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27 Nov 67
Hello Darling,
My RTO, who has 28 days to go, cracked up. He was shaking and crying, not loud but the tears were running down his face. The last couple of letters he received from home, his wife said she didn’t care whether he came back or not. He is real proud of his son whom he hasn’t seen yet. His wife doesn’t know what she is doing to him. It is bad enough over here, but when your wife writes like that it completely destroys a man…
your husband,
Fred
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2Lt Frederick Downs, Jr., a son of Kingman, Indiana, was a platoon leader with Company D, 1st Battalion, 14th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division, operating out of Duc Pho, August 1967-January 1968, when he was seriously wounded in action, losing his left arm. He is the author of three books about his experiences:The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War (W. W. Norton & Company, 1978), Aftermath: A Soldier’s Return from Vietnam (W. W. Norton & Company), and No Longer Enemies, Not Yet Friends: An American Soldier Returns to Vietnam ((W. W. Norton & Company, 1991). He has worked for the VA as director of the Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service.
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