September 28, 1971

 Dear mom and Dad,

Well I want to thank you all for all your letters that I have been so slow in answering lately.  Also I hope Mom had a real great birthday.  I hope you got my gift by now, and I also hope it got through the mails OK, since it was very breakable.  Also Dad might be interested in some of the Stars @ Stripes I wrapped them in, and also a copy of the notorious "Over-Seas Weekly"with an article on Bamberg in it and also my commanding officer, Col DeRamus.  

Boy, I was really sorry to hear about the dry well.  I really thought you would hit water.  That sure is a lot of money to spend for a hole in the ground.  Mom wrote me about the different options you have open to you, and of the ones she mentioned, the one that sounded best to me was to secure permanent water rights from the guy next door, if he would let you.  It seems like buying the whole house and land just for the water (unless you really wanted it for other reasons) would be kind of extravagant and drilling another hole, with at best a 50-50 chance of hitting water seems like too much of a gamble at the price.  If you did secure his water rights you could always drop them at some later date if you wanted to try another hole and hit water, couldn't you? Or you could maybe buy the house at a later date when it was financially easier.  As far as me buying it with you; that sounds like a real good deal, but right now I just don't have the funds available, mainly because of unexpected auto repairs which kind of set me back and when I do get my funds built up again I feel that it would be best for me to hang on to it for Education. after the Army, especially if it happens to be med school.  If I did have enough money that I could spare, I would do it, because I can see the advantages of investing in land, especially at my age.  Well I will move on to other things.

The picture that mom sent of the three Burrows family fiddlers was very good.    also I was very happy to get the house plan and I looked at them very carefully.  Is that the exact plan you will be using?  If so, it looks very good. 

Mom kept referring to the fact that I had said I was bored in my job at the officers club.  I guess I did say that, but it was a bad choice of words on my part.  I want to clear that up now, so you won't misunderstand.  I was never bored in the usual meaning of the word.  For the whole 9 months that I worked in clubs I worked an average of 12-14 hours a day and usually 7 days a week, and was always kept busy.  And during the time that I did have off I was never bored, because there are so many interesting places to go and see here in Germany and I have made use of my free time over here to get as much exposure to the people and place of Germany as possible and have enjoyed that part of my time here tremendously!  But those times were far and few between and until I started this new job I hadn't had one full day off for over two months.  So bored wasn't the right word, but the job just wasn't too productive or in my opinion, worthwhile or important.  So I hope you understand that I wasn't satisfied with that type of work, but I wasn't really bored either.  

Well I like my new job so far.  I know you're interested in it, but if I go into all the details right now it will take 3 or 4 more pages, so I'm going to stop this letter right now because it's getting real late and I have to get up early tomorrow.  Instead of putting this letter aside and finishing it later like I sometimes do, I want to get it in the mail tomorrow, because it's been so long since I last wrote, I'm sorry to say.  I promise though that I will sit down tomorrow night and start another one and fill you in on all the things I left out in this one...So until then.....

August 26, 1971

 Dear Dad & Mom,

I got Dad's letter a few days ago.  He kind of left me up in the air though; down to 462 feet and still no water!  What happened?  I bet that they did find it eventually, though.  I wouldn't think that the neighbors world hit water and you couldn't.  I'm really glad to hear that the plans on the house are moving along so quickly.

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over and that school will be starting shortly.  I wish Lore the best of luck in the sixth grade.

Before I get into my news, I must ask if Dad's birthday present ever got there.  I figure it should have arrived two or three weeks ago at least.  If not, please let me know right away because it was insured and I might be able to get some of my money back on it and get you another one if it never got through the mail!

Well I've got some pretty big news which I just found out yesterday.  I knew that sooner or later somebody would realize what a waste it is to have two officers working at the club, and that some kind of change would probably result.  So, it turned out that the brigade commander here at Bamburg found out I had a BA in Psychology which seems to be a rather rare degree among officers.  So because of that he tapped me for a position which is empty now, but he had been trying to find someone for it.  the name of this new job which I will start officially on Sept 5, is Drug Abuse and Equal Opportunity Officer.

Right now I really don't have much information on exactly what my job will consist of, except for the fact that it will deal with two of the most pressing problems that the army has right now, especially in Europe and Vietnam, which are drug use among the troops, and racial problems; mostly between blacks and whites.  Of course I will just be concerned with the problems here in Bamburg which takes in several thousand men.  There have been a few other places in Germany which have created this position in the past, all accompanied by a lot of publicity and pats on the backs from Generals.  So you can see that the brigade commander here doesn't want the be left out of the lime light, so he jumped on the band wagon too.  I won't start until Sept 6, because on Monday we are having our annual I.G. (Inspector General) Inspection, which is the hardest inspection a club can get, so I have to stick around for that.  I really am looking forward to the change in jobs.  I was rapidly getting tired of the club routine, although everything has been going OK, and this new job sounds pretty interesting.  I just hope it is a job that I can really do something in, and not just an empty position like a lot of jobs in the army are.  Well I will let you know all the details about the job when I find out more myself.  the only bad thing about it is that it might be a lot harder to get leave during Christmas now because it's kind of tough to ask for leave right after you have started a new job.  I'm going to still try, but I really don't know how good the chances will be.  I can promise one thing and that is, whenever I do get another leave it will be home.  I really don't think you know how much I miss everyone.  You might think that I would get used to it after as long as I've been here, but it really gets worse every month!  There is some very promising news, that has been going around lately, and that is that some officers that are VI (voluntary Indefinite), like me are getting their 3rd year obligation taken off.  I know one 1st Lt.who has already had this happen to him, so instead of 3 years to serve he only has two!  If I don't get that, which doesn't seem too likely at this time, there is still a good chance that I might be able to get out as much as 3 or 4 months sooner.  Well, I've got a least one more year not matter what, so i hope this new job isn't too bad!

It was good that Nixon put on the wage and price controls, I think, but it was a lot better that they exempted raises due to promotions for military people.  I was really worried there for a while that I might not get my extra money for First Lt. which had been rumored.  So far Nixon's policy hasn't seemed to have much effect on the US dollar over here.  It's still going down in value, just like before.  When I first got here, the dollar was worth 3.68 Marks, now as of today, it's down to 3.39, which is quite a bit if you happen to deal with large amounts of money, but for the average American over here who doesn't spend large amounts of US dollars on the German Economy, I don't think it hurts too much.  One good thing to come out of it, is that my car will be worth 10% more when I get it back to the states, I think.

Well I better close for now.  Please write as often as possible.  Keep me posted on the progress of the house.  I really hope I can see everyone within the next few months.