A.W. (Peter) Machen to Henry Machen

September 15, 1969

Vietnam

Dear Henry,

I guess you have gone back to school by now and that good ol’ homework is starting to pile up.

Mrs. Whiteford wrote and told me about that kid at the ranch that got drunk.  Don't you try anything like that!  I know you don't drink anyway.

Thanks for the Kool-Aid!  It really helped me out.  The water over here tastes like hot piss and sometimes the only water there is to drink is out of the rice paddies.

We have been fighting this one company of gooks (NVA) and last night the Phantom jets came in and bombed the whole area.  They shot rockets and machine gunfire to.  We watched them from a hill.  It was really cool.  That's less gooks we have to worry about!

Pretty soon we can go on ship.  We go on the USS Iwo Jima I think or the USS Valley Forge.  We go to Okinawa for a while then go on operations a few months later up at the DMA back in Vietnam.

Good luck in school!

Your brother,

Pete