This is a scene from a play I wrote based on my combat tour in Vietnam. It's a full-length play. The action takes place in a Fire Direction Control hut. Characters come and go from the field. 

Scene VI

(Baines and Meyers are onstage reading their mail. Baines' uniform is rumpled and his boots are scoffed. He is wearing a dirty jungle hat.)

MEYERS:
Does Kat know you transferred to Recon, Baines? 

BAINES:
I haven’t told her.

MEYERS:
Why not? 

BAINES:
She wouldn’t understand.

MEYERS:
Thick-headed woman! I don’t understand why you don’t want to go home to her. 

BAINES:
I do. 

MEYERS:
Sure, Baines, that’s why you joined Recon. 

BAINES:
It’s two different things. 

MEYERS:
Right – intelligence and stupidity. 

(Baines continues to read Kat’s letter. The letter is delivered in the voice of Kat.) 

Dearest Timmy: 

Just sitting here on a lazy Saturday afternoon dreaming of you, my love. I wonder what you’re doing. I hope you’re well and safe. I miss you so much. 

Oh, how I love you, my darling!

But, first, the news: Daddy gave me the old car. I don’t really need it – I live so close to the campus – but I wasn’t going to turn down his gift. I know he means well. Besides, now I can take a drive on an evening when I’m feeling lonely to some lovely and serene lake – there to linger looking at the moonlight on the water and thinking of you. 

I feel so guilty sometimes, Timmy. Such posh and comfy lives we live here, while you are in such a tough spot. I wish I could share your hardship. It isn’t fair. How cruel to be separated like this, halfway around the world from the one you love. But we’ll get through this and be together again. Please be careful. Come home to me. 

Mommy sends her love. She prays the rosary for you every day. That should do it, hah? 

Robbie, that little brother of mine – such a pest! He’s so impressed by you. He tells his friends, “Timmy’s a soldier. He’s in a war.” The other day he asked me if you had shot anyone yet. My goodness! I told him to go away. What a pest!

You mentioned that your firebase (Claudette: such a lovely name) didn’t have barbed wire or barriers. Why not? Are you sure it’s safe?

Daddy says just don’t volunteer for anything. “Keep your head down and your mouth shut,” he says. Well, you know how much Daddy hates that war. He says politicians and generals just want to make a name for themselves. They’re just little “pooh-butts” (Daddy’s term), who want to be great, but are just afraid to quit. With you over there, Timmy, I have to listen to a lot of that. See what you’re doing to me.

You asked about my classes. I’m doing very well, thank you, sir. I like Anatomy, in particular; Physical Chemistry is fun; Mental Health is boring; Microbiology is fascinating. Good enough? Can I brag, Timmy: It’s all so effortless. In three years, it’ll be Dr. Getzler – or Dr. Baines. I like Baines better. 

Mommy just called. She wants me to go to the mall with her. Why does she need me? I think she just wants to lift my spirits. 

Please, please, please be careful, Timmy. Come home to me. Remember always that I have a stake in you. We have so much to live for. How I long for the sight of you – the sound of your voice – the scent of your skin. When you come home to me, I’ll hold you so tight and never let you go again.

Love you! Miss you! Long for your return! 

Take care, my darling,

Kat

(Enter Jenkins from outside carrying a letter.)

MEYERS:
Here's another love-sick grunt. What's Paula got on her mind, Jenkins?

JENKINS:
Be careful… I love you… I miss you… Come home to me…

BAINES:
Tell me about it. 

MEYERS:
O'Meara told me the new guy who arrived last week and was assigned to number two gun got a "Dear John" letter yesterday.

BAINES:
Already?

MEYERS:
Yeah. O'Meara said he saw him hiding in the ammo bunker and crying.

BAINES:
Let's talk about something else.

MEYERS:
How about war then? Any war stories to tell yet, Baines?

BAINES:
It's not that bad. Physically, it's exhausting, but in the four weeks I've been out in the field, we haven't hit any mines, we've only had a few minor contacts, and nobody's been hurt.

MEYERS:
I heard you got a body yesterday.

BAINES:
Yeah, just one, though. – Johnny, I've been meaning to ask you something.

JENKINS:
What's that, Timmy?

BAINES:
That guy we killed yesterday... Did you see him raise his hand, when he was lying in the grass wounded?

JENKINS:
No, but what of it?

BAINES:
It looked like he was trying to surrender.

JENKINS:
What of it?

BAINES:
Then we shouldn't have killed him. We should've taken him prisoner. They told us, when we came in-country, to take prisoners whenever we could. It just makes good military sense. They want to interrogate them. A POW might reveal something that would save somebody's life.

MEYERS:
Oh, the honor of war!

JENKINS:
Look, Timmy, when you've been out in the field for a few months, and you've seen some of your buddies get hurt bad or killed, and maybe you've even come close to getting killed yourself, then you're going to feel a whole lot less sympathy for them.

MEYERS:
How can anyone want to be a soldier so badly that he writes to the Colonel, and yet be so sadly lacking in a soldier's temperament? Answer that, Baines.

BAINES:
I'm not being sensitive. It simply would've made a lot more sense militarily not to kill him.

MEYERS:
Forget it.

JENKINS:
Yeah, Timmy, just don't think about what's done.

BAINES:
I couldn't believe the condition of that body after the machine gun raked it. It looked like somebody had gone after it with a meat cleaver.

MEYERS:That's war, Baines.

JENKINS:
Brad... let's talk about something else.

(Enter Daniels from FDC and Landsberg from outside.)

LANDSBERG:
Top, I just talked to the company commander! We're moving!

DANIELS:
Who's moving?

LANDSBERG:
The whole battalion! To a place called Firebase Crystal in the jungles northeast of Saigon.

MEYERS:
Sir, are you sure about this?

LANDSBERG:
Yes!

DANIELS:
When's the move?

LANDSBERG:
Tomorrow morning! But Recon won't be going with you. The mortars and line companies will proceed directly to Crystal by truck. Recon will be flown into the jungle tomorrow at dawn. Headquarters has been intercepting radio traffic. They have good reason to believe they've located the headquarters of the 274th North Vietnamese Regiment. Some of the traffic indicates the Regimental Commander just came into the area. They want us to find that base camp and bring down enough fire on it to kill that guy and everyone else in the area. And by God, we will!

DANIELS:
We'd best get packing.

LANDSBERG:
Right! I've got to see that the men are ready to go. -- Baines, Jenkins, let's go. I want to talk to every man in the platoon.

DANIELS:
Let's go, Meyers.

(Exit Landsberg, Baines and Jenkins outside.) 

(Exit Daniels and, after some show of consternation, Meyers to FDC.)

Read Scene XV
Read Scene XIX