A Mini Base Where Silver Used to Be

SGT Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 4 August 1971 — written, unremarked, on the day of his promotion to E-5. He starts his ninth month tomorrow, the company has built a small base where FSB Silver used to be, pinkeye is closing cities, and he's mailing home a Vietnamese newspaper to keep for him. A Vũng Tàu stand-down is four days off.

4 Aug. 71

Dear Mom,

Well I hope everyone is still doing fine. I'm okay over here. I'll be starting my 9th month tomorrow. I hope the time keeps going as fast as it has.

I guess the kids will be going back to school pretty soon. Bet they'll like that. Anyway their parents will probably be glad.

It rained pretty hard last night. Some of my stuff got a little wet but nothing of any importance.

Well we should go to Vung Tau in four days. Pink eye is going around some of the bigger cities in Viet Nam. I guess if it gets too bad in Vung Tau, they put Vung Tau off limits.

Well we built a mini base where Silver used to be. The place sure grew up alot since we left.

I'm going to send home a little paper I want you to keep for me. It's a little newspaper, you probably won't be able to understand it too well.

I better end this letter pretty soon. I got some work to do. I'll try to write again before I go to Vung Tau.

Love Marvin

Transcription Notes

• "alot," "Viet Nam" (two words), and "to well" (for "too well") are Marvin's own usages, preserved as written.
• A struck-out word appears on page two ("in V Viet Nam" — a false start at the country name).
• Blue ballpoint, two pages. Signed "Love / Marvin." All text clearly legible.

Archivist Notes

Promotion day — unmentioned: This letter is dated 4 August 1971, the day Marvin was promoted to E-5 (the profile timeline and the 24 Aug 71 letter both fix the date). He says nothing about it — exactly as he passes over his birthday and other personal milestones elsewhere. The day he made sergeant, he wrote home about the weather, the kids' school year, and a newspaper he wanted kept. The promotion has to be read in from the record, not the letter.

Ninth month — the countdown: "I'll be starting my 9th month tomorrow. I hope the time keeps going as fast as it has." Consistent with his 4 December 1970 arrival (ninth month begins ~5 Aug 1971) and with the time-counting that runs from the 27 Jun 71 letter onward toward his 2 December 1971 DEROS.

FSB Silver rebuilt — a base "grown up": "Well we built a mini base where Silver used to be. The place sure grew up alot since we left." Places the company back at the site of FSB Silver — the firebase where he had photographed the USO show on 24 Jan 71 — now rebuilt as a smaller position. A glimpse of the constant tear-down-and-rebuild rhythm of the 2/8 Cav firebase network (cf. FSB King split from Fanning and dismantled, 30 May 71).

The Vietnamese newspaper — a keepsake home: "I'm going to send home a little paper I want you to keep for me. It's a little newspaper, you probably won't be able to understand it too well." A Vietnamese-language newspaper mailed back as a souvenir of the war — one of the wartime papers/printed items he sent home for safekeeping, of a piece with his steady documentary instinct (the photographs, the clippings).

Pinkeye closing cities — the epidemic begins in the letters: "Pink eye is going around some of the bigger cities in Viet Nam. I guess if it gets too bad in Vung Tau, they put Vung Tau off limits." The conjunctivitis outbreak that recurs in the 9 Aug 71 letter ("epidemic of pink eye going around over here now") and is finally answered in the 21 Sep 71 letter ("No, I didn't get the pinkeye"). Here it's a threat to the coming stand-down.

Mailed with the next letter: Marvin set this letter aside and forgot to mail it; he found it days later in Vũng Tàu and sent it on with the 9 Aug 71 letter ("I found a letter I wrote you about a week ago … I'll mail it with this one"). The forgot-to-mail habit that also closes the collection (24 Nov 71b, "I found two old letters I forgot to mail").

Cross-references:

• 26 Jul 71 — previous letter; the DEROS date, the month-count, and the same 8 Aug Vũng Tàu trip
• 9 Aug 71 — next letter; the Vũng Tàu trip planned here, and the letter it was mailed with
• 24 Jan 71 — FSB Silver and the USO show, before the rebuild
• 21 Sep 71 — the pinkeye thread resolved