Well, it looks like I won't be comin' home after all, Ma. Charlie got me in the leg, must've hit an artery, too, cause the blood's comin' out like you wouldn't believe. I'm layin' here in the mud, I can't hear anything anymore, it sounds like the fight's over. I don't know which side won, but I don't really think it matters anymore. We hit them, they hit us right back, we go hit them again, it's the same thing every day. I think it's probably always gonna be like that, this war'll just keep goin' until there's no more kids to fight it. Then maybe it'll be over, at least for a while.
I know i promised you, Ma. I promised I'd be fine, that I'd make it home in time to see you and Pa and Jackie at Thanksgiving dinner. I swore I'd make it home to see all of you again, and to see Sandy again. Tell her I love her, will you Ma? Tell her I'm sorry i won't be there when the baby is born, that I won't be there see the little guy grow up and become a man. And you tell her not to let that little boy go off like his Daddy, won't you Ma? Don't let them ship him off here, or nowhere else, if you got any chance of stoppin' him. I know before I left I said I was goin' off to fight with a smile on my face, but don't you let that little boy run off and come here, or wherever the war is when he's grown up.
They tell you all these things about how war is h**, and it's true, but most folk still think there's some good in it. People think we're fightin' the good fight, that their boys're on the right side, and fightin' evil, but don't ya think Charlie's ma is sayin' the same thing about him? Don't ya think he has a ma and pa worried sick about him? Don't you think he has a girl back home, too, and that he'd rather be back with her, instead of out here in the jungle? That's the sort of stuff you think about, I guess, when you're stuck in the jungle with a bullet in your leg.
It's gettin' kinda hard to keep awake now, guess that's the blood loss for ya. I'm sorry I broke my promise, Ma, but I tried, i really did. I just want you to know something, that I'm layin' out here in the jungle, writin' to you so that you know how much i love you, and Pa, and Jackie, and Sandy and our little boy. One last thing, Ma, i want you to tell Sandy to name that little boy after his daddy, so she won't ever forget me.
It's gettin' darker outside now, don't know if it's the rainstorms comin' back or my eyes shuttin' down, but I feel like h***, so I don't think I got much time left.
I'm scared Ma...