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letter
Letter to Terrie, 15 February 1971 — awaiting orders in Da Nang, and the Hawaii budget
Charlie's letter to Terrie headed 'Feb 15' (1971), written from the Da Nang rear while he waits for the clerk-job orders to come through — he doesn't even know where to have her send his mail. He's been to the beach and is sunburned, darker than he's ever been though 'still light.' The activity is picking up (the Laos campaign), a lot of guys are going to get messed up, and their old equipment has been handed to new in-country GIs; he expects things to quiet down by late April or May. The back half is the Hawaii R&R budget for an April 9-19 window: her plane fare is the big expense, the rest $200-400 for room, food and entertainment — 'we could always eat hot dogs and stay in bed for the week to save money' — with Australia or Thailand as his fallback if she can't come. His family (parents and his sister Anne) sent him a yo-yo, paddle ball and top for his birthday, which he finds ridiculous but fun. This is one of two letters in the archive headed 'Feb 15'; the sign-off page is not located. Chuck to confirm dates and ordering from the envelopes.
What the letter is
15 February 1971. A waiting letter, written in the gap between the clerk job coming through and Charlie actually reporting to Camp Eagle a week later. He is in Da Nang, orders not yet cut, so unsettled that he can’t tell Terrie where to send his mail. The register is loose and rear-area — a beach, a sunburn, a ridiculous birthday yo-yo — and the real work of the letter is arithmetic: how to get Terrie to Hawaii in April on a private’s pay.
Transcription
Feb 15
Dear Terrie,
I really wouldn’t know where to tell you to send my letters. I’m still here in Danang awaiting orders. The army is very slow. I’m having a good time here. I was at the beach the other day and have a fairly good burn. I guess I don’t tan very well as I’ve been burned several times, almost every time I’m out in the sun. Over all I’m probably darker than I’ve ever been. I’m still light though.
It seems the activity is picking up over here. A lot of guys are going to get messed up. If I get screwed again and go back to the field it will be a while after we get back that we get out to the field again. It seems they have given all our equipment out to new GI’s just in country so we will all have to get new equipment. They will have a mess on their hands once again
[page 2:] all this activity should be quieted down again by May or late April.
I will try to get some material on R&R in Hawaii for you. Also I’ll try for April 9-19 (a week in there some place) and let you know. I guess it would be best for you to save all your questions & comments til I find out my address for certain. It seems the highest cost will be your plane fare. The rest will cost between $200-$400 for room, food & entertainment. We could always eat hot dogs and stay in bed for the week to save money.
If by some chance you can’t come I would then either go to [Hawaii — struck through] Australia or Thailand.
My parents and Anne sent me a yo-yo, paddle ball, and top for my birthday. Really ridiculous but I’ve had fun with it so far. Please don’t send anything as I don’t really need it. Save your money…
[The page carrying the sign-off is not located.]
What the letter records
Not knowing his own address. “I really wouldn’t know where to tell you to send my letters” is the whole administrative limbo of mid-February in one line: the clerk job approved, the orders not yet cut, Charlie physically in Da Nang but institutionally nowhere. It resolves within the week when he reaches Camp Eagle.
The Hawaii arithmetic. The trip is the organizing hope of the spring, and here it is at its most concrete — a dated window (9–19 April), a cost breakdown, and the tender joke about hot dogs. The same budget hardens into a deadline in the 24 February letter (the 5–6 March allocations) and, by spring, into the second R&R booking.
The yo-yo. The gifts from his parents and his sister Anne — a yo-yo, a paddle ball, a top — are the family reaching across the distance with the smallest, most childish things, and Charlie, twenty-one and counting down a combat tour, playing with them anyway.
Scans
