of basic training, KP from 3:30 AM
  letter

  Charlie's first day of basic training, and his turn on KP has already come up — 3:30 AM when they wake you to 7:00 PM when they let you go. The physical part isn't so hard; it's that everyone has to do everything together. He lives in a barracks, the Army won't mail a letter without a return address, and thanks for the stamps.

• Charlie Company, 1-506th Infantry, 101st Airborne — unit context for Charlie Eesley's Vietnam letters
  ancestor-sketch

  The unit Charlie Eesley served in — 1-506th Infantry 'Currahees,' 101st Airborne Division — and what its operational record places around the dates of his letters.

• Letter to Dorothy Hauser, 26 June 1970 — 'keep working for peace,' the mountains, and a company hit hard
  letter · 26 Jun 1970

  Charlie's earliest surviving letter to Dorothy Hauser, written weeks into his tour: thanks for the Kool-aid, keep working for peace — and a plain, angry report of where he is. Up in the mountains with just his unit and the NVA, beautiful country but worthless, and a company near his hit hard the last week: 12 dead and 27 wounded. He's bound to run into action sooner or later; he just hopes the year goes fast.

• Letter to Terrie, 1 July 1970 — 'the month is over with, I have survived,' 50 days in
  letter · 1 Jul 1970

  His first full month in Vietnam is over and he's survived it, with only one real contact. Packages are fine but keep them small; letters he reads for days before burning them. Marriage location is up to her — 'most anything you want I'll go for.' The field stretch is running longer than he thought, and helicopters have spotted an enemy complex they're heading toward.

• Letter to Terrie, 10 October 1970 — 'still alive,' in the lowlands, and hoping Nixon announces a plan
  letter · 10 Oct 1970

  A short resupply-day note just to say he's still alive. They're in the lowlands for a few days, taking another company's place — it doesn't rain as hard down here as in the mountains, though he's wet now and dreads going back up. She should make dean's list at least once in her college career. He hasn't heard much of what's going on in the world, but hopes Nixon announces a plan for faster withdrawal. Then he has to pack up again.

• Letter to Terrie, 10 September 1970 — a helicopter crash, camera shopping, and 'I'd be a resident of Canada now'
  letter · 10 Sep 1970

  The month is a third over and the monsoon is coming for real. A helicopter crash killed 33 — 'bad, but one of the minor things to worry about' when you've had 25-30 rides yourself. He plans to buy a camera and radio at the rear, and imagines what he'd tell a visiting colonel about the Army if anyone ever actually asked.

• Letter to Terrie, 12 April 1970 — 'This may be your last letter from here'
  letter · 12 Apr 1970

  The end of training, days before orders. A field exercise finished, gear turned in, five days and a wake-up — and orders due Tuesday that everyone knows mean Vietnam. His friend Abbott's unit is already going (28 of 33). Tension high, fights breaking out, and Charlie trying to get home one last time before the Army sends him where it's sending him.

• Letter to Terrie, 12 December 1970 — settled into the rear, a friend killed back home, and the March 12 drop
  letter · 12 Dec 1970

  Things have settled into a routine and Charlie can't believe how good he has it compared to the field. But the mail brings bad news from Bob Hartz: somehow Gary Self got killed in California, a car accident he thinks. The 10-month-tour drop is still just a rumor; if it comes he'd be home March 12 with no time for R&R, so don't count on Hawaii. Either way, he will not be coming home on leave. The next letter, he says, he'll send to her family's home in Florida.

• Letter to Terrie, 12 November 1970 — a short answer to ten letters, the Nov 13 stand-down, and 213 days left
  letter · 12 Nov 1970

  A short answer letter to about ten of Terrie's letters, which arrived all at once two days ago. They go in tomorrow, Nov 13, for a one-week stand-down 'training,' then back to the lowlands. Don't worry about what his uncle writes — he likes you. And the arithmetic that runs the rest of the tour: he plans to extend and get out June 13, 1971, which leaves 213 days at this writing.

• Letter to Terrie, 14 December 1970 — the $3.30-per-minute phone call and the Christmas-present joke
  letter · 14 Dec 1970

  Charlie in the rear writing two days after a Sunday-evening seven-minute MARS phone call to Terrie, telling her to bill it to the Christmas money he'd already sent.

• Letter to Terrie, 14 October 1970 — 'Out of the field May 1, 1971 because all combat troops are being withdrawn'
  letter · 14 Oct 1970

  Charlie's first written awareness of the Vietnamization combat-troop withdrawal date — May 1, 1971 — and the initial Hawaii R&R proposal for January or February 1971 (which got pushed to April when Lam Son 719 cut into the leave system).

• Letter to Terrie, 14 October 1970 — the Hawaii idea, first floated, and 'out of the field May 1'
  letter · 14 Oct 1970

  Rain every day now, the kind he half likes — long enough to soak them, then done. And the first appearance of what becomes the great plan of the tour: 'Do you want to meet in Hawaii in Feb?' He's not sure it's a good idea, but it might be arranged. They're giving big drops like crazy; he may be home in March, out of the field by May 1, 1971 as the combat troops withdraw. Of 240 days left over here, only 140 in the field. The end is a long way off — but in sight.

• Letter to Terrie, 14 September 1970 — the 50-day streak of no contact broken, and 'a terrible, cruel business'
  letter · 14 Sep 1970

  Soaked in the jungle mountains for a week straight, Charlie reports that their long run without contact ended two days earlier when his eight-man squad ran into two enemy soldiers on a trail — one killed. 'It is a terrible, cruel business over here which I wish I had no part of.' Then the letter turns to reading, care-package requests, and a friend's draft lottery number.

• Letter to Terrie, 15 November 1970 — the package, Spec 4, the 2-week leave rumor, and the inquiry closed
  letter · 15 Nov 1970

  Her package arrived, basically what he wanted, with a list of additions to come. He's now Spec 4, $70 more a month. There's official word of a 2-week leave that sounds too good to be real, and he warns her not to get her hopes up: coming back after two weeks home with her would be very hard. The congressional inquiry his mother started is over. He's had a chance to drink, two nights in a row.

• Letter to Terrie, 15 October 1970 — VIPs by helicopter, and 'the first enemy killed in over 3 months' in the brigade
  letter · 15 Oct 1970

  A contact the night before left an NVA soldier dead — reportedly the first enemy kill in the whole brigade in over three months — and now VIP visitors are flying in by helicopter to congratulate the company. Charlie hopes the attention means they'll stay in the lowlands. Between the war news: Sandy says hi, his sister Marjie is considering a sorority, and he still hasn't found the nerve to write Terrie's parents.

• Letter to Terrie, 16 December 1970 — 'The picture you got was taken in the enlisted men's club here on post'
  letter · 16 Dec 1970

  Charlie explains the photo Terrie received — the enlisted men's club at Camp Eagle, the Vietnamese girls who served drinks, and his honest read of who in country could be trusted. Plus rumors of a 60-day-early drop he was trying not to get his hopes up about.

