← Part of Letters from Vietnam
letter
Letter to Terrie, undated — reception week: 'Basic begins Monday,' and a visit planned for 20 December
Charlie's short, tired letter to Terrie from the reception week just before basic training begins (undated on the page). He actually got one hour to himself, spent on his bunk, before an hour of walking around a building tonight as everyone else has to do. He hopes she's studying hard and expects all A's from her. Basic begins Monday, which ought to be great; he hasn't done anything all week and is very tired. He's looking forward to seeing her and will probably come up on 20 December. Opens 'Dear Terry.' Signed 'Love, Charles.'
What the letter is
A tired half-page from the reception week, the holding period after induction and before basic training formally begins. Charlie has an hour to himself and spends it flat on his bunk; there is an hour of pointless walking around a building to do tonight, “as does everyone else.” Basic “begins Monday,” and he plans to come up and see Terrie on 20 December first. It’s one of the earliest letters in the correspondence, the road to Vietnam not yet even properly started.
Transcription
Dear Terry,
I actually got 1 hour to myself but it is here on my bunk. I have to walk around a building for an hour tonight as does everyone else and I have to go soon.
I hope you are studying hard. I expect all A’s from you. I’m tired so this is going to be a short letter. Basic begins Monday which ought to be great. I haven’t done anything all week and I’m very tired.
I’m looking forward to seeing you and I probably will come up 20 DEC.
Love Charles
What the letter records
Reception week. “I actually got 1 hour to myself… I have to walk around a building for an hour tonight as does everyone else.” The pre-basic reception station, the days of processing, waiting, and make-work before training proper, is the Army at its most numbing, and Charlie’s flat exhaustion (“I haven’t done anything all week and I’m very tired”) is the fatigue of pure idleness and regimentation, not labor.
“Basic begins Monday.” The letter sits on the hinge between civilian and soldier: basic hasn’t started, but it’s days away, and Charlie is already bracing (“which ought to be great,” dry). The first-day-of-basic letter picks up the following Monday, KP on day one.
“I expect all A’s from you.” Terrie is in school (she’d be at the University of Maryland), and Charlie’s teasing insistence on her studying, “I expect all A’s from you”, is the thread that runs to the very end of the corpus, the October 1970 field letter’s “keep studying and maybe we can have a good time next summer” said from a firebase a year later.
The 20 December visit. The plan to “come up 20 DEC” to see Terrie before basic swallows him, one of the small in-person meetings that kept the courtship alive across the training year, on the way to the August 1971 marriage.
Scans
