Starting My 8th Month
SP4 Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 27 June 1971 — a short letter written in haste to make the day's mail. He notes he'll start his eighth month on July 5th, complains about swarming mosquitoes, mentions a good time at Vũng Tàu where he took more pictures, and wishes the family a happy Fourth of July.
27 Jun 71
Dear Mom,
I hope everyone is doing fine back home. I'm OK over here. I'll be starting my 8th month July 5th so I haven't got that much more to go.
The mosquito's are really bad over here lately. They just hang around in swarms. There isn't much you can do about them tho.
I had a good time in Vung Tau. I took some more pictures while I was there and I sent them off today to have them developed.
Well the 4th of July is coming up. Hope you all have a nice holiday. I don't know if we have anything planned for the 4th or not.
I'm sorry this letter is going to be so short. I want to get it mailed today tho.
Love Marvin
Transcription Notes
- The header is written "27 Jun 70," but the year is 1971 — see the Archivist Notes. Transcribed as "27 Jun 71" for clarity.
- "mosquito's" (with apostrophe) and "tho" for "though" are Marvin's own usages, preserved as written.
- Blue ballpoint, one page. Signed "Love / Marvin." All text clearly legible.
Archivist Notes
The date — 1971, not 1970: Marvin dated the letter "27 Jun 70," but it is unmistakably 1971. "I'll be starting my 8th month July 5th" is the proof: he arrived in Vietnam 4 December 1970, so his eighth month began in early July 1971. (In June 1970 he was still stateside.) The same year-slip appears on the 3 Oct 71 letter — a recurring habit, not a sign of a different year. The letter also sits naturally between the 22 May 71 and 12 Jul 71 letters.
Counting the months down: "I haven't got that much more to go." By his own count he was two-thirds through a tour that would end with a DEROS of 2 December 1971. The forward-looking, time-counting tone that dominates the autumn letters begins here.
Vũng Tàu: "I had a good time in Vung Tau." Vũng Tàu was the coastal in-country R&R center on the South China Sea used by US and Australian forces — a brief, relatively safe stand-down from the field. He spends his few lines on the pictures he took there rather than on anything operational; the trip is the closest this letter comes to mentioning the war.
Photography routine: "I took some more pictures while I was there and I sent them off today to have them developed." The develop-and-send-home thread runs through the whole collection — continued in the 12 Jul 71 letter ("I got some pictures developed. I'll send you a few in this letter") and spelled out in full in the 24 Aug 71 letter, where he switches to a cheaper developing firm.
Mosquitoes — a rare field detail: "The mosquito's are really bad over here lately. They just hang around in swarms." One of the few concrete, physical glimpses of his living conditions, consistent with the early wet season in III Corps.
The Fourth of July from Vietnam: He wishes the family a nice holiday and doesn't know whether his own unit has "anything planned." The home holiday is foregrounded; his own is an afterthought — characteristic of how he keeps the letters pointed back toward Kittanning.
Cross-references:
- 22 May 71 — previous letter in the archive
- 12 Jul 71 — next letter; the developed pictures arrive and get sent home
- 24 Aug 71 — the fullest account of his film-developing logistics