• Letter to Terrie, 17 August 1970 — beach guard, and a few things she should know
  letter · 17 Aug 1970

  A faint pencil letter written after twelve hours of beach-guard lifeguard duty. Charlie has been drinking with a friend whose wife hasn't written in five months, and watched another man break down and cry over a wife who'd left him — and writes Terrie that there's no comparison, that she's the one.

• Letter to Terrie, 17 October 1970 — 'the only group that has contact anymore,' and 240 days left
  letter · 17 Oct 1970

  A forecast typhoon fizzles into ordinary rain, and Charlie notes, half-wry, that his unit seems to be the only one still making enemy contact. He estimates June 12 as his out-date — 240 days or less — and tells Terrie not to worry about something neither of them can do anything about.

• Letter to Terrie, 17–18 December 1970 — a guard tower fired on, a beach day, and still hoping to get out
  letter · 17 Dec 1970

  A two-day letter from rear-area guard duty: one of the towers they pull guard from was fired at, but no one was hurt. The next day, pleasant weather and a beach trip planned, a rumor of fifteen more days here, the stereo he still can't order until his $700 comes, the silverware he's waiting to hear landed — and, activity quiet, his hopes still up about getting out of here early.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 December 1970 — the 50-50 odds, and the children at the fence
  letter · 18 Dec 1970

  Sober now and trying to write a kinder letter. The Hawaii trip is a coin-flip on whether a 'drop' comes through — and then, almost in passing, the hardest line: he was nearly sent back to the field for refusing to fire at children to scare them off the wire near his guard post.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 February 1970 — nine weeks into stateside NCO training, rumors of Vietnam
  letter · 18 Feb 1970

  Charlie in stateside training, nine weeks in, in a barracks room with eight mostly-Connecticut National Guard college grads. Conflicting rumors: the commander says they're all going to Vietnam; the NCO squad leader says they just want them in NCO school. Charlie working the 150-day early-out math either way.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 July 1970 — 'I get mail from 5 different people yesterday but none from you. I am angry.'
  letter · 18 Jul 1970

  Charlie in the field mid-July 1970, no letter from Terrie in days, the gung-ho captain holding the unit out for seven more days of drudgery. The 'screw the gov't' line about 6-cent vs airmail postage is one of the most populist register-notes in the corpus.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 November 1970 — back out to 'really hairy' action, half drunk in the rear
  letter · 18 Nov 1970

  Half drunk on his last drinking day before going back out, Charlie tells Terrie plainly about the area they are headed into: 'all kinds of action,' quite a few of our people killed in the past few days, 'really hairy' — and the base he is writing from isn't safe either, hit by rocket. Then the practical turn: the 2-week leave home is starting to look too expensive, and a set of stainless steel ware is in the mail, 'not a Christmas present,' for the two of them after the war.

• Letter to Terrie, 19 October 1970 — 160 days in, mailing out by chopper, and 'maybe we can have a good time next summer'
  letter · 19 Oct 1970

  A short field letter sent out on a passing chopper: rain, but bearable under the ponchos, a rumored move back to the lowlands around November 2, and the tour arithmetic — 160 days over here and no certain end. He can't think of much to say; he just hopes the war ends somehow, though he doubts it. Keep studying, and maybe next summer they can have a good time.

• Letter to Terrie, 20 October 1970 — the apartment question, and 'you still get the most letters'
  letter · 20 Oct 1970

  Waiting on a mountain resupply, Charlie reassures Terrie about a rival named Sandy, suggests she meet him in Hawaii instead, tracks a small stock investment, and floats getting an apartment together before marriage. He also mentions, without much comment, that several other girls write to him — she still gets the most letters.

• Letter to Terrie, 21 November 1970 — 'I love you but would prefer to send you $1000'
  letter · 21 Nov 1970

  Charlie on a firebase in November 1970, two days from going back to the field. Christmas leave is being discussed back home; the math says it costs nearly $1000 in transportation alone. He'd rather send Terrie the money.

• Letter to Terrie, 21 September 1970 — 'Guess what! Here I am in the hospital suffering from Malaria'
  letter · 21 Sep 1970

  Charlie writes from a Vietnam hospital on American National Red Cross stationery — newly admitted with the 'curable kind' of malaria, expecting two more weeks of bed rest, and depressed at the prospect of returning to the field afterward.

• Letter to Terrie, 22 December 1970 — a bad outlook for the drop, and 'Budda'
  letter · 22 Dec 1970

  An army-paper clipping enclosed, and the news it confirms: no big drop coming, so maybe here till May or June. 175 days left, a growing dread of going back to the field, and a rueful self-portrait — up to 185 pounds, hair going, and nicknamed 'Budda' by the kids across the wire.

• Letter to Terrie, 22 June 1970
  letter · 22 Jun 1970

  Field letter, June 1970: first contact action ('really weird'), twelve letters at mail call but only one from Terrie, the army's 50% savings program he was banking on.

• Letter to Terrie, 23 November 1970 — platoon radio operator, the year's schedule, and Thanksgiving in the rear
  letter · 23 Nov 1970

  Two letters from her today, and news of her library raise. He lays out the whole rest of the year's schedule — off the firebase Nov 24, three hours in the rear for Thanksgiving dinner, the lowlands, a 'school' in the rear til Jan 2. And a real change: he's now the platoon radio operator, off patrols, in a relatively safe area. Mail is crawling, one every five to seven days; send delicacies, not main meals.

• Letter to Terrie, 24 October 1970 — a typhoon alert, a congressman's reply, and 165 days in
  letter · 24 Oct 1970

  A promised day of rest keeps getting postponed as the worst weather of the month turns into a typhoon alert. His mother has gotten a reply from their congressman about his situation, though he doesn't know what it says yet. Nine GIs killed in a booby trap gets a soldier's cold-eyed explanation. He's shopping for stereo brochures and marking 165 days in country.

• Letter to Terrie, 25 December 1970 — Christmas morning on guard
  letter · 25 Dec 1970

  Christmas morning, hot and muggy, and on guard again with little cheer. He's seen the Bob Hope show ('most of his jokes fell flat but the girls weren't bad'), and weird Christmas cards are arriving from strangers who found his address in the paper. Sober, homesick, trying to be a good boy.

• Letter to Terrie, 25 November 1970 — Thanksgiving in the field, and two deaths explained
  letter · 25 Nov 1970

  The day before Thanksgiving, back in the field in the misty monsoon, with no feeling that the holidays have come. Charlie answers Terrie's worry about 'contact' by explaining the two recent deaths plainly — both from things soldiers aren't supposed to do — and why he won't take ordinary leave home.

• Letter to Terrie, 28 December 1970 — the 10-month-tour rumor, a scare that was a lie, and 'maybe even get married early'
  letter · 28 Dec 1970

  The rumors all say a 10-month tour now, which would put him home in the middle of March — still nothing definite. A week ago a man passing through said a platoon was wiped out and he was really scared about going back, but it seems the guy lied. He's getting psyched about coming home even still in the damn army; if he comes back early, maybe they even get married early. And: stop sending magazines — they have a library.

