Are All the Cherries Ripe Yet?

SP4 Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 12 July 1971 — a short, quiet letter written two days before LTC Blagg assumed command of the 2/8 Cavalry. Rain, developed film, and a running tally of the Kittanning garden. The danger goes unmentioned, as always.

12 July 71

Dear Mom,

Well how's everyone back home. I'm getting along OK over here. There's really not much new happening over here. It's raining but that's nothing new.

I can't think of much to say. I guess you probably have the same problem. I got some pictures developed. I'll send you a few in this letter. I got a couple more rolls of film the other day so it will be a while before I'm ready to send them in.

Are all the cherries ripe yet? It's pretty hard to get any picked the way the birds eat them. Have you got anything out of the garden yet? The pickles ought to be ready pretty soon.

Well I'm about out of steam. I'll try to write more next time.

Love Marvin

Transcription Notes

• Signed "Marvin" in full. Most letters in the collection are signed "Marv"; the full signature here is one of the few exceptions.
• The cherries/garden paragraph contains a few minor self-corrections — words started, struck, and rewritten — in the lines "It's pretty hard to get any picked" and "Have you got anything out of the garden." The strikethroughs are deliberate; the final reading above is clear.
• "I'll send you a few in this letter" — Marvin enclosed photographic prints with the letter. The prints are not part of this scan.
• All other text is clearly legible. Blue ballpoint, single page.

Archivist Notes

Photography thread: "I got some pictures developed. I'll send you a few in this letter. I got a couple more rolls of film the other day…" — consistent with the active-photographer thread that runs through the collection. Marvin shot film steadily in-country, had it developed, and routed prints home through his mother (who also bought film with his allotted funds; see the 3 Sep 71 PS). Relevant to the open camera-model question.

Command change two days later: On 14 July 1971 — two days after this letter — LTC Blagg assumed command of the 2/8 Cavalry from Brig. Gen. Burton and, per the Dropshot Dispatch chronicle, ran a combat assault into a roughly ten-hour firefight on his first day in command. Marvin's "there's really not much new happening over here" is consistent with the collection's letters-downplay-danger pattern, though it is not established that Cat Platoon / Delta Company was in that particular action. Noted for context, not as a claim of his presence.

Home-front motif: Cherries, birds, the garden, pickles — Kittanning in July. The same domestic touchstones recur across the letters: a man in the jungle keeping one hand on home.

Cross-references:

• Previous letter in sequence: 22 May 71 (this letter fills the May–August gap)
• Next letter in sequence: 24 Aug 71
• Dropshot Dispatch chronicle — Blagg assumes command of 2/8 Cav, 14 Jul 1971