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16 May 68
Dear Susan,
By the time this arrives, I will have told all my hairy war stories and shown you my scar. One thing that worries me - - will people believe me? Will they want to hear about it, or will they want to forget the whole thing ever happened? I’m pretty proud of my last year. I saw a lot of combat, and got a few results. But they mean very little to anyone outside of that group of Americans who have been over here and who have been through it. It’s going to take a while to get over the nervous anticipation one gets from being constantly under the gun, so to speak. I’ll hear a car backfire, and I’ll reach for a machinegun.
Love, Dick
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Lt. (jg) Richard W. Strandberg, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, served with River Patrol Sections 533 and 522, operating along the Mekong River, from May 1967-May 1968. A fine artist, he was curator of the first art show about the Vietnam War by those who were there, held in St. Paul, Minnesota, in November 1980. A year later, he brought the show, “The Vietnam Experience,” to New York City, in an exhibit co-curated by Bernard Edelman. He now lives in Mesa, Arizona with his wife, Susan.
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