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Letter to Terrie, 5 January 1971 — the 1st Air Cav stands down and the drops grow
Charlie's four-page letter to Terrie dated 5 January 1971, from the Da Nang rear. The news is the drawdown: rumor has the 1st Air Cav Division beginning stand-down and heading home, while the 101st will likely stay through the year. Because the 101st has a manpower ceiling and will absorb transfers, Charlie reasons the early-out 'drops' should grow large — some men are already getting a 55-day drop, nearly two months. He figures Hawaii may not happen but that home is better anyway, muses about taking an in-country R&R just to sit in Da Nang and avoid the field, and is writing home for money to buy stereo equipment (the savings from skipping R&R will help). He expects to be on his way home around 12–18 March if the rumors hold, wants Terrie in Marietta when he arrives, and floats a June wedding if he gets stationed on the East Coast rather than California or Alaska.
What the letter is
5 January 1971. A four-page letter built almost entirely out of good news by rumor. The 1st Air Cav is said to be standing down and going home; the 101st will stay, but the math of the drawdown — a manpower ceiling, transfers in, fewer slots — means the early-out drops should get big. Charlie does the arithmetic of his own departure out loud: maybe no Hawaii, but home by mid-March, a stereo bought with the R&R money he’d save, and — for the first time stated this plainly — a June wedding, if the Army is kind enough to post him somewhere near Terrie rather than Alaska.
Transcription
Jan 5
Dear Terrie,
Everything is still fine here. The rumors have it that the 1st Air Cav Division has begun stand-down and will be going home. The 101st will probably be staying til the end of this year at least but it is still good news. All the poor guys in that division who have more time left to serve than me will be shipped to other units. A lot of them will come to the 101st. The 101st has a ceiling on the number of men it can have so the drops ought to really start and be big even if they don’t come out with a 10-month tour. Some guys are already getting a 55 day drop which is almost a 2 month drop now. It doesn’t look like Hawaii but home is better anyway.
I may take R&R in country and come back to Danang and just sit around for 7 days. Anything to avoid the field. It has been raining and cold for the last 7 days here and I imagine the field is pure hell (cold hell that is).
I’m writing home for money so I can buy my stereo equip. From the money I save by not going on R&R [it] should add up to a nice stereo outfit.
I should be out of here and on my way home March 12–18 if everything works out the way the rumors have it. I would like you to be in Marietta when I get there. I’ll let you know more details later when I know more myself.
How is school & all? I haven’t received many letters recently from anyone so I just trust everything is going alright. Time goes slow and fast at the same time. I sleep in til 12 or 1 every day after pulling 6 hrs of guard at night. Bill Fisher wrote. It seems he was beat up by some soul brothers last Dec. and had to have stitches. The race problem over here is pretty bad too but the blacks I associate with are alright and I have no problems.
I can’t believe I’m wasting 4 sheets of paper on you when it has been 3 days since I’ve heard from you.
Did your parents ever meet up with my parents or what. If I get back in March a June wedding would be alright if I get stationed on the east coast. It will be my luck to be in California or Alaska.
Well I’ll write some other day now. I hope I can keep writing good news and the rumors come true.
Love Charles
What the letter records
The drawdown as personal good news. Charlie reads the entire strategic withdrawal through one lens: how much sooner it gets him home. The 1st Cav going home, the drops growing, the 10-month tour rumor — each is weighed only for what it does to his own number.
The stereo math. A recurring late-tour thread: he would rather skip the Hawaii R&R, pocket the money, and buy a stereo than spend it on the trip — the same household-goods accounting that runs through the PACEX and Sears letters of the spring. Home is better anyway is half consolation, half budget.
The first plain mention of a June wedding. “If I get back in March a June wedding would be alright if I get stationed on the east coast.” Months before the Hawaii-marriage debate of the spring, the idea of marrying in June 1971 is already on the table here — contingent, characteristically, on the Army not exiling him to Alaska.
A firsthand note on race in the ranks. Charlie’s report that a friend, Bill Fisher, was beaten by “soul brothers” and that “the race problem over here is pretty bad” is a small primary-source witness to a well-documented reality: racial tension and violence between Black and white soldiers ran high in rear-area Vietnam in 1970–71, as the draft-era army absorbed the same divisions tearing at the country back home. Charlie’s own coda — “the blacks I associate with are alright and I have no problems” — is the period’s casual register, preserved here as he wrote it.
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