Fort Dix, New Jersey 1967
Dear Mom & Dad,
Can’t believe we are halfway through basic training. Only six weeks to go, and it’s not near as bad as some of these boys make it out to be. Dang sure not as bad as stacking hay bales all summer in a hot barn. Lot of these guys are city boys though. But some of them are pretty tough, like my best friend Ant. His name is Anthony Fazzone and he is from Brooklyn NY. Ant says it’s right over the bridge from New York City. He sure does talk funny, but he claims I sound mighty peculiar to him, too.
He has invited me home this weekend when we get our 36 hour pass, if we pass our barracks inspection that is. I know we will. We’ve been doing real good lately. Ant’s been bragging about his momma’s cooking. He said I’ll get to eat some real Italian food. He also said to keep my paws off his sister.
I wasn’t going to talk about this, but it has been laying heavy on my heart. Two boys got killed yesterday out on the munitions range. Just dumb is what it was. Shouldn’t have never happened. This Henderson fellow was just plain crazy. I don’t care what they said. I can’t figure out how they let him make it this far. They thought he was faking it, but ain’t that just as bad? I mean if someone goes out of his way to act crazy, don’t that kind of make him crazy? Heck, I don’t know what I’m trying to say, just seems they would be a little more picky about who they give a rifle to. But we’ve been hearing that it’s real hot in Southeast Asia right now and they are needing all the warm bodies they can get.
Ant was right there and he could have died just like poor Billy Brooks did. Ant said he saw Henderson just standing there holding that hand grenade like it was an Easter egg. And he swears he made like a goofy grin, like he was happy about what was about to happen. At least Ant and the sarge had a chance to dive for cover. But Billy never had a chance. What a terrible shame it was too. He was really a good old boy. He was from Dothan Alabama. He always talked about wanting to go back to work at his daddy’s dairy farm when this was all over.
Ant’s trying to act like it didn’t bother him, but I know better. He was all covered in Henderson’s blood and all. Even the sarge was acting different this morning. He gave us a lecture about not dwelling on it and keeping our minds on our training. He said the best thing is to keep busy and not dwell on it. He said in the ‘Nam letting your mind wander can get you killed. I’m not one to argue with the sarge, but seems to me, when it’s your time to go, nothing you can do about it anyway.
Well, I need to end this I reckon. Lights out in five minutes. Going to be hard enough to stay awake in map reading class tomorrow as it is. Awful boring stuff, but I imagine it might come in handy.
Miss everybody,
Love, Johnny