Soldier Life, April 1970
Now, if anyone ever tells you that a soldier doesn't cherish letters, they're either lying or ignorant. I found during my time in Vietnam that soldiers are incredibly volatile creatures who cling to the familiar like a childhood teddy bear. This was true for myself as well. When the war seems too real, the death too crippling, the humidity too suffocating, the only escape is a daydream to that place called HOME. And letters are the strongest connection to home most people can get . . . other than a carton of cigarettes. That picture is of a soldier I met in Nam, and he read and wrote letters avidly.
War in a temperate climate is hard. War in a tropical climate is harder. And war in Nam is the hardest. There were rainstorms that could counter any U.S. weather hands-down (as seen in the picture). There were times when it was so humid, it might as well have been raining. It didn't help when a big American Chinook helicopter came flying in to stir everything up.
When a Chinook upended something important, the soldiers would employ one of their most common phrases: "There it is." The boys always commented on bad or unfortunate things with that phrase: There it is. If there could be a catchphrase for the entire war, I'd vote that as it. It was typical soldier-talk: terse, flat, and frank.
When a Chinook upended something important, the soldiers would employ one of their most common phrases: "There it is." The boys always commented on bad or unfortunate things with that phrase: There it is. If there could be a catchphrase for the entire war, I'd vote that as it. It was typical soldier-talk: terse, flat, and frank.