A Couple of Cowboy Stories

Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, undated — placed by content to early-to-mid February 1971, in the long gap between the 24 January and 22 February letters. He's behind on writing (a couple of cowboy paperbacks are to blame), the dry season is at its peak, pictures have arrived from home, and he asks after the family's old Ford and his niece Mary's ear operation.

Dear Mom,

It's been a little while since I last wrote so I thought I better send a letter soon or you might start worrying. Actually, I feel kind of guilty because I got a couple of cowboy stories and you know how I am when I start reading them. I'll try to write more often if I can.

The snow back home sure sounds good to me. It gets pretty hot over [here], the temperature probably averages around 100 degrees, but if you stay in the shade it's really nice and pleasant. At night I feel like I'm freezing, but it probably doesn't go below 50 degrees. It hasn't rained in better than a month now so it's pretty dry also.

I got the pictures you sent. They're really nice. Dan looks like a wolf in that one picture. I remember I took that one of Dan and the rabbits.

I hope that operation on Mary's ear fixes it up permanently. Maybe she won't get sick as often. It's probably a big worry off Carolyn's mind.

Tell me how the new transmission works when Dan gets it out.

One of the guys just came around collecting the mail, so I'll send this and try and write later.

Love, Marvin

Transcription Notes

• Reconstructed by hand. This letter survives as a faint, low-contrast scan that could not be read by the usual means; the text was transcribed manually by Michael Miller (the recipient's grandson) and may contain uncertain readings.
• The date line is not legible on the page; the date is assigned by content (see Archivist Notes) and date_known is set to false.
• "[here]" is bracketed as an inferred word ("It gets pretty hot over [here]").

Archivist Notes

Dating — the 24 January to 22 February 1971 gap: The letter carries no legible date, but three independent clues place it firmly in the 29-day gap between the 24 Jan 71 and 22 Feb 71 letters — the longest gap of his mid-tour:

• The old Ford's transmission. "Tell me how the new transmission works when Dan gets it out." This brackets neatly between two dated letters: the 10 Jan 71 letter, where "Dan finally decided to get a new transmission for the old Ford" (the decision), and the 22 Feb 71 letter, which has moved on to "since Dan put the springs on it" (the transmission evidently already in). Here the work is still pending — so the letter falls between, and the still-to-come installation points to late January or early February.
• The dry season at its peak. "It hasn't rained in better than a month now … the temperature probably averages around 100 degrees … At night I feel like I'm freezing, but it probably doesn't go below 50 degrees," and "The snow back home sure sounds good to me." The next letter, 26 Feb 71, records the first rain in "almost 3 months," so a bone-dry letter belongs just before that — consistent with the 22 Feb / 26 Feb / 28 Feb run of dry-season heat.
• After the unit reached FSB Fontaine (~6 Feb). The battalion tore down FSB Silver at the end of January (26–28 Jan 1971); between the teardown and the new base the unit operated in the mountains, and Howard McGrew's field calendar first records FSB Fontaine on 6 February 1971. Marvin was still at Silver for the 24 Jan 71 USO show — days before the teardown — so this letter, written from FSB Fontaine, post-dates ~6 February and rules out late January and the first days of the month. He doesn't name his location (as usual), but confirms the move in the 9 Mar 71 letter: "In case I haven't told you yet I moved to a new base called Fontaine."
• Before the promotion. No mention of making SP4 (which came ~1 March 1971), as expected for February.

Best single estimate: mid-February 1971 — after McGrew's first FSB Fontaine entry (6 Feb) and before the 22 Feb 71 letter — i.e. roughly 6–21 February. (Filed with a placeholder doc_date of 1971-02-10 for ordering; date_known: false.)

Behind on writing — and why: "I feel kind of guilty because I got a couple of cowboy stories and you know how I am when I start reading them." A rare, specific window into how he spent downtime — Western paperbacks, read to the exclusion of letter-writing — and a self-deprecating apology of exactly the kind that recurs across the collection ("I guess I'm getting lazy," 3 Oct 71; "I have to kick myself to get anything done," 24 Nov 71).

Pictures from home — and his photographer's eye: "Dan looks like a wolf in that one picture. I remember I took that one of Dan and the rabbits." The photographs traveling to him for once, rather than the rolls he was forever sending home — and even here he notes which one he had taken himself. The rabbits place the photo in a Pennsylvania hunting season, of a piece with the winter-back-home thread.

Family — Mary's ear, and Carolyn: "I hope that operation on Mary's ear fixes it up permanently. Maybe she won't get sick as often. It's probably a big worry off Carolyn's mind." Two names new to the correspondence: Carolyn is Marvin's sister, and Mary is Carolyn's daughter — Marvin's niece — a child whose recurrent illness was eased by an ear operation. Marvin following a niece's surgery from Vietnam, and reckoning the relief it would be to his sister, is of a piece with how closely he tracked the family's small news from half a world away.

The old Ford and Dan: The car-and-Dan thread that runs from the 26 Dec 70 and 10 Jan 71 letters through 22 Feb and 30 May — brother Dan as the family's mechanic, and Marvin following the repairs from halfway around the world.

Cross-references:

• 24 Jan 71 — the letter before this gap (still at FSB Silver)
• 30 Jan 71 — the closest preceding letter; written just after the Silver teardown, from the new (unnamed) base
• 22 Feb 71 — the letter after; the transmission now in, the dry-season heat continuing
• 10 Jan 71 — Dan's decision to get the new transmission
• 26 Feb 71 — the first rain in "almost 3 months," dating this dry-spell letter just before it
• FSB Silver → FSB Fontaine — the late-Jan 1971 teardown and move; this letter post-dates it (see the 30 Jan 71 letter, the primary source for the teardown)
• 9 Mar 71 — where he first names the Fontaine move to his mother