War Letters

War Letters

Dear Mom and Dad,

As I lay here under the eerie cover of night, I attempt repeatedly to make out the physique of your faces but to no avail. It seems like ages since I last saw you on that bleak, sodden, September morning, as I pulled out of the driveway and headed for Reagan International Airport. I still see the disappointment in yours eyes, questioning the nature of this war, pleading me to run, anywhere, anywhere but the God forsaken country of Vietnam, but I must serve my country for I have dreams and those dreams do not consist of getting deported of or spending the rest of my life in jail. You know how much I hate war, you have raised me well, you taught me at a young age that thou shalt not kill, but the time comes when we must stand up for our beliefs and save a nation from the steel hard grip of communism. For it is not a secret that if one more nation falls into the clutch of communism the rest of the countries will fall like dominoes and before you know it we will be led by a tyrant and we will no longer have any freedoms. I know that me heading off to war greatly disturbs you, that after the death of my sister you desperately do not want to lose another child, but you must see that I am doing this for my children, so that they can live in the same great United States that I live in.

I've been marching through the dense jungles of Vietnam for a little over a month now and the experience has been life changing, I have finally gotten a chance to see the world, to experience a whole different culture. Sure it’s been hard transitioning to a whole new lifestyle, strict procedures, endless marches, have to patrol the perimeters of our camp at the darkest hours of the night, I have befriended many soldiers along the way and am now good friends with a man named Derek Mosher from Arizona. Earlier this week I discovered that he too will be attending Georgetown University upon his return to the United States he tells me that his father went there and says that it is a magnificent university. I will be going to Japan in three weeks for some R&R and I hope to be able to call you from there. I am writing to you because you are the only people whose impressions I find important and I know that I hurt you both greatly by denying you advice and marching off to war but I hope you can forgive me and I hope that upon my arrival we can reconcile and patch up the gaping whole in our relationship. I just want to share these thoughts with you because I want you to know that I feel safe and secure and I don’t want you to worry about me, tell the family and neighbors that I say hello and I hope to see them soon. I have spared you the details of the war because I know that they will only further hinder our relationship and worry you even more but just know that I am safe and no matter what happens you have my word that I will see you soon as the same boy that left home just a few months ago. I love you all very much and I hope to talk to you soon.

Love, Patrick