CALM FRENZY

In the spring of 1968, under the threat of the draft, Loring M. Bailey Jr. enlisted in the Army with the option for Offi cers Candidate School. From his induction in June 1968 and basic training in Fort Knox Kentucky, he began a series of letters to his family and friends. With an Infantry assignment, he entered nine weeks of Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Polk Louisiana, followed by nine months of combat infantry in Vietnam. Writing stations were established immediately, and letters flowed out of the jungle. On the fifteenth of March 1970, while on Nui Chap Vung Mountain in the Quang Ngai province, Ring was fatally wounded from the detonation of a hidden antipersonnel device. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart. Ring gave us the insight of an educated and articulate soldier and delivers Vietnam in the perspective of one man in a war with a 360 degree front. We present these letters to you as they were written to us