Don't Bother Sending Another Camera

SP4 Marvin Dale Miller to his brother Dan, 8 March 1971 — the only in-country letter in the collection written to a sibling rather than to his mother, and it reads like it: fishing season, a .22 pistol Dan bought off Rudy, trouble starting the Ford, the welder Dan and Buss had gone in on, and a tired-sounding instruction to quit trying to keep him in cameras and film. Signed simply "Marv."

8 Mar 71

Hi Dan,

Well Mom said you were getting ready for the fishing season. I guess it is getting about that time of year again.

What make is the 22 pistol you got off of Rudy. I can't ever remember him having one so he must have just got it recently. I'm kinda surprised that Rudy would be allowed to own a pistol in the first place.

Did you have any trouble starting the Ford this winter yet. If you didn't it's a wonder. I had a good bit last winter. I still want to get a new car when I get home. I wish I knew a little more about how to get one though. Or what kind to get for that matter.

Mom told me about the welder Buss and you got. I guess it would come in pretty handy if you were building something out of metal.

Don't bother sending another camera. It's to much of a hassle. I doubt whether I'll take any more pictures anyway. If you can't find the right film for the camera I got just forget it. When I get back to the rear maybe I'll have a little more time for picture taking.

Well I can't think of much else to say so I'll close.

Marv

Transcription Notes

• Blue ballpoint, two pages. Some lens flare / blue blur along the lower-right edge of both pages, but all text is legible.
• Salutation and signature differ from his usual. This letter opens "Hi Dan," (not "Dear Mom,") and closes simply "Marv" — no "Love." It is the only in-country letter in the surviving collection addressed to a sibling rather than his mother (a separate, undated letter to Dan survives from Marvin's training days), and the register is noticeably more casual.
• "What make is the 22 pistol" — Marvin wrote "is," appears to have started to strike it through, then left the sentence as is; transcribed as written. "22 pistol" is his shorthand for a .22-caliber pistol.
• His own usages preserved: "to much" (for "too much"), "kinda," and the question marks dropped after "this winter yet" and "for that matter."

Archivist Notes

A letter to a brother — the only one from Vietnam. Every other surviving in-country letter is to his mother (a separate, undated letter to Dan survives from Marvin's training days back in the States). This one is to Dan, one of his older brothers, and it shows a different side of Marvin: no reassurance about the war, no money sent home, no roll-call of the nieces and nephews — just brother-to-brother talk of guns, cars, fishing, welding, and cameras. He even signs it "Marv" rather than the "Love, Marvin" he uses with his mother. Written 8 March 1971, it sits squarely inside the early-March cluster: one day after the 7 Mar 71 letter and one day before the 9 Mar 71 letter, in which Marvin sends his income-tax paperwork home for "Dan or Buss" to fill out — the same two brothers, the welder partners, named here.

"Don't bother sending another camera." The standout passage, and part of a thread that runs the length of the tour. The family had been trying to keep Marvin supplied with a working camera and the right film, and here — sounding worn down by it — he tells Dan to stop: "It's to much of a hassle. I doubt whether I'll take any more pictures anyway… When I get back to the rear maybe I'll have a little more time for picture taking." He did not, in fact, stop: a Kodak 124 turns up in the 13 Apr 71 letter, and through the summer he is developing rolls and mailing prints home (12 Jul, 26 Jul, 4 Aug 71). The photographs that survive in this archive exist despite the very frustration he voices here.

The Ford, and a new car when he gets home. "Did you have any trouble starting the Ford this winter yet… I still want to get a new car when I get home." The family's old Ford is a recurring worry — its new transmission is the subject of the faint, content-dated ~Feb 1971 letter ("when Dan gets it out"), and the maintenance plan traces back to the 10 Jan 71 letter. The wish for a new car of his own, once he's back, is one of the small future-tense hopes that surface across the correspondence.

The welder — Dan and Buss. "Mom told me about the welder Buss and you got." Marvin's brothers Dan and Don ("Buss") had gone in on a welder together. It fits the steady picture of the brothers working on metal and on the family property — the same household of projects that produces Buss's porch (proposed 7 Mar, photographed by 18 Oct 71) and the long rebuild of the family home.

Rudy and the .22. "What make is the 22 pistol you got off of Rudy… I'm kinda surprised that Rudy would be allowed to own a pistol in the first place." A glance at family/neighborhood life back in Kittanning — Dan had bought a .22 pistol off a man named Rudy, and Marvin's surprise that Rudy "would be allowed to own a pistol" hints at some history not spelled out here.

Location: Unnamed, but in this stretch Marvin was at FSB Fontaine — the move he names two days later in the 9 Mar 71 letter ("I moved to a new base called Fontaine").

Cross-references:

• 7 Mar 71 — the day before (to Mother); the income-tax plan and Buss's porch
• 9 Mar 71 — the day after (to Mother); taxes routed home for "Dan or Buss"
• ~Feb 1971 (undated) and 10 Jan 71 — the Ford, and the new-car want
• 13 Apr 71 — the Kodak 124; the camera/film thread continues
• 12 Jul, 26 Jul, 4 Aug 71 — film developed and prints mailed home, despite "I doubt whether I'll take any more pictures"
• 18 Oct 71 — Buss's porch, the brothers' home projects