Basic Training Starts Monday

Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 29 March 1970 — the earliest letter in the collection, written from the Fort Dix Training Center, New Jersey, the weekend before basic training began. New clothing and haircuts, a barracks of thirty, his drill sergeant, the spring weather, and a question about whether his brother had stored the family rifles. Written on Easter Sunday, about eight months before he would reach Vietnam.

Dear Mom,

I'm at the Fort Dix Training Center now. I got here Thursday evening, after spending four days at the reception station. We had our clothing, boots, hats, etc., issued and our records processed there. We had our hair cut, but it wasn't a very short one. I think we're supposed to get another one and it will probably be shorter.

The training center is a lot nicer and cleaner than the reception station with better food barracks. There's about thirty other guys in my barracks and most of them are pretty nice. Everybody's helping one another and things are going pretty good.

Basic Training starts Monday, but we've all done a little marching and physical training. Our platoon drill sergeant is drill sergeant Wilson, a colored guy, who seems to be OK.

There isn't any snow down here and it's pretty warm when the wind isn't blowing. It rained the first night we got here and it rained last night. When it's nice and clear it feels like it's in the sixties.

I suppose the weather ought to be pretty nice back home soon. Buss's driveway is probably getting pretty muddy.

I wonder if Buss took Dan's rifle and my rifle down to his trailer. I told him to before I left but he may have forgot.

Well I hope everybody is feeling OK, everything is fine down here.

Bye for now, Love, Marv

P.S. I hope everybody had a Happy Easter

Transcription Notes

• Transcribed by the family from the original handwritten letter; postmarked 31 March 1970, Fort Dix, NJ.
• His description of his drill sergeant uses the era's terminology ("a colored guy"); preserved verbatim as a primary source of its time.
• "things are going pretty good" and "he may have forgot" are Marvin's own usages, preserved as written.

Archivist Notes

The earliest letter — and the start of his service: This is the first letter in the collection, written from the Fort Dix Training Center, New Jersey, the weekend before basic training. The dates reconstruct cleanly from the letter itself. It is dated Sunday, 29 March 1970 (Easter that year); "I got here Thursday evening" places his arrival at the training center on Thursday, 26 March; and "after spending four days at the reception station" puts reception at roughly 22–26 March. Counting the four reception days back from the Thursday transfer points to an induction of Monday, 23 March 1970 (reception 23–26 Mar) — or, less likely, Sunday, 22 March (a Sunday report-in being unusual). Basic training was set to begin "Monday" — 30 March 1970. The letter predates the rest of the correspondence by about eight months: the next surviving letter is 15 Dec 70, his first from Vietnam, where the in-country record begins.

Written on Easter: The closing "I hope everybody had a Happy Easter" dates almost to the day — Easter Sunday 1970 fell on 29 March, the date of the letter. His first week in the Army ended on the holiday, and the thought of home is the postscript.

The training pipeline: Fort Dix was his basic-training post; the family's notes on the letters that follow show him at Fort Polk, Louisiana by late May 1970 (Letter 5, 24 May 1970) — the Army's noted infantry advanced-training post ("Tigerland") that funneled draftees toward Vietnam. Fort Dix basic → Fort Polk AIT → Vietnam (arrived 4 Dec 1970) is the arc these earliest letters open.

Family — the rifles and Buss's trailer: "I wonder if Buss took Dan's rifle and my rifle down to his trailer. I told him to before I left but he may have forgot." The civilian rifles he and brother Dan owned, left in the care of brother Don ("Buss") at the trailer that recurs throughout the collection (the porch he hopes Buss will build, 7 Mar 71 and 18 Oct 71). A glimpse of the life he set down to report for duty.

The weather thread, from the very first letter: "I suppose the weather ought to be pretty nice back home soon. Buss's driveway is probably getting pretty muddy." Even in letter one, before a single day of basic training, he reaches home through the weather — the same instinct that anchors nearly every Vietnam letter to follow.

Cross-references:

• 15 Dec 70 — the next surviving letter (his first from Vietnam); the in-country record begins there
• 30 Apr 70 — "Third Relief of Guard Duty" (Letter 4), mid–basic training; the envelope pins his BCT unit
• Letters 2–3 (Apr 1970, Fort Dix) and Letter 5 (24 May 70, Fort Polk) — the other training letters (transcriptions pending)
• Profile timeline — induction and training, spring 1970