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

What the letter is

A letter from advanced training in the spring, and one of the most substantial pre-Vietnam letters in the corpus, because it is where the marriage question is actually argued out. On the surface it’s weapons training, M-72 rocket launchers fired at a cost he can’t help tallying. Underneath it is the real subject: a ring, her parents, his parents, and whether two people can marry with an Army discharge and a war still between them and a life. Charlie’s answer is characteristically plain: “I’m still willing to marry you it is just that things such as discharges will have to work out.”

Transcription

Dear Terrie,

I got two letters from you today. The first ones since I’ve been here. From your letters I believe you are receiving my letters. There have been several days when I haven’t written.

Training seems to be reverting back to the same old thing. It should be more interesting which doesn’t mean it will be much better. Today we fired M-72 rocket launchers at $47 apiece. We each fired 2. I guess that comes to close to $20,000. Nice weapon.

I’m sorry your vacation comes around Easter. I should be able to see you then, and unless I’m forced to stay here. As far as a ring, then, I don’t know. I realize that I should just get one but I want to get the best for my $20.00.

What is your parents’ reaction to us? You asked about what my parents would think if we got married before you finished school. I think it is primarily what happened to Jeanne and that they don’t want to support us for [page 2:] a while. Also I doubt if things will work out that soon. That would be the case only if everything worked out. Don’t plan anything.

Lights are out so I’m going to have to end. I’m still willing to marry you it is just that things such as discharges will have to work out. Yes I will probably go back with Sears unless something big comes up. I doubt if I do much looking. Be a good girl and don’t get too horny.

Love Charles

What the letter records

The M-72 and the $20 ring. “Today we fired M-72 rocket launchers at $47 apiece… close to $20,000. Nice weapon.” The Army’s careless expense, thousands of dollars fired off in an afternoon, sits directly against the “$20.00” Charlie is trying to stretch into an engagement ring. He doesn’t draw the contrast himself, but the two numbers a paragraph apart make it: the war can spend twenty thousand dollars on a training exercise; a private planning a marriage has twenty.

The marriage argument. This is the fullest the marriage question gets in the training letters. Terrie had asked what his parents would think about marrying before she finished school, and Charlie answers honestly: the worry is “primarily what happened to Jeanne” — his sister — “and that they don’t want to support us for a while.” He is careful with her hopes (“Don’t plan anything”), but the bottom line is unequivocal: “I’m still willing to marry you it is just that things such as discharges will have to work out.” The tour and the discharge are the obstacles, not the intention.

“Go back with Sears.” “I will probably go back with Sears unless something big comes up.” The civilian job waiting on the far side, the Sears path the April 1969 spring-break letter had recorded him interviewing for in his Marietta College senior year, before the draft intervened. Here it’s the default future he’d return to after the Army.

The teasing close. “Be a good girl and don’t get too horny.” The dry, affectionate sign-off, the same register as the Christmas 1970 letter’s homesick candor, carrying the seriousness of the marriage talk out on a joke.