Most of these letters were written between June 1966 and October 1967. One was written before, and a few after, but the main body can be grouped into three parts:  1) letters from Marine Corps boot camp; 2) letters from aboard the USNS Barrett, a Merchant Marine ship taking approximately 1,500 soldiers and 500 of us marines to Vietnam; and 3) letters from Vietnam.

The letters all show an attempt by the writer to maintain a lifeline with home, and thus normalcy.  For the most part they are rather “typical” of chatty love letters, but every now and again there’s a jewel that reveals just how difficult things had become for the writer, but even moreso just how immature we were then, a fact quite embarrassing to reveal so thoroughly now.

I have changed most of the names to protect privacy.

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