• Letter to Terrie, 28 November 1970 — the misty rain, the families maybe meeting at Christmas, and 'what is your answer to the Hawaii deal?'
  letter · 28 Nov 1970

  A short resupply-day letter from the field: four days of shower-type misty rain, drying out between showers. Terrie and her family may get to Marietta over Christmas vacation — is she going to try to introduce the parents? And the question that has been running since Thanksgiving, put to her plainly: what is your answer to the Hawaii deal? It would be her Christmas present, with him as the prize.

• Letter to Terrie, 28 October 1970 — one year in the Army, and 'I do think I came back out too soon'
  letter · 28 Oct 1970

  Four days of steady rain and no resupply, but Charlie hasn't panicked — yet. He reflects on his own malaria evacuation, admitting he probably came back to the field too soon after all, and marks the milestone: by November 9 he'll have wasted a full year of his life in the Army. A joke about the weather's one mercy closes the letter.

• Letter to Terrie, 28 September 1970 — 'I'm at Cam Ranh Bay at a convalescence center to fully recover from my bout with Malaria'
  letter · 28 Sep 1970

  Charlie at the Cam Ranh Bay rear-base beach convalescence center one week after the hospital letter, recovering from malaria, watching movies every night, stretching the days before he has to go back to the field.

• Letter to Terrie, 29 August 1970 — 109 days in, and 'we will work things out as they happen'
  letter · 29 Aug 1970

  August is nearly over, thank God, and the South Vietnamese are holding their own near Firebase O'Reilly. Charlie is more annoyed than alarmed that Terrie may not graduate on schedule, and lays out a flexible wedding plan built around it: late June or early July, honeymoon deferred to August, and maybe an unplanned upside — living together for a while first.

• Letter to Terrie, 3 October 1970 — recovering from malaria at Cam Ranh Bay, and 144 days in
  letter · 3 Oct 1970

  Still at Cam Ranh Bay recovering — no lasting damage, he's told, because they now have the medicine to cure malaria that they didn't have in WWII, and he 'didn't have it that bad' anyway. Mostly he's trying to avoid going back to his company: the doctor gave him an extra five days because he said he didn't want to go back. Around the recovery, the war goes on — 'still 70-100 GI's die every week' — and so does the courtship's long argument about her degree, the army drop rumors, and the marriage that keeps depending on the service.

• Letter to Terrie, 30 November 1970 — disgusted with the Army, the lowlands flooding, and November finally over
  letter · 30 Nov 1970

  Pay day tomorrow, and Charlie is once again 'disgusted completely with the army and the people in it' — several chances at a week or two in the rear, each one blown out by something. The misty rain won't quit; they finally pulled the other two platoons out of the low ground when one group found itself surrounded by slowly rising water. Send the latest Newsweek or Playboy in an envelope, not a package. November is finally over, though over here he has no sense of season at all.

• Letter to Terrie, 30 September 1970 — dreading 20 inches of October rain, and pulled for guard instead
  letter · 30 Sep 1970

  Still recovering, and grateful to have dodged two weeks of the field before September ended — but October is forecast for 20 inches of rain where he'll be, and he dreads it. The $130 check arrived safely. Disappointed she won't graduate in June after all, he's at least relieved to finally have real numbers to plan around. Then the Army pulls him onto guard duty for the night anyway.

• Letter to Terrie, 31 December 1970 — '10-month tour is definite, I should be home in March'
  letter · 31 Dec 1970

  Year's end 1970. The 10-month early-drop is locked in: Charlie home in March 1971. The version of the future he eventually walked away from three weeks later when he chose to extend to June 14 1971 instead.

• Letter to Terrie, 4 September 1970 — writing from under a poncho, and a new captain's bad call
  letter · 4 Sep 1970

  Rain a steady drizzle, frogs barking on the hillside — the monsoon picture, Charlie calls it. A new captain has already made one questionable decision: sending a six-man patrol out too far with no immediate reinforcement. 'It is going to be a most miserable experience any way I look at it.'

• Letter to Terrie, 5 August 1970 — a beach day, and what happened when some guys went to the village
  letter · 5 Aug 1970

  A relaxing day at the beach before heading back into the jungle. He dreams of Daytona Beach when he's home, admits again he's behind on his letters, and asks about her graduation prospects. Then, matter-of-factly: some men in his unit went to the village the night before, and Charlie reports what he saw without having gone himself.

• Letter to Terrie, 5 August 1970 — Firebase Ripcord's shelling, company losses, and 'just homesick'
  letter · 5 Aug 1970

  Operations around Firebase Katherine, and relief that he isn't at Ripcord — hit with over 1,000 shells in the months after he left it in June. A company in the battalion lost 12 men; his own hasn't lost anyone yet. Between the war news: a Japan trip idea from his sister, his dad's new company car, and being horny and just plain homesick.

• Letter to Terrie, 5 November 1970 — fourteen days without mail, the congressman inquiry, and the extension plan
  letter · 5 Nov 1970

  From the field in the monsoon: fourteen days since anyone got mail, over a month without a shower, eight or nine days of straight rain. His mother has written their congressman about his situation, so he's being sent to the rear for the inquiry. He thinks he made E-4, and lays out the extension math that the whole rest of the tour will run on: extend 32 days to get out June 13, 1971, or catch a 90-day early-out for mid-May.

• Letter to Terrie, 6 October 1970 — back to the field, booby traps, and 'raise hell' if the letters stop
  letter · 6 Oct 1970

  His easy life is about over — back in the company area, being sent to the field, where his company went three days without food while he was in the hospital and two men stepped on booby traps and lost a foot. 'How I hate this army and the 101st in particular.' He's asked his mother for the congressman's address, and he's voting for the immediate-pullout candidates. He'll be out until Thanksgiving and the monsoon may stop even the weekly letters — so if she goes weeks without word, raise hell.

• Letter to Terrie, 7 September 1970 — the firebases evacuate for the monsoon, and honeymoon ideas
  letter · 7 Sep 1970

  O'Reilly and Katheryn are evacuated ahead of the monsoon — not because the firebases are unsafe, Charlie explains, just because they're easier to live on. He rules out a honeymoon at 'Rocky' if her parents are nearby, and floats New Orleans, New England, or Canada instead. A $130 check needs confirming, and Abbott says hi.

• Letter to Terrie, 8 December 1970 — the phone call he's planning, and the good life in the rear
  letter · 8 Dec 1970

  He hopes to call her next Monday, 13 December — if he doesn't get through, at least he'll have tried, and she shouldn't be stubborn about the cost, use the money he gave her. And the rear is comfortable now: good PX prices, a great mess hall with Vietnamese girls to clear the tables, tennis and basketball and handball courts, a movie that changes every day, and booze at a little over two dollars a bottle. So he's happy.

• Letter to Terrie, 8 July 1970 — 'I'll give one of them my sob story and see if I can't sway public opinion'
  letter · 8 Jul 1970

  Charlie at the two-month mark in country, hating field rotations, learning that none of the mail in or out is censored — and planning to use four visiting newsmen as a public-opinion lever. The only letter in the corpus where he writes about deliberately working the press.

