Back With the Company

SP4 Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 13 April 1971 — he has come down off Relay Mountain and rejoined the company under a new captain who allows little time off. Garden talk, a letter from his sister Pat, a new Kodak 124 camera, an upcoming Vũng Tàu trip, and a financial PS about paying off the Elderton bank. Written a week before the April 20 contact.

13 Apr. 71

Dear Mom,

Well how's everything back home? Is it any warmer yet? The weather's still the same over here, the rainy season hasn't started yet.

I'm not on Relay Mountain any more. I'm back with the rest of the company now. We have a new captain and he doesn't give us much time off. So I haven't been able to write many letter yet.

Is Buss and Dan going to plow your garden with their tractor this year? Or haven't they got a plow for it yet? It's getting about that time of year you know.

I got a letter from Pat a few days ago. But it will probably be another day or so before I get a chance to answer it. Other than that I haven't got too much mail lately.

We're supposed to go into Vung Tau again pretty soon. I got a Kodak 124 and I'm going to try and get a lot of pictures this time. Speaking of pictures, I haven't gotten any from Shirley yet. Maybe they'll come today.

Well I'm going to stop now and make sure I get this letter in the mail

Love Marv

PS You should be getting about $850 or so pretty soon. How about paying off Elderton bank for me and banking the rest. If you need any you can get it any time. Tell me when or if you get it so I'll know it made it OK. If I need any I'll write and you can send money orders back.

Transcription Notes

• "many letter" (no plural) is Marvin's own usage, preserved as written.
• "Kodak 124" is the Kodak Instamatic 124 camera.
• A struck-out word appears before "tractor" ("their" is crossed out and rewritten).
• Blue ballpoint, two pages, with a postscript filling the lower half of page two. Signed "Love / Marv." All text clearly legible.

Archivist Notes

Off Relay Mountain — a thread resolved: "I'm not on Relay Mountain any more. I'm back with the rest of the company now." This closes the assignment described in the 3 Apr 71 letter (written from the relay station on Relay Mountain, from which he could see FSB Fontaine, FSB Mace, and the South China Sea) and the undated April letter. Sometime between 3 and 13 April he came down off the mountain and rejoined the company in the field.

A new company commander: "We have a new captain and he doesn't give us much time off. So I haven't been able to write many letter yet." A change of company command in early-to-mid April 1971, recorded from the ranks — and, in Marvin's telling, mainly notable for cutting into his letter-writing time.

The camera thread — the Kodak 124: "I got a Kodak 124 and I'm going to try and get a lot of pictures this time." The next letter, 18 Apr 71, fills in how he came by it: he sold the little Minolta he had bought from a buddy back in January (see the 3 Jan 71 letter) to a man heading home, and picked up "a little Kodak 124." The photography that produced the surviving 50–60 images of his tour is in full swing here, timed to the coming Vũng Tàu trip.

Vũng Tàu, again: "We're supposed to go into Vung Tau again pretty soon." The word "again" shows he had already been to the coastal in-country R&R center at least once by mid-April; he returns there in the 27 Jun 71 letter ("I had a good time in Vung Tau").

The financial PS — the Elderton bank: "You should be getting about $850 or so pretty soon. How about paying off Elderton bank for me and banking the rest." The clearest statement yet of the money-management partnership with his mother: his pay and savings routed home, a loan at the Elderton (Armstrong Co., PA) bank to be paid off, the remainder banked, with money orders available in either direction. The same arrangement surfaces in the 24 Jan 71 letter (a money order to repay Buss) and the 24 Aug 71 letter (money orders and "greenbacks").

Family: "Buss and Dan" are his older brothers (Don "Buss" Miller and Dan Miller), here pictured plowing the family garden; "Pat" is his sister Pat Smith, whose letter he owes a reply; "Shirley" is Buss's wife, whose pictures he's still waiting on.

The danger unmentioned: Written a week before the 20 April 1971 contact and eleven days before the 24 April crash at FSB Fontaine — and entirely given over to gardens, cameras, and banking. The collection's steady refusal to alarm his mother, on full display right before the tour's hardest stretch.

Cross-references:

• 3 Apr 71 — previous letter, written from Relay Mountain (the assignment this letter ends)
• 18 Apr 71 — next letter; the Kodak 124 and the Minolta sale
• 3 Jan 71 — the Minolta he later sold
• 27 Jun 71 — the later Vũng Tàu trip
• 24 Jan 71, 24 Aug 71 — the money-management thread