So Long to My Buddies

SP4 Marvin Dale Miller to his mother, 24 November 1971 — the second of two letters he wrote that day and, by its contents, the last surviving letter of his tour. Written in the evening from Bien Hoa: he's found two old letters he forgot to mail, he's mostly packed, he means to go back out to the firebase on Thanksgiving to say "so long" to his buddies, and he's already bracing for a Pennsylvania winter.

24 Nov. 71

Dear Mom,

I got a letter from you today. I'm sorry I haven't been writing more than I have. I found two old letters I forgot to mail so that's part of the reason.

I'm back in Bien Hoa right now. I think I'll go back out to the fire base tomorrow so I can say "so long" to my buddies.

I want to buy a suitcase so I won't have to pack home my duffel bag. I got most of my stuff packed already. I really haven't got much to pack.

Well tomorrow's Thanksgiving. I hope you all are okay and have a nice holiday.

I hope it isn't too cold when I get back. Maybe I'll be able to get used to it gradually. It wouldn't hurt to air out some of my winter wear.

Well I better see if I can get some sleep it's getting pretty late.

Love Marvin

Transcription Notes

• "to cold" for "too cold" is Marvin's own usage, preserved as written.
• Blue ballpoint, two pages (page two is short — a few lines and the signature). Signed "Love / Marvin." All text clearly legible.
• This is one of two letters Marvin dated "24 Nov. 71." It is filed under the slug …-19711124b to distinguish it from the companion letter (…-19711124); both carry the same date.

Archivist Notes

Two letters, one day — and this is the later one: Marvin wrote two letters dated 24 November 1971. The companion (…-19711124) was written from the field — McGrew's calendar puts Delta Company at FSB Jeffries that day — where he signs off with "I got about 45 min. to get ready" because "I'm going back to Bien Hoa today." This letter picks up the other end of that same trip: "I'm back in Bien Hoa right now," written late ("it's getting pretty late") with Thanksgiving the next morning. So the day runs firebase in the daytime, Bien Hoa by night — and this is the last surviving letter of his tour.

Thanksgiving — and one more trip to the firebase: "Well tomorrow's Thanksgiving … I think I'll go back out to the fire base tomorrow so I can say 'so long' to my buddies." Thanksgiving 1971 fell on 25 November, which fixes this letter to the 24th. His plan for the holiday is not rest in the rear but a trip back out to the firebase to say goodbye to the men he'd served with — the relationships, not the processing, are what he wants to close out. (Whether he made the trip isn't recorded; "I think I'll" is the last we hear of it.)

The short-timer's confession: "I'm sorry I haven't been writing more than I have. I found two old letters I forgot to mail so that's part of the reason." The same winding-down he names outright in the companion letter ("I have to kick myself to get anything done … that short timer's attitude") — here shown rather than stated, in the two letters that never made it to a mailbox.

Going-home logistics: "I want to buy a suitcase so I won't have to pack home my duffel bag. I got most of my stuff packed already. I really haven't got much to pack." The practical close of a tour — a civilian suitcase for the trip home, and the same light load he mentions in the companion letter ("I won't have much to carry"). His DEROS was 2 December 1971, about eight days off.

Bracing for home: "I hope it isn't too cold when I get back … It wouldn't hurt to air out some of my winter wear." After a year in the tropics — and the joke about a 60° night being freezing in the companion letter — his last recorded worry is the Pennsylvania winter waiting for him. The weather-as-connective-tissue motif that runs through the whole collection, turned at the end toward his own homecoming.

Cross-references:

• 24 Nov 71 (companion, …-19711124) — the daytime letter from FSB Jeffries; together they make his final day of letters
• 18 Oct 71 — "only 49 days left"; the countdown this letter closes
• 15 Dec 70 — first in-country letter; the Bien Hoa in/out bookend of the tour
• 2 Dec 1971 — return home and honorable discharge (profile timeline)