• Letter to Terrie, 8 October 1970 — 'I leave for the damn field today'
  letter · 8 Oct 1970

  A short note dashed off before he ships back out: he leaves for the field today, and still can't believe they'll keep him in the mountains through the monsoon just because of resupply and support problems. They haven't even given him time to straighten out his finances. By the time she reads this he'll have five months over with, three left if he gets out in June — which seems an awfully long time. Then he has to pack up and go.

• Letter to Terrie, 9–11 August 1970 — a new captain expected, a beard restarted, and 'calm down a little' on marriage
  letter · 9 Aug 1970 – 11 Aug 1970

  Written across several sittings before mailing: a captain change coming, a quiet week of guard duty and short moves, then a restarted beard, a request for her parents' address, and a gentle brake applied to how fast Terrie wants to plan the wedding — 'it is over 10 months still before I get back.'

• Letter to Terrie, c. 8 November 1970 — the stand-down, day 180, and a Sydney R&R idea
  letter · 8 Nov 1970

  From the firebase, in pencil: a one-week stand-down coming Nov 13, sixteen days without mail and maybe stretching to twenty-one, the unit due to rotate down to the lowlands. Day 180 in-country with 217 to go, 'not even half way yet.' He's thinking of a Sydney R&R in January or February. No enemy contact in nearly a month, thank heavens.

• Letter to Terrie, c. early 1970 — Fort Bragg, the .45 and the hand grenades
  letter · 1 Feb 1970 – 12 Apr 1970

  A training letter from Fort Bragg: thanks for the shirts, please stop spending money on him, and the day's work — fired the .45 today, grenades tomorrow, 'the training is rather slow and boring.' He needs nothing, he says, 'except a warm body.'

• Letter to Terrie, c. early 1970 — the physical and mental tests, and 'one step above a trainee'
  letter

  Undated early-service letter from Charlie to Terrie, from his Army training/reception period (placed c. early 1970 from internal evidence: 'things are going to get financially tight the first half of 1970'). He urges Terrie to save money and find a good summer job, reports passing the physical test that morning with the mental test the next day, complains of a sore throat and cold he can't shake, and notes that unless he does something greatly wrong he'll at least get promoted to 'one step above a trainee.' Closes the surviving page with 'I hate this place.' Transcribed from scan dad206 (duplicate scan dad207); any continuation page was not located.

• Letter to Terrie, c. February 1970 — orders, and 80 days in the army
  letter · 1 Feb 1970 – 28 Feb 1970

  Early on a Wednesday morning near the end of a training cycle: orders are in, rumors flying, nothing left but turning in gear. Nearly 80 days in the army, a few dollars of food money over the Christmas break, and a phone call home promised for that night.

• Letter to Terrie, c. late October 1970 — Hawaii, the November leave, and 'move in with me'
  letter

  Undated Vietnam letter from Charlie to Terrie, placed c. late October 1970 from internal evidence: he is 'eligible after Nov 16 when it takes effect' for a rumored 3-week stateside leave and hopes to 'be home X-mas,' and R&R in Hawaii is on the table. He reassures her not to take his letters so seriously ('I love you, everything will work out all right'), jokes about whether he proposed they live together before the wedding, notes the PX stereo will still run about $1000, and hasn't yet received her second package. Signed 'Love, Charles.' Transcribed from scans dad203–dad205; the letter's opening page was not located in the scan set, so the transcription begins mid-sentence.

• Letter to Terrie, c. summer 1970 — '5th day out... violent campus'
  letter · May 1970 – Aug 1970

  Charlie on the fifth straight day of monsoon-rain patrol, writing about an uncle's offer to be there if Terrie gets arrested at her 'violent campus' — the Eesley family's protect-Terrie response to the post-Kent State Maryland protests.

• Letter to Terrie, late 1970 — 'When I get back I'll probably be in Marietta two weeks…'
  letter · 1 Oct 1970 – 31 Dec 1970

  Late-tour letter looking past Vietnam: Marietta layover, Sears or new job, D.C. summer with Terrie, 'go into business for myself.' The civilian Charlie taking shape.

• Letter to Terrie, mid-1970 — 'I'm carrying the machine gun now. It weighs 25 lbs. I haven't used it and hope I never do.'
  letter · 15 Jul 1970 – 15 Aug 1970

  Charlie at the spear-tip — carrying the M-60 machine gun on a field rotation in the bush — and writing the first words of the Marietta wedding planning in the same letter. Two parallel pieces of his future condensed into one page.

• Letter to Terrie, October 1970 — 'I will vote for the immediate pull-out candidates'
  letter · 1 Oct 1970 – 31 Oct 1970

  October 1970, monsoons starting in I Corps: Charlie writes his congressman and votes absentee for the immediate pull-out candidates. The tour-defining political letter.

• Letter to Terrie, spring 1970 — 'I saw the movie Woodstock today. Quite interesting!'
  letter · 1 Apr 1970 – 31 May 1970

  Charlie watches the Woodstock documentary at a Vietnam screening: 'I saw the movie Woodstock today. Quite interesting!!' The cultural-distance moment, one preserved sentence.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — 'a lot depends on my orders now,' finish school, and not forcing a marriage
  letter

  Trained in the rain, everyone miserable, and then a blunt letter he says he won't edit: finish school with no expense hassle, don't go part-time, get the loan, watch the roommate and the job. And underneath it, the reason — a lot depends on his orders now, which will decide their immediate future and maybe everything. He's fairly certain he loves her, but he won't force a spur-of-the-moment marriage the moment he sees her. A lot will be solved, he says, on 17 April.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — clerk training, an E-2 not a PFC, and 'I type too slow'
  letter

  A correction and a complaint: he's not a PFC, only an E-2 up from E-1 — and he types too slow and makes too many mistakes to be a good clerk, he thinks. They keep throwing things at him; the forms have to be just so. Boring, waiting, a few very bad movies. He hopes she does better this semester with 18 hours, and hears she'll be staying at Maryland.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — firing the M-72, the $20 ring, and 'I'm still willing to marry you'
  letter

  From advanced training in the spring: they fired M-72 rocket launchers today, $47 apiece, close to $20,000 worth — a nice weapon. Set against that, the $20 he means to spend on a ring, and the harder questions underneath: her parents' reaction, his parents' worry about marrying before she finishes school, and his own steady line — 'I'm still willing to marry you, it is just that things such as discharges will have to work out.'

• Letter to Terrie, undated — first day of mortar training, NCO school turned down, and 'at least I won't be going overseas'
  letter

  First day of mortar training done, six and a half weeks left of the cycle. He was asked to volunteer for NCO school and turned it down — and the chances are excellent, he says, that he'll be in Washington after 18 April, spit and polish he detests, but 'at least I won't be going overseas.' Plus the Easter-leave plan: he thinks he gets off, so he'll come up, if she can drive him and put him up.

