← Part of Letters from Vietnam
letter
Letter to Terrie, undated — first day of mortar training, NCO school turned down, and 'at least I won't be going overseas'
Charlie's two-page letter to Terrie from Army advanced training (undated on the page; headed 'Tuesday'), reassembled from its scans (dad232 page 1, dad230 page 2). The first day of mortar training is over; it should be rather easy once he gets the hang of it, and the time is going fairly fast — just 6½ weeks left of 'this nonsense.' He says he's good at getting his name on lists: he was asked to volunteer for NCO school but turned it down, and the chances are excellent that he'll be in Washington after 18 April, once this cycle is over — it will mean spit and polish, which he detests, but at least he won't be going overseas. (A short family-health passage is held private at the family's discretion.) He'll probably call home to find out more. On the Easter question: as of now he thinks he gets off, so he plans to come up — she'll have to drive him and put him up unless he has to stay at his uncle's — though they haven't said yet if or for how long. He closes teasing her to keep studying and not let her job interfere with school. Signed 'Love, Charles.'
What the letter is
The letter where the plan that runs through the training months looks, for a moment, like it is going to work. Charlie has turned down NCO school and expects to draw the Washington assignment instead — “spit & polish, which I detest, but at least I won’t be going overseas.” It is the high-water mark of the D.C.-guard hope: the stateside posting that would have kept him out of Vietnam, here described as an excellent bet. The rest of the corpus is the answer to that line. He went overseas.
Transcription
Tuesday
Dear Terrie,
The first day of mortar training is over. It should be rather easy once I get the hang of it. The time seems to be going by fairly fast. Just 6½ weeks left of this nonsense.
I seem to be good at getting my name on lists. I was asked to volunteer for NCO school but I turned it down. The chances are excellent that I will be in Washington after 18 April and this cycle is over. It will mean spit & polish, which I detest, but at least I won’t be going overseas.
I haven’t heard any news from home. [A short family-health passage is held private at the family’s discretion.] I’ll probably call home in the next day or so to find out more.
I have no idea whether I’ll be off Easter or not, especially since I will probably be — [page 2:] As of now I guess I get off Easter so I do plan to come up. You’ll have to drive me and put me up unless I have to stay at my uncle. They haven’t said if we get off or for how long yet.
Let me know how things are going, and you take a cold shower — that is an excellent cure for being horny, and I don’t want you to do anything rash.
Keep studying and don’t let your job interfere with school. Write.
Love Charles
What the letter records
Turning down NCO school, again. “I was asked to volunteer for NCO school but I turned it down.” The same decision the NCO-school letter and the mortar-training letter record, here at the moment of an actual invitation refused — because it raised the odds of Vietnam, and the Washington posting was the opposite bet.
The Washington assignment, near-certain. “The chances are excellent that I will be in Washington after 18 April.” The D.C. guard hope at its most confident. The “18 April” cycle-end date and the “6½ weeks left” are the letter’s own clock, placing it in early March 1970 — weeks before the orders that sent him the other way.
Mortar training. “The first day of mortar training is over.” The infantry-AIT weapons rotation, the same stretch as the M-72 rocket-launcher letter — the making of the infantryman the Washington posting would have made unnecessary.
Easter leave. The plan to come up and see Terrie over Easter, contingent on getting the time off, driving, and lodging — one of the in-person meetings that kept the courtship alive through the training year, closed with the dry teasing the later letters carry.
Scans
