<VV> My letter from Vietnam 1969

[James Cuneo]

Seth, Your letter brings back some strong memories that I have from my past.First, thank you to you and all who have served and sacrificed for our country. My uncle Andy was drafted in 65 and shipped out to Vietnam in early 66. Prior to his draft he had bought a 65 turbo corsa coupe in Evening Orchid. When he left, he gave, not loaned it to his younger brother. His reasoning was that he wanted his brother to enjoy the car as his own. The shock of his death in May of 66 was not lost on my young years of six. After all, he was mine and all of my siblings and cousins favorite uncle. Over the years the car was passed down once more to another uncle. Finally, it was sold to someone in San Jose. My uncle says the person that bought it still owns it and he occasionally sees it on the road. My father was the oldest of the boys and was the only one to not experience the corsa back then. It did however plant the seed of corvair fanaticism in him as well as I. His first vair was a 60 monza pg in white he bought for $150 dollars in 1969. He drove it as is everyday for five years to and from work as his daily driver. He owned a dozen others after that. My first vair was a 62 monza 102 I painted super yellow. My sister and two brothers first cars were corvairs as well. Collectively we've owned somewhere around twenty or so over the years. My father and brothers and I became Valley Corsa members in 1975 and were active for a few years. I have spent the last ten years restoring the 65 corsa my father bought for parts in 1974. The last three years it has been drivable 
so I have been taking it to our family reunion. This will be the first year that it is complete. When I have taken it in the past, my uncles well up with tears when they see it even though it is not the car they owned. The memories and emotions that the mere sight  of it bring up are priceless. Who would think that the sight of an inanimate object could stir such emotion.Seth, have you ever crossed paths with a purple corsa that could be my uncles?Sincerely,Jim Cuneo65 corsa 140 turbo Healdsburg, CA

--Forwarded Message Attachment--
From: Sethracer at aol.com
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org; fastvair at yahoogroups.com
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2013 17:36:23 -0400
Subject: <VV> My letter from Vietnam 1969

 
As part of my retirement efforts, I had to compile all the  documents of my 
married life, my working life and a few pre-working life  documents. Among 
them was my DD214, that is the military separation form, used  to document 
your military service, with dates and other pertinent details. In  the throes 
of going through my files to find a copy, I unearthed some letters I  had 
written home to my parents in 1969 from Vietnam, probably a dozen in all.  
Since one of them concerned Corvairs, I thought I would post this one letter I 
 wrote to my father in late May, 1969. I had previously owned a 1965 Corsa  
Convertible that I sold to my brother when I was drafted in 1968. There is 
one  paragraph about my brother that I have removed, but the rest is there, 
warts and  all.  Enjoy! (Feel free to laugh at  my 21-year-old self if you 
wish, I did!) 
Dear Dad 
It was nice to hear from you and I got the lemonade all right. It  is very 
good. I am glad to hear you passed your Real Estate exam. I guess you  will 
have to get a 1 or 2 year old Buick or Oldsmobile to drive customers around  
in. (What a horrible thought.) I guess you heard that they stopped building 
 Corvairs. That is too bad, but my experience with them leads me to admire 
them,  rather than to scorn them. I may even regress when I return and buy a 
1966 Corsa  hardtop. The price is right and I will be able to personalize 
the car without  investing a fortune. Also, the styling is still contemporary 
and the handling  and gas mileage couldn’t be much better. On the debit 
side, there aren’t too  many around and I will have to bide my time until we 
can find one that will suit  me at a good price. Also, I won’t be able to 
count on too high a resale value.  To fight the first one, all I have is that I 
am mobile and I will be able to get  around to look at many cars. The second 
one poses a problem. I think the only  way to overcome this problem (resale 
value) is to keep the car a long enough  time to spread the loss over 
enough time so it won’t hurt as much. Since the car  is to be used for high 
performance road use only, (Rallies, trips, any racing I  do will be done in a 
racing car), I can use it without misusing it. As long as I  keep it in good 
shape, it should do me as a car. It is a small sporty economical  good 
looking 4-passenger car. With a few minor modifications, to the tune of  about 
$600, I can make it “My” car. (With at least 3 burglar alarms) Another  
Corvair credit they are not too prone to be stolen. I heard about Tony’s tape. I  
don’t blame him for not getting another. But for the time I spend in my car, 
 which, I agree will be less than before, I still want a player in it, even 
if I  have to build it into the dash and weld it in.  
Back to the present. I hope you had a nice trip. Oklahoma is a  fairly nice 
climate at this time each year (for about 3 weeks). You asked me  about the 
mountain. As of now I am going up there June 7 for a month. It is  called 
Nui Ba den. It means Black Virgin Mountain. It is East of Tay Ninh, about  3 
miles from the Cambodian border. It rises some 3000 feet from the valley 
floor  out of nothing. On top there is a special forces camp and about 15 radio 
 stations. This is what I will be doing up there. I will be in charge of 
one of  the stations for the Artillery in this area. It is fairly primitive up 
there, no  showers or electricity. 
Well, I have to go now. I am going to Long Binh and Saigon today. I  will 
try to see Frank if I can. I will write again soon.   
-        Love,  Seth 
I  hope you have enjoyed my blast from the past. I did spend that month on 
top  of the Nui Ba Den. They did have showers, but no alcohol was allowed on 
the  mountain. (bummer). And the VC joined us at least one time, the only 
time I have  fired a rifle in anger. When I got home in 1970, I did buy a 
Corvair again,  about 5 months later. I have owned at least one ever since.  – 
Seth  Emerson