• Letter to Terrie, undated — mortar training next week, and why NCO school 'just isn't worth it'
  letter

  A rainy, miserable training day, the parade called off, mortar training starting next week. Everyone expects Vietnam; he privately puts the odds at 50/50 for somewhere else, though the training is all geared for it. And an answer to her question about NCO school: it's for young sergeants to lead men, they're needed in Vietnam, and going that route would cut into his time too deeply — 'it just isn't worth it.'

• Letter from Anne Eesley to Terrie, 18 March 1971 — teaching, dating, and plans for Spain
  letter · 18 Mar 1971

  Charlie's sister Anne writes Terrie from Ohio while Charlie is in Vietnam: a thank-you for a birthday gift, relief that Charlie is 'in a safe place' now, the rhythms of her teaching year, a new boyfriend, and her plan to finish a Master's at Wisconsin and spend 1972 in Spain.

• Letter from Dorothy to Terrie, 26 March 1971 — 'I can't tell you how utterly sick we are about your planning to meet Charlie in Hawaii'
  letter · 26 Mar 1971

  Three days before Charlie's March 29 booking-confirmation letter, Dorothy Wildermuth writes Terrie that she is 'utterly sick' about the Hawaii R&R — the same parental-propriety objection that runs through the spring 1970 letters. Per Chuck (June 2026): there was only one R&R (April 1971 Hawaii) — the spring 1970 Hawaii letters are the long lead-up to it, not a separate trip.

• Letter from Peggy Eesley to Charles & Terrie — the wedding aftermath, c. September 1971
  letter · 1 Sep 1971

  Peggy sends the newspaper wedding write-up and the compliments coming 'on all sides,' reports the canning and a 25th-anniversary party at the Crow's Nest, and closes with a mother's note about Charlie's insulin.

• Letter from Peggy Eesley to Terrie, 10 February 1971 — the Camp Eagle extension and the Congressional letter
  letter · 10 Feb 1971

  Charlie's mother to her future daughter-in-law: Charlie's tour has been extended a month at Da Krong; the CO at Camp Eagle has written to Congressman Miller; the Eesley family stainless steel pattern is on its way to Maryland.

• Letter to Dorothy Hauser, 1 January 1971 — 'Say hi to the Mothers for Peace for me'
  letter · 1 Jan 1971

  Charlie writes a New Year's note from Da Nang to Dorothy Hauser, Peggy's friend in the Mothers for Peace circle. Short, plain, and conclusive — confirms the Dorothy Hauser hypothesis and carries Charlie's only direct political line on Nixon in the corpus.

• Letter to Terrie, 1 January 1971 — the new year, the rumors, and a picture enclosed
  letter · 1 Jan 1971

  New Year's Day. The new year has finally arrived and Charlie is still in doubt about whether and when he gets out, a hundred rumors and theories running. He encloses a picture, notes the locals around him who don't even know there's a war on, and admits he's having a hard time keeping up with the letters he owes.

• Letter to Terrie, 1 March 1971 — 'A lot of guys are going to get killed. I'm really glad that I'm out of the field.'
  letter · 1 Mar 1971

  Three weeks into Operation Lam Son 719 — the Laos incursion Charlie had warned Terrie about a month earlier. Charlie is in an air-conditioned Da Nang office pulling CQ, watching the operation go bad in real time, doubting Hawaii R&R will happen, suggesting Cape Hatteras as the post-tour alternative.

• Letter to Terrie, 10 February 1971 — 'I'm still in Danang' (same day as Peggy's congressional letter)
  letter · 10 Feb 1971

  Charlie writes from Da Nang the same day his mother writes Terrie from Marietta — two letters from the two ends of the same family, on opposite sides of the world, about the same tour.

• Letter to Terrie, 13 January 1971 — rats, the Bob Hope show, and a word against poetry
  letter · 13 Jan 1971

  Four of her letters answered at once: the rats and three-inch cockroaches of the firebases, the Bob Hope show that wasn't worth much 'except to say you've been there,' a friend two clicks away, and a deadpan piece of advice — 'stay away from poetry my dear, it just didn't make much sense.'

• Letter to Terrie, 14 February 1971 — a Valentine, and the clerk orders clear
  letter · 14 Feb 1971

  A short Valentine's note. The clerk-job orders that had been hung up by 'inefficient clerks' are finally moving; three or four days more, 120 days left, June 14 and home. 'Happy Valentines Day. Love Charles.'

• Letter to Terrie, 14 January 1971 — 1:45 a.m., rumors and a puzzling tape
  letter · 14 Jan 1971

  Awake at quarter to two, unable to sleep. No set 10-month tour after all, just big drops 'which are just as good.' A puzzling reel of tape from Terrie he can't get to play, a question about the silverware, and a flat line of homesickness: 'God how I hate it over here.'

• Letter to Terrie, 15 February 1971 — awaiting orders in Da Nang, and the Hawaii budget
  letter · 15 Feb 1971

  Still in Da Nang waiting for the clerk-job orders to come through, sunburned at the beach while the Laos activity picks up. He works out the Hawaii R&R budget for the April 9-19 window — her plane fare the big cost, $200-400 for the rest, 'we could always eat hot dogs and stay in bed to save money' — and reports the ridiculous yo-yo his family sent for his birthday.

• Letter to Terrie, 15 February 1971 — point by point: Laos, the one room, and a wedding in August
  letter · 15 Feb 1971

  A numbered reply to Terrie's letter of the 8th. No U.S. troops in Laos except support — 'the news is telling the truth.' His parents want the story told that Hawaii means separate rooms; the truth is one room and one bed. He's sorry about her F, figures they'll marry in August, and will come home with enough to cover her tuition. 'I'm red as hell right now. Maybe I'll look human by Hawaii.'

• Letter to Terrie, 15 January 1971 — on guard, scotch, and what's actually hard about the field
  letter · 15 Jan 1971

  On guard again at midnight, a few scotches in, ribbing about brands of whisky and a bad floor-show band. Then the clearest thing Charlie ever wrote about the war: it isn't the being shot at that wears you down, it's the endless company trips in all weather and the constant guard.

• Letter to Terrie, 15 March 1971 — six catch-up letters arriving at Danang, R&R finances and hotel plans
  letter · 15 Mar 1971

  Charlie at the Da Nang rear in mid-March 1971 — late in his tour — receiving six of Terrie's letters that had caught up to him during the Lam Son 719 mail backlog. Her fall-semester grades, the R&R hotel-not-yet-booked situation, the $2,000 he should have after the trip, and the $100 he'll send her on the first.

• Letter to Terrie, 17 February 1971 — the typing job, the R&R allocation, and the stereo
  letter · 17 Feb 1971

  The clerk-typist orders are finally on the way. Charlie lays out the R&R allocation timing for an April Hawaii window, demands a firm commitment ('no last minute backing out'), reports the stereo he's bought piece by piece — a TEAC deck, Pioneer speakers — and notes the 101st will be going into the A Shau soon, but he should be out of it.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 February 1971 — still in Da Nang, waiting on orders, down to 115
  letter · 18 Feb 1971

  A short note the day after the typing-job letter. Still in Da Nang, still waiting on the orders that didn't come. Charlie ties the clerk job to the whole spring plan — ETS, Hawaii, clearing his finances — counts himself down to 115 days, and reports a rumor the unit could be extended in-country another 30.

