A Letter in Vietnam
She said she laid back on her bed with a book opened to about its middle, reading some short story by Faulkner, and was influenced by how the character of the woman was described, of ill repute, and it made her think of her husband’s behavior, made her look at it, and thereafter, felt responsible to make a future decision. This was in the winter of 1971, and the war in Vietnam was steadily being reduced, soldiers being brought home, from over 500,000 troops to now 205,000. She wrote a letter to Sergeant Chick Evens, a letter of inquiry you might say, on what to do, in making the right decision in telling her husband of her situation, or more like: their situation. Her husband was Corporal Mac Washington, a tall, and large boned, broad shouldered Blackman from North Carolina, who loved to make love to every woman he ever saw, and ended up in Japan with a bent spine from some venereal disease, and overdoing it. He evidently spoke highly of Sergeant Evens in his letters to his Alabama bride, and therefore she was confining in him on what to do next.
Mrs. Brandy Washington
January 4, 1971 (Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam)
“Dear Sergeant Chick Evens, I write to you for some guidance in that I have a decision I must make. I do not know whom else to trust, and I don’t dare ask my husband for consultation in this matter—and so I have only you to turn to—perhaps because I do not have to face you, eye to eye, or shoulder to shoulder. Now here it is—I married my husband in 1968, while visiting a family member in North Carolina, I came up from Alabama. He was a man about to be drafted into the United States Army—come October, it was August at the time. He was at first, sent to Germany, Darmstadt, at the 15th Ordnance Battalion. He asked for me to join him, I was in Alabama at the time, and I couldn’t, and therefore, refused on the grounds, it was too much an ordeal.
“When he came home to the states for a month (a reroute to Vietnam), he went directly to North Carolina, and asked me to join him there, and I again refused, and remained with my family in Alabama, taking care of other responsibilities. And later on I knew he was in Vietnam, and he had told me of all those venereal diseases month by month he acquired, and the penicillin shots he was getting, along with other pharmaceuticals, he was frank and honest with me; perhaps too much so. Because of this now impending disease, he was somewhat crippled, bent when he walked, it was of course due to his insistence of having woman after woman, and now he is in Japan for some kind of treatment, all this you already know of course.
“He wants me to join him there, and assures me he has no longer any hidden diseases of that nature, that for the most part he is fine, and by the sound of his voice, all indications are that he is fine, but will he be safe for me?
“My mother once said, “Love is blind,” also she said, “You’re too close my dear to the forest to see the height and thickness of the woods.”
“And with that, I do not care to place myself in an awkward situation. On the other hand I have two children now, twin boys, they are not the sons of my husband’s, I wonder how he will take that, and they will be two-years old, come June.
“I wait patiently for your advice.”
3-12-2009• Based on Actual Events
She said she laid back on her bed with a book opened to about its middle, reading some short story by Faulkner, and was influenced by how the character of the woman was described, of ill repute, and it made her think of her husband’s behavior, made her look at it, and thereafter, felt responsible to make a future decision. This was in the winter of 1971, and the war in Vietnam was steadily being reduced, soldiers being brought home, from over 500,000 troops to now 205,000. She wrote a letter to Sergeant Chick Evens, a letter of inquiry you might say, on what to do, in making the right decision in telling her husband of her situation, or more like: their situation. Her husband was Corporal Mac Washington, a tall, and large boned, broad shouldered Blackman from North Carolina, who loved to make love to every woman he ever saw, and ended up in Japan with a bent spine from some venereal disease, and overdoing it. He evidently spoke highly of Sergeant Evens in his letters to his Alabama bride, and therefore she was confining in him on what to do next.
Mrs. Brandy Washington
January 4, 1971 (Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam)
“Dear Sergeant Chick Evens, I write to you for some guidance in that I have a decision I must make. I do not know whom else to trust, and I don’t dare ask my husband for consultation in this matter—and so I have only you to turn to—perhaps because I do not have to face you, eye to eye, or shoulder to shoulder. Now here it is—I married my husband in 1968, while visiting a family member in North Carolina, I came up from Alabama. He was a man about to be drafted into the United States Army—come October, it was August at the time. He was at first, sent to Germany, Darmstadt, at the 15th Ordnance Battalion. He asked for me to join him, I was in Alabama at the time, and I couldn’t, and therefore, refused on the grounds, it was too much an ordeal.
“When he came home to the states for a month (a reroute to Vietnam), he went directly to North Carolina, and asked me to join him there, and I again refused, and remained with my family in Alabama, taking care of other responsibilities. And later on I knew he was in Vietnam, and he had told me of all those venereal diseases month by month he acquired, and the penicillin shots he was getting, along with other pharmaceuticals, he was frank and honest with me; perhaps too much so. Because of this now impending disease, he was somewhat crippled, bent when he walked, it was of course due to his insistence of having woman after woman, and now he is in Japan for some kind of treatment, all this you already know of course.
“He wants me to join him there, and assures me he has no longer any hidden diseases of that nature, that for the most part he is fine, and by the sound of his voice, all indications are that he is fine, but will he be safe for me?
“My mother once said, “Love is blind,” also she said, “You’re too close my dear to the forest to see the height and thickness of the woods.”
“And with that, I do not care to place myself in an awkward situation. On the other hand I have two children now, twin boys, they are not the sons of my husband’s, I wonder how he will take that, and they will be two-years old, come June.
“I wait patiently for your advice.”
3-12-2009• Based on Actual Events
