Dear Maxie, Letters from Vietnam

Dear Maxie, Letters From Vietnam

We went back to Vietnam: April 7-20, 2007!
We played Taps at Khe Sanh, Con Tien, Dong Ha, and other sites in Quang Tri Province.
See TapsInVietnam.com for details.
Taps in Vietnam

I left Maxie to go to Vietnam on April 25, 1968, 38 years ago. We had been married for 18 days.

Maxie experienced the war through my letters one day at a time until January,1969. On good days she would get a letter from me, on better days a couple of letters or pictures or some other tidbit from me. On bad days, no letter would arrive due to mail foul-ups, weather, or just luck. Sometimes the letters would get mixed up; I didn't date the letters and it would be difficult to sort out if the letters arrived out of order.

You can relive that experience with us. I will post my letters to Maxie one day at a time here on DearMaxie.com. Unfortunately, her letters to me did not survive the war. The letters will not be in any particular order since I didn't date the letters; but that's ok since my tour in Vietnam did not have a story line: just a beginning and an end - the rest was a muddle in the middle.

Some of the letters will be scans of the originals in my often messy handwriting. Some of the letters will show real Vietnam dirt and some will be blurry due to rain drops running the ink or from Maxie's tears as she read them. I wrote Maxie almost every day, so there are over 200 letters to be posted over the next few months.

Join us as we journey through a difficult time for our nation though the eyes of a Marine and his beautiful new wife. Somehow Maxie and I survived. Unfortunately, too many good people did not; this project is dedicated to the ones that never came home.

Semper Fi

Gary

Postings began May 1, 2006

Postings ended September 7, 2006