• Letter to Terrie, 18 March 1971 — 'It is up to you'
  letter · 18 Mar 1971

  88 days left and the mood lifting. Charlie tells Terrie the Hawaii trip is entirely her call — if her parents or her studies get in the way he won't be hurt — and insists, in the same breath, that he isn't trying to get rid of her.

• Letter to Terrie, 19 January 1971 — 'I'm going to extend 32 or 33 days so I ETS from here'
  letter · 19 Jan 1971

  Charlie planning his Vietnam extension as the route out of the Army — staying in country a few weeks longer to ETS from Vietnam rather than face stateside garrison duty.

• Letter to Terrie, 2 February 1971 — 'a last ditch effort to win the war'
  letter · 2 Feb 1971

  The earliest and most detailed of the Laos fore-warning letters. Two days before the famous 'don't be surprised when you hear about Laos being invaded' note, Charlie lays out the whole plan — the A Shau feint, Khe Sanh reopened, the trail bombed, the South Vietnamese sent across — and says plainly: 'I don't like the idea at all.'

• Letter to Terrie, 2 January 1971 — a booby trap, Tet rumors, and the drop
  letter · 2 Jan 1971

  New Year, and the whole letter is about getting out. A man in his old company loses a foot to a booby trap; rumors of a Tet offensive that will decide how big a 'drop' he gets; and Hawaii still on if the early-out doesn't come first.

• Letter to Terrie, 2 May 1971 — '43 days left, or 33 working days'
  letter · 2 May 1971

  Rain all day, a night shift slept off, and the countdown sharpened to working days. The Sears letter that should mean they won't need anyone's parents, and word from home that his folks finally paid off the loan.

• Letter to Terrie, 2–3 April 1971 — 'Your letter saying your parents are against us meeting in Hawaii'
  letter · 2 Apr 1971 – 3 Apr 1971

  Charlie reacts to Terrie's news that her parents have come out against the Hawaii R&R meeting — angry enough to consider calling the whole trip off, then writing his future in-laws himself.

• Letter to Terrie, 21 February 1971 — finally here, Camp Eagle, the clerk job comes through
  letter · 21 Feb 1971

  A short morning note. The orders he was waiting on have been cut: he's at Camp Eagle near Phu Bai, in the 101st Airborne's Office of the Chief of Staff, in a relatively safe area. He promises a fuller letter that evening and sends his new APO address.

• Letter to Terrie, 21 January 1971 — 'It seems we all will be back at Evans Feb 4'
  letter · 21 Jan 1971

  Charlie at the rear, two days after the ETS-extension letter — counting down 145 days, reading The Godfather through the malaria recovery, hoping a sunburn fades before he comes home.

• Letter to Terrie, 22 February 1971 — extended to June 14, the long hours, and a death from December
  letter · 22 Feb 1971

  Two days into the Camp Eagle clerk job. He's extended and will be out of the Army June 14. The work isn't hard but the hours are brutal, 7:30 to 7:00, seven days a week. Two men from his old platoon, on their way to Bangkok R&R, bring word: the soldier who stepped on a booby trap last December, while Charlie was in Da Nang, died 21 days later. He is, he writes, more anti-Army and anti-war than he can describe.

• Letter to Terrie, 22 March 1971 — R&R orders for Hawaii
  letter · 22 Mar 1971

  The operational coordination letter for the only week Charlie and Terrie would see each other between his shipping out and his return — Hawaii R&R, Marietta as the hand-off.

• Letter to Terrie, 24 February 1971 — five days in, and the cost of R&R
  letter · 24 Feb 1971

  Written in the evening. He has Terrie's letters from the 16th and is sorry she's been sick. Five days at Camp Eagle, settling in. On R&R his only objection is the cost: the March 5-6 allocations decide the April Hawaii window, and he needs a firm answer from her so they can plan to meet.

• Letter to Terrie, 24 January 1971 — sunburn, finals, and planning a March reunion in Hawaii or the U.S.
  letter · 24 Jan 1971

  Football on the beach, a blistered back, Terrie's college finals across the Pacific, and a March 1971 reunion being planned for either Hawaii or the States as Charlie's ETS-extended tour winds down.

• Letter to Terrie, 25 March 1971 — 'my old company is near Khe Sanh'
  letter · 25 Mar 1971

  Charlie reads a map and sees his old company is back near Khe Sanh — and is openly grateful not to be there. The Hawaii plan firms up: come as Mrs. Eesley on the airline ticket and save a hundred dollars. 81 days, and 'I need nothing now except for time to pass.'

• Letter to Terrie, 27 March 1971 — 'I'm beginning to hate everyone around me'
  letter · 27 Mar 1971

  A short, raw letter from the bottom of the tour. No mail in a while, no one to talk to, the rear-area men around him 'really poor excuses' — and the flat admission that the place is getting to him. Then: well, I guess I'll read a book. I love you.

• Letter to Terrie, 29 January 1971 — monsoons, 136 days, and dreading the field
  letter · 29 Jan 1971

  A grey, waiting letter on the eve of the Laos operation. The monsoons aren't done, the days crawl, 136 left — and Charlie, expecting to be sent back to the field any day, works through the logistics of getting Terrie to Hawaii.

• Letter to Terrie, 29 March 1971 — 'Please get your ticket under (Mrs. Eesley) to save money'
  letter · 29 Mar 1971

  Charlie books the Hawaii R&R. April 12–19 arrival window, $100 paid, the 'Mrs. Eesley' fare convention they had been planning around for weeks, 77 days to ETS. The Lam Son 719 detour is over; the trip is on.

• Letter to Terrie, 29 May 1971 — 'I'm back from Saigon... 17 days left'
  letter · 29 May 1971

  Charlie back from Saigon stand-down with seventeen days to count down to the Hawaii R&R rendezvous, half a continent away from Terrie's spring-semester finals at Maryland.

• Letter to Terrie, 3 February 1971 — 'Staying here in Danang til March 5 and maybe even longer. It is all too good to be true.'
  letter · 3 Feb 1971

  Charlie's short February 3 note, written the day before the Laos fore-warning letter — confirms the Da Nang stay through March 5, 131 days left, and the R&R-after-the-field strategy that's keeping him out of combat.

• Letter to Terrie, 30 January 1971 — pay day, the field he dreads, and an $850 stereo
  letter · 30 Jan 1971

  A short, irritated rear-area note. The pay clerks have fouled things up again, he never got to see anyone about 'my problem,' and he dreads the weather and the field he still expects to return to — but tomorrow he finishes buying the stereo, $850 of Japanese gear, the most he's ever spent on anything.

• Letter to Terrie, 31 March 1971 — Hawaii R&R planning, two months out
  letter · 31 Mar 1971

  Charlie nine days into Vietnam, answering Terrie's letter that says she already has her R&R ticket. Plans to stay away from the R&R center and military spaces. Mrs. Eesley's orders may get her a reduced fare. Mrs. Young, of all people, gets a brief, sad cameo.

