June 19, 1969 – “We were hit here at Evans last night by rockets.”

June 19, 1969.  Camp Evans, Vietnam.

Dear Reet,

I’m sorry I missed writing the last two days, but I’ve been kind of busy doing nothing.  I haven’t had time to sit down even, yet I haven’t really accomplished a thing.  But I’ll get something done now  — this letter.

Remember in my last letter telling you about Currahee getting hit just before we were out there?  Well, it got hit after we left too, and every day and night since.  In the past two weeks the only day it wasn’t hit we were there.  The bunker we built took a direct hit with six guys in it that same night and held up beautifully.

We were hit here at Evans last night by rockets.  Everyone in our hooch slept right through it.  Most the others were down in their bunkers.  Needless to say they weren’t hitting on our side of the camp.

I just got back another role of slides yesterday.  A lot of them are run-of-the-mill, but I took a few through the barrel of an M-79 grenade launcher that are pretty good.  I’ll send them to the folks as usual.

Oh yes, I meant to mention this in my last several letters but forgot — I’m out of sunflower seeds.  I rationed those you sent me so they lasted a long time, but I ran out about a week ago.  Sure would like some more (hint).

I dropped my prescription sunglasses the other day and broke one of the lenses.  Really made me mad.  They were in the case too.  They’ve been thrown all over and no problem, but a 2 foot fall and wham — it’s all over.  Now I’m trying to get some more made up but it’ll take a while.

We just had an aircraft go down since I wrote the last sentence.  I don’t know what happened, but they made a forced landing right behind our hooch.  Looks like more work for us.

This is Saturday noon now.  I slept all morning because I had guard last night.  I just realized that the last letter I sent was written Monday night, so I’ll try to get this finished in a hurry.  I hope there won’t be any more lapses like that.

I’ve got a little more information on R&R.  My name is on the list for Hawaii in October.  That doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll get it then — it depends on the number authorized for that month — but there’s a pretty good chance.

In a pamphlet I read the other day it said that round-trip fares for wives from Minneapolis to Hawaii was $304 — and it costs about $11 to fly to the cities from Brookings.  So you can figure about $325 for flying.  That should be about the only expenses you’ll have to save for.  I think I’ll be able to handle the rest.

I’m going to get this in the mail now Reet, so it won’t be any longer than it has been between letters.  I’ll get another longer one off tomorrow — promise.

I love you!

Jeff