At the beginning of October 2024, we received an email from Curators in Albany seeking help in locating letters home from local Soldiers serving in Vietnam. They wanted to include what subjects were covered in the letters that came home, and the same for the family and friends writing back. Also, what items did the folks at home mail in their care packages? Were the Soldiers aware of the political protests boiling up at home? I was excited to check to see what we had in our archives!
The next weekend, I had opportunities to speak with three groups of Vietnam Veterans, and I was happy to add this to what I was already going to say. I invited them to take part if they would like and offered my help in scanning their letters so that their original letters remained at home.
They all listened as I explained that the planned exhibit would open in May 2025, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. The exhibit would be open to the public at the New York State Capitol, the Empire State Plaza, and the Vietnam Memorial Gallery. I expected several Veterans to have questions, but let’s just say there was not a stampede of eager participants. Not even one.
But several Veterans liked what they heard about Honor Flights and were very eager to see me on that subject. I hadn’t put them to sleep after all!
When I had answered the Curators original email, I was glad that I had warned them that I was pretty sure that the Vets in this area would have different experiences and feelings than their counterparts on the eastern side of the state. In many conversations that I have had with those who served in Vietnam, the most predominant and stunning revelation for them was that, until a superior officer warned them to wear civilian clothes when they arrived in the states, they had no idea the extent of unrest. How sad. But their families were smart, in my opinion, to exclude that in their loving and supportive exchanges.
So, the search was on for Vietnam letters in our collection, but my preliminary search came up empty. I asked our Archivist/Curator, Matthew Tsitso, for help and he brought me a packet of letters, unprocessed so far, because they had just been donated on Sept. 30, 2024. Hmmmmm, that’s interesting – such good timing.
It took several work sessions to organize the letters in between researchers, but with the help of volunteer Marcia Kleinart, they were organized by date, and added to protective sheets in order to work with them without fear of worsening the already yellowed condition of many of the letters.
In some letters the handwriting was difficult to read and I knew this Soldier would have been writing under various conditions and mental states. I made a list of the dates in chronological order, and used 2 lines to describe the subjects covered in the letters, starring the ones I thought the Curators would be interested in. There were 32 letters in all, all written between his arrival in and departure from Vietnam. I knew the Curators wouldn’t have time to look at them all.
Even in the organizing process, I began to get the idea that this Fella was a little OCD around the edges, but he was at war. Who among us could get through a war without issues of some kind? As I read each letter, there began to be a huge pattern of being quite demanding as he detailed to his parents what they needed to send him, ASAP. I felt sorry for his parents – their salutations began as Dear Mom and Pa, and Dear Folks, but sometimes were addressed by Dear Parents!
When he first arrived at Di An, South Vietnam on January 4, 1967, he had been transferred to the Records Branch, which he was grateful for, except that everyone had to do their turn at Guard Duty. His first request of his parents was to order three sets of fatigues, no stripes, don’t delay. I was appalled that Soldiers needed to provide their own fatigues AND risk their lives in a war zone, which wasn’t far away. He wrote to his brother and suggested he “enlist in the National Guard or the Reserves, as with Active Army you get $120 a month and a tent. It Sucks!”
Letter after letter, the list of needs ranged anywhere from cans of fruit and grape juice to tennis shoes to 5lbs of toothpaste and 5lbs of shampoo in tubes. This was likely the box that he commented on as having postage of $16!
He mentioned that while there were mortar attacks that they could hear, their base camp was away from the action. He sent a Christmas package to his parents in November 1967 asking them not to open it until Christmas Day, his next line was to say “rush saddle soap, Bravo floor wax, Kiwi shoe and heel dye for my boots, they are all the best products to “stay shined up”. There were lists for camera film, batteries for the camera, and a jack knife with a screwdriver and can opener.
He was very pleased to announce to his parents, in his letter of December 25, 1967, that it was a wonderful Christmas, that he had received more presents than anyone else in camp….then I realized that his parents had sent the items that he “ordered”. But it was also in this letter that he wrote more because he was obviously in a good mood. “So many guys blow their whole paychecks in the Vietnamese shops where things are so expensive”, “send more checks and make sure there is $200 or more in my account.” Then, I realized that he was spending his own money for the ordered items and most likely, even the postage. I was very relieved for his parents’ sake!
During the last six months of his time there in 1968, he took various tests for promotions, sent more lists of needed items, enjoyed the newspapers from home, set about applying for college, and often related mortar attacks as the action was closer and everyone had to be prepared at all times, even in the office.
In May 1968, he had R&R in Australia for 10 days, and July 7, 1968 was the last letter in the collection. I was happy to note in his obituary in 2017, which I looked for online, that he did receive a promotion and that his rank at discharge was E-5.
Through his letters I have been through a range of emotions – from total respect for his service in the beginning, to being more and more uncomfortable with his treatment of his parents, to realizing he wasn’t taking advantage of them after all, and finally, back to honoring him for his service. His seeming OCD and other behaviors that seemed strange can probably be attributed to the atrocities of war and being anxious and on guard endlessly. Shame on me for developing an opinion when I have never been in a war zone. It was a journey and an adventure!
I sent the December 25, 1967 letter to the Albany Curators, along with the index list of 31 other letters to see if they would like to include any others. I am happy to note that there was no mention of the political atmosphere in the states.
Vietnam Veterans Day is Saturday, March 29th, which commemorates the day the last US Combat Troops departed Vietnam.