• Letter to Terrie, 4 February 1971 — 'Don't be surprised when you hear about Laos being invaded'
  letter · 4 Feb 1971

  Four days before Operation Lam Son 719 launched, Charlie writes Terrie that the U.S. is 'going all out to win this damn war' and warns her not to be surprised when she hears about Laos being invaded. The clearest piece of in-theater foreknowledge in the corpus.

• Letter to Terrie, 5 April 1971 — 'Mom suggested that we get married in Hawaii and save everyone all the bother'
  letter · 5 Apr 1971

  Charlie writes Terrie from Vietnam two days after the parental-propriety flare-up. Peggy McMaster Eesley has proposed her own solution: marry in Hawaii during R&R and bypass everyone's objections. Charlie answers honestly: 'That isn't what I really want although I guess we will be married soon enough.'

• Letter to Terrie, 5 January 1971 — the 1st Air Cav stands down and the drops grow
  letter · 5 Jan 1971

  Good news by rumor: the 1st Air Cav is going home, the drawdown is squeezing the 101st, and the early-out 'drops' are getting bigger. Charlie weighs skipping R&R to buy a stereo and floats a June wedding — if the Army doesn't post him to Alaska.

• Letter to Terrie, 5 March 1971 — 'I arrived yesterday and am now at Quang Tri'
  letter · 5 Mar 1971

  A typed letter from the Quang Tri rear at the height of the Laos incursion: a room of his own, 101 days left, R&Rs rumored canceled because every aircraft is committed to the offensive — and the fear that Hawaii over Terrie's spring break is slipping away.

• Letter to Terrie, 8 February 1971 — 'I finally got a clerk job'
  letter · 8 Feb 1971

  The day the tour changed. Charlie lands a clerk job at Camp Eagle, the 101st Airborne's headquarters near Phu Bai — 'a relatively safe place' — confirms he'll extend to a 14 June discharge, and sends his new division-HQ address. The hardest clerk job there is, he says, and he doesn't care.

• Letter to Terrie, 9 January 1971 — a birthday letter from the general's beach house
  letter · 9 Jan 1971

  A birthday letter, half teasing and half tender, written on guard at the general's beach house with the Pacific finally clear of cloud. 'You sure are lucky I asked you to marry me' — the engagement, already settled — plus the congressional-inquiry aftershocks and the maddening wait for the drops.

• Letter to Terrie, 9 January 1971 — mail delays, the extension math, and the 'Donut Dollies'
  letter · 9 Jan 1971

  Two of her letters finally arrive and Charlie pushes back gently on the worry in them. He runs the numbers again — extend, no drop, 155 days — and closes with the Red Cross 'Donut Dollies' and a line that lands like a vow: 'I'll be telling you for the rest of your life.'

• Letter to Terrie, 9 May 1971 — the PACEX list and 'until I get back to decide anything major'
  letter · 9 May 1971

  Not much to write about, and he says so. Still waiting on Sears; about $300 saved through PACEX to add to the list of things he wants; and the big decisions — the ones that need both of them — left for when he's home.

• Letter to Terrie, c. February 1971 — NCO school or the early-out
  letter · 1 Feb 1971 – 28 Feb 1971

  A clerk's day full of typing mistakes, and a calculation he keeps turning over: a 12-week school would be good, but it would eat into the 150-day early-out he's hoping for. The war is heating up, and they're not pulling out fast enough to get him home early.

• Letter to Terrie, c. January 1971 — the Da Nang base, marijuana, and GI life
  letter · 1 Jan 1971 – 31 Jan 1971

  A long, candid rear-area letter reconstructed from its scattered pages: a tourist's-eye description of the Da Nang base, an ARVN grenade thrown in an argument, marijuana traded through the wire, and Charlie's running insistence that he's still 'a good boy.' The most sociological letter in the corpus.

• The Wildermuth/Fleming Heritage (Robert Earl Wildermuth, 1990)
  ancestor-sketch · Dec 1971 – 1 Jan 1990

  The 24-page family history Robert Earl compiled over eighteen years (1971–1990) — the deepest source this archive holds on the Wildermuth and Fleming lines.

• Earl Adam Wildermuth to Robert Earl, 17 January 1972 — the Schlicher-side genealogy letter
  letter · 17 Jan 1972

  Earl Adam writes his son in early 1972 with what he can remember of his own parents and grandparents — the names, the death dates, the nine William-Clifford-and-Flora children, the Schlicher great-grandparents who came from the Rhine to Philadelphia to Marietta. The primary-source letter that anchored Robert Earl's genealogy research for the next twenty years.

• Sadye Irene Fleming Wildermuth to her son Robert Earl, 13 December 1975 — eight months before her death
  letter · 13 Dec 1975

  Sadye's own voice in her own hand, less than a year before her August 1976 death. Off her potent medication and the transfusions, feeling weak but pretty good, back hurts when she's up too long. The weather is 72 degrees. Earl Adam loves the dishwasher Robert Earl gave them. Christmas with Carl and the girls coming down.

• Letter from Peggy McMaster Eesley to Terrie, c. mid-1970s — Anne's Wisconsin hospitalization, and the mother-in-law line
  letter · 1 Jan 1975 – 31 Dec 1985

  Peggy writes Terrie that Anne has been hospitalized in Wisconsin — exhausted, not as bad as first feared — then turns to a quieter line about her own mother-in-law: 'I liked (and respected) my mother-in-law very much.' Plus the small embarrassment of the pillowcases she forgot to put on the guest bed.

• Homer Davis obituary, January 1982
  obituary

  Two-paragraph Marietta Times obituary for Homer Davis (1900–1982): Waterford High School class of 1919, Standard Oil of Ohio, Mt. Moriah Lodge 37, Pine Island United Methodist; first marriage to Marie Hill (1923–1950), second marriage to Ida Roberts Drake (1968).

• Eesley Family History (1985)
  register · 1985

  Mary Eesley Bean's indented descendant register, generations I through VII — the relationship backbone for the paternal Eesley line in this archive.

• Robert Earl Wildermuth's 'Little Histories' (1988–1993)
  ancestor-sketch · Dec 1988 – Nov 1993

  The series of one-page ancestor sketches Robert Earl wrote for his Wildermuth-side line — from Catherina Boeshar across the Atlantic back to Anna Catherina Landai's parents in 1714 Württemberg.

• Robert Earl Wildermuth — life story
  memoir · 1924 – 1993

  Robert Earl's first-person autobiography: Marietta boyhood, the Pacific aboard a B-24, Stanford on the GI Bill, Korea, the Pentagon, and the long retirement turn to genealogy.

• Aunt Betty Wolfe's cards to Chuck, 2003–2005
  letter-collection · 2003 – 2005

  Three handwritten cards from Aunt Betty Wolfe (and Uncle Norm) to Chuck across his move to MIT and the run of grad-school years — the warmest small-format correspondence in the maternal-Wolfe layer of the archive.

