Ken's letters were addressed to his parents and his brother Chuck. Kenneth Dressel arrived in Vietnam on December 19th 1967 and died in gun fire January 25th 1968. This is the second half of his story, in his words. The letter dated March 17th was written by Ken's fellow service man Mike Essen.Jan 68
Hello family
I suppose that you have read in the paper about the large fight between the Vietnamese and the 2nd and 22nd INF. On the 1 or 2 day of the year we killed over 1,000 VC and they only killed 22 of our men and wounded about 125 men that same night the VC were mortaring our post so that we couldn't leave here to help them. I glad that we could get out of here. I think that we got hit with over 100 mortar rounds but no one got hurt.
Your son
Ken
Jan 18 1967 (Editor's note:should read 1968)
Dear Chuck,
Well how is everything treating you back in the world? Well I'll tell you if I had my choice I would rather be back there, because this place just isn't for me, because there aren't any girls and most important there isn't very much beer to drink so I guess that I will have to make up for that the next time I come home and then I will be 21 and old enough to drink, "wow". But then again by the time I come home you will have your driver's license and that means that I will really have to fight to get to use dad's car…But if the competition is too great I will just have to buy me a sting-ray so that I will have something to drive and don't start getting any ideas about driving it either because I won't let you. Ha Ha. But meanwhile back in Vietnam, I have work to do before I can come home until my year is up and then they better hide all the girls and the beer because I will have a year to rest up for them. Putting all the kidding aside say hi to (everyone)
your big brother
Ken
Sun 21, 1968
Hello Everyone,I was sure glad to get 3 letters from you today… those pictures turned out real nice. I showed them to all the guys because everybody always shows their pictures to us… Boy do you have the wrong impression of Vietnam. You must think that they are always after us but they don't come close to the base camp unless they have about 10,000 men and it is hard to get that many together because every day we go out on sweeps to look for them and keep them from grouping together. You also asked if we get much sleep…we get 8 hours or more a night….Do you know that it is only 11 more months or 328 days. I'm not counting the days but Dick Denny said how many days we had left today. We usually get one hot meal a day and that is supper and then we get a cold soda and BEER. That is one thing a GI looks forward to when he is out on a sweep during the day hot food, cold beer and a letter from home
Watching out
Ken
Wed 24 1968 (Editor's note: Kenny's last letter home)
Dear folks,I got your letter today that had the Kool-aid in it so now we can make some Kool-aid when we come in at night. About two nights ago we really got drunk. A convoy came in and it had extra beer so we went and bought 8 cases boy did that feel good for a change…I am starting to get more mail. That is always nice because it takes my mind off what's going on over here…Well I guess that is all for now
Your son,
Ken
Sunday morning, February 6th, Mrs. Dressel was standing at her kitchen window washing dishes when a government car drove up to the house. Kenneth had been listed as missing in action. He however died in gun fire January 25th 1968, three weeks earlier at the age of 20, less than five weeks after his arrival.
A letter from Mike Esser dated February 11, 1968 surprised the family. Mike had been a friend of Ken's and was on patrol with him when he died. Mike's letters discussed that Ken "was the best of a friend." Subsequent letters described, at Mr. and Mrs. Dressel's request, how Ken died.
March 17
Dear Mrs. Dressel,
I am glad my first letter helped make Ken's passing away a little easier for the both of you. You had asked me if I could fill you in on the day of Ken's death. I was out there that day…We the company's of A-B-C and D 2/14 INF were making search and destroy missions out of Katum along the Cambodian border on the day of Ken's death. We were air lifted out, we were suppose to make something like a 2500 meter sweep and be picked up by choppers and brought back. Around noon gun ship's spotted hut's from the air and so we were taken off our first course to check out the report. The going was rough and the jungle thick, it was very hard to see very far ahead. Both Ken and Dick Denney were working security for the lead platoon and both were hit by the same round. The enemy first opened up with small arms fire which wounded the third person in the file twice in the arm when this happened Ken jumped in a bomb crater hole and Dick behind a fallen tree, an RPG rocket was fired which hit Ken in the leg and wounded Dick, as much as I know this was the only wound Ken had but a very bad one. People in his platoon and a medic went up and brought both Ken and Dick back where they could work on them. There were two medics working on Ken most of the time. So you know he had the most medical care we could give him at the time, and they did everything they could. After Ken did die our senior medic sat down put his hands to his head and cried. All this time Ken was with us, even though was reported missing was a mistake. After Ken was pulled back, he was like always smiling talking and smoking. The first thing he said was as soon as he gets in he wanted a cold beer. If in pain he never really complained. But being the first hit and getting a chopper in was impossible while in the fight. Loss of blood finally got to Ken…. The jungle was so thick, no chopper could land so they sat at tree top level and all wounded were lifted up in baskets but his time Ken had already passed away. This is how I seen it, I have told you all I know, I hope it clears some things up for you.
A Friend,
Mike
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