Letters.

This is coolbert:

That same November 2005 issue of the National Geographic also has an article concerning "War Letters". Letters that have been exchanged between combatants and those on the home front in time of war. Like almost all articles in the Geographic, this one is well done.

Here is a reprint of a war letter sent by Dr. Jerry Horton just prior to his wounding in action in Vietnam. Wounding that required his medical evacuation to the states. Jerry is right, this could well be used as the archetype of the "war letter". The eternal letter from the soldier to those at home:

[thanks again to Dr. Jerry for his permission]:

MY comments in bold.

"Well, I have only 164 more days left in Vietnam, at the most. We are still in the Plei Trap Valley, and there are still NVA all around us. We have not had any big firefights since I last wrote on 6 March. We had some sniper fire yesterday, but Jerry Loucks took a few men out and killed the snipers.

At our last location, we spent several days camped next to the Dak Hondrai River. There were NVA bunkers right across the river, but we swam, bathed and cooled off in the water anyway. Of course, we always posted a heavy guard. Then yesterday we humped up a hill and dug in at this location. We have good cover here, because it is another triple canopy jungle situation. You can't see farther than a few meters in any direction. We are safe for the moment.

The brass is still talking about moving us up north again, near Dak To. The only good thing I can say about my situation is that the monsoons will start in two months time, and things will settle down then.

I have a ten-day growth of beard. Since we have been humping through the jungle and living on rationed water, I have not had a chance to shave.

All I can do is dream, and sometimes I can't even do that, because I'm too tired. Lately, when I go to sleep at night, I am out like a rock.

With all the NVA around us and the daily firefights we have had, there is a great mental strain on me now. We have to be constantly on guard against attack. Plus, I have been promoted to Platoon Sergeant. This means that I have twenty-two men to take care of instead of seven. Many of my friends, Pappy, The Flea, Rick, Shea, and Sam Seldon are still with me, but Ronald Lestock left. Sgt. White was made Platoon Leader as well as 3rd Platoon Sergeant, because they lost their Platoon Sergeant, and I was made Platoon Sergeant of the 4th Platoon. I have to step up to the next level now and do my best with this new job.

[normally an infantry platoon sergeant is a Sergeant First Class [E-7]. At this point Jerry is two positions beyond what he was trained for !!]

Infantry is the hardest job there is. I do not care what anyone says, it takes brains to chase Charlie around the jungle, and meet him on his own terms. An infantryman is the only soldier who faces the enemy where he lives, on the trails and in the bunkers. We don't sit in a secure area behind wire fences, big guns and land mines. We don't sit in an airplane, a tank or a helicopter. Our only protection is our M-16s. We rely on nothing but our jungle skills to keep us alive. I wish to God that everyone who complained about our boys in Vietnam could know what it was really like to fight over here.

[having infantrymen with smarts is a big plus. The U.S. Army has concluded that a smart infantryman is six times less likely to die in combat that his counterpart that is less intelligent man. NOT ONLY survival is at stake here. It takes smarts to beat the enemy. The modern American infantryman is required to know and MASTER one hundred fifty individual tasks to be able to do his OWN job correctly. Even MORE is need to work as part of team, whether at squad, platoon, or company level!!]

I am not trying to feel sorry for myself, being in the Infantry. I just want to point out that out of 524,000 soldiers in Vietnam, only about 75,000 are groundpounders.. That's us, and we are the grunts. We get no breaks. Still, Americans should wake up to the facts. Maybe if we had less bullshit and more infantrymen, this war would be over by now.

[this is true of the modern American army. Only a small percentage of the troops actually pull the trigger and fire at the enemy in the manner that people see on TV or in the movies. Most are in support roles. And this is mandated by the nature of modern warfare and the fact that we have a military that is required to fight wars thousands of miles away from it's home base. Just to get the troops to the battle zone, sustain them, and support them in an adequate manner requires a manpower force organized as it is.]

Our platoon is down to twenty-two men, when we are supposed to have forty. We get no hot food, no clean clothes, or any "non-essential" re-supply at all. We only get mail every two to three days, but at times, I have gone ten days without mail. That's hard on our morale.

I would write my congressman, but I know it wouldn't do any good. I could write about the fact that I have not had any clean socks for a month and a half, or that there are two men in our platoon who can barely walk. We cannot send them to the rear, because we are so short of men already. We hardly have enough equipment to fight with. Why can't we get more grunts to help us?"

[not having enough infantrymen meant that the U.S. Army in Vietnam WAS NOT ABLE to gain or maintain the initiative as it would have liked to have done. WAS in a reactive mode for most of the war. Responded to what the enemy did. NOT the other way around. NOT a good way to fight a war. YOU ARE DOOMED more or less from the start with such a situation!!]

"We hardly have enough equipment to fight with"

["Why has there been such a delay in sending arms?" - - Governor of a Union state during the American Civil War.]

[during the winter of 1944, Patton's Third Army suffered more casualties from trench foot than it did from combat with the Germans. Trench foot caused by prolonged exposure to cold, wet conditions, wet socks and boots that could not be dried, regardless of the effort of the troops in the field. Patton suggested that each troop be issued a clean, dry, brand new set of socks every day. Just throw away your old socks and put brand new socks on!! This, for some reason, was felt to be unnecessary and probably ludicrous. Troops continued to suffer and had to be taken out of the battle line for trench foot. But at the same time, a ready supply of Coca-Cola and face cream WAS available for the front line troops. Go figure it all out!!??]

After reading Jerry's letter home and my comments, ask yourself, have the basics of war changed at all over the centuries??

coolbert.