• Wildermuth Family of Marietta, Ohio (Wildermuth & Bain, 2005–2009)
  register · 19 Oct 2005 – 31 Mar 2009

  Robert Earl Wildermuth's own multi-year genealogy of the Wildermuth family and its associated lines — the deep-research companion to his memoir and combat log.

• Letter from Chuck Eesley to his mother Terrie, 28 December 2007
  letter · 28 Dec 2007

  Writing from Cambridge after Christmas at home, Chuck thanks Terrie, sends money toward painting the house, and remembers the under-sea creatures from the visit.

• Letter from Jo & Joe Haddox to Terrie & Ben, postmarked 12 November 2010
  letter · 12 Nov 2010

  Aunt Jo writes from Florida after Dot's memorial — praise for Charlie's 'Best PhD Thesis,' shared notes on diabetes, and life at 75 with Uncle Joe and the dog Punkin.

• Obituary of Fay Elsie Heter Angel (1918–2011)
  obituary

  Her greatest joy was to be with and help in any way all of her friends and family.

• Eulogy for Charles McMaster Eesley
  eulogy · Dec 2015

  Chuck's eulogy for his father, delivered at the Marietta memorial service in late 2015 — the most personal document in Chuck's own voice in this archive.

• Obituary of Betty Jean (Davis) Wolfe (1926–2015)
  obituary

  Betty Wolfe joined her husband, Norman, in heaven.

• Obituary of Norman 'Norm' Graham Wolfe (1926–2015)
  obituary

  His was indeed a life well lived.

• Chuck and Lijie's annual charity bike rides
  essay · 2014

  Annual ADA Tour de Cure and MS Society Waves to Wine rides, anchored in Chuck's father's death from diabetes and Paul Twohey's friendship. Twelve years of five-minute videos collected here.

• Memorial Speech for Terrie Lee Bain
  eulogy · 8 Jul 2017

  Chuck's memorial speech for his mother — companion piece to his eulogy for his father, delivered at Hadley Funeral Reno Chapel in Marietta on 8 July 2017.

• Mrs. Bain and the Butterfly Effect — Tribute from the Teachers and Students of Harmar School
  eulogy · May 2017 – 8 Jul 2017

  A children's tribute written by the teachers and students of Harmar Elementary School where Terrie taught — read at her end-of-year assembly and then at her memorial service in July 2017.

• Obituary of Terrie Lee (Wildermuth) Bain (1949–2017)
  obituary

  She loved teaching her students, enjoyed teaching Safety Town during her summers for many years.

• Please don't cry for me — a poem by Terrie Lee Bain
  eulogy · 2017

  An eight-line self-eulogy Terrie wrote — the only piece of her direct voice in this archive. Read at her memorial service on 8 July 2017.

• Chuck and Lijie's scuba diving trips
  essay

  Chuck and Lijie's scuba liveaboard trips — Thailand's Similan Islands so far, Philippines next, more to come. Photos and videos accumulate as the trips happen.

• Daniel Edburn Eesley Obituary, 2018
  ancestor-sketch · 7 Jan 2018 – 10 Feb 2018

  The longest narrative this archive holds on any member of the Albert Robert Sr branch — Dan's Bay Area tech career (IBM, Amdahl, Memorex, HP), Twain Harte summers, and the San Francisco family.

• Eesley Line Research Notes — Oxford Public Library
  ancestor-sketch · 2018

  Three handwritten notebook pages a volunteer genealogist made for Chuck and Lijie at the Oxford public library in 2018, tracing the Eesley line back into 17th- and 18th-century Oxfordshire parish registers.

• Obituary of Anne Eesley (1946–2019)
  obituary

  Anne had a passion for teaching and the way education could help people reach their full potential.

• Thailand — Similan Islands liveaboard, 2023
  essay

  December 2023 Similan Islands liveaboard — Thailand's Andaman Sea coral and granite-boulder reefs.

• Eesley · Wildermuth structured family tree (GEDCOM)
  tree-export · 1 Jun 2026

  Dale Eesley's FamilySearch tree exported as GEDCOM — 3,465 individuals across 1,529 families. The structured companion to the narrative record on the rest of this site.

• Family threads — the values and practices that run across the generations
  essay · 2026

  An essay reading across the archive for the values, practices, and lessons that have been passed down through the Eesley, Wildermuth, McMaster, Fleming, and Zhou lines. Ten threads named, each anchored to specific people, documents, and places in this archive, with a parallel Chinese version below.

• Philippines liveaboard — December 2026 to January 2027
  essay

  Philippines liveaboard, 24 December 2026 to 2 January 2027 — Chuck and Lijie's upcoming new-year-over-new-year trip through one of the world's most biodiverse reef regions.

• The Qingdao Families — Zhou, Li, and Shang
  essay · 2026

  How Lijie's side of the archive fits together: three families rooted in Jiaozhou, Qingdao, and Pingdu, and the double marriage that tied two of them together twice in one generation.

• The three Charleses — Charles Leonard, Charles McMaster, Charles Eric
  essay · 2026

  A short reading of the naming pattern that runs across three generations of Eesley men: Charles Leonard (1879–1972), Charles McMaster 'Charlie' (1947–2015), and Charles Eric 'Chuck' (b. 1979). The first name carries grandfather to grandson to grandson, deliberately skipping the generation between, while the middle name carries a different family-record signal each time.

• The three Peggys — Peggy McMaster, Peggy Yeoman, Peggy Arnold
  essay · 2026

  A short reading of the three Peggys whose lives ran across one generation of this family and one hundred yards of one road in Lowell, Ohio: Peggy McMaster Eesley (Will's wife, my grandmother), Peggy Yeoman Eesley (Don's wife, the other Eesley-side Peggy), and Peggy Arnold of Highland Ridge — the neighbor a hundred yards away whose household my eulogy for my father named alongside my own. Two married into the Eesley line and the third was the nearest neighbor; none were related to each other; all three were called Peggy.

• Wildermuths Possibly Related — Open Wildermuth-Surname Connections
  ancestor-sketch · Jun 2026

  An open research document on Wildermuth-surname families held in the family archive but not yet linked to Robert Earl Wildermuth's documented Marietta-Ohio line through Dale Eesley's FamilySearch tree.

• Highland Ridge Road: A House Shaped by Japan and Hong Kong
  essay

  Will Eesley designed the Highland Ridge Road house after traveling through Japan and Hong Kong in the 1970s — low wide roofs with red-trimmed eaves, a red arched garden bridge, a stone lantern, and a shan shui mural inside.

• Notable Family Members — the Famous and the Wealthy
  essay

  Who the standouts are — a flour-mill magnate, a Shakespeare's-Birthplace schoolteacher, and (by way of a near-certain but unproven cousin link) a German cabinet minister, a beloved 19th-century writer, and a major Swiss novelist.

• The Wildermuth Clan of Rielingshausen — the Famous Cousins, and Robert Earl's Return
  essay

  Rielingshausen, the cradle of the Wildermuth name: a writer, a psychiatrist, a cabinet minister, a Swiss novelist — and Robert Earl Wildermuth's own eerie walk through a cemetery full of his surname.