"In the very near future, the above named soldier, presently on duty with the United States Army in Vietnam, will again be in your midst, dehydrated, demoralized, demolished, and famished." (Letter to Friends and Relatives, 10/12/1967)

Allan Stuart Levin

Allan Levin in uniform War: Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch: Army Unit: 14th Engineer Battalion Combat; 35th Engineer Battalion Combat Service Location: Fort Lewis, Washington; Qui Nhon, Dong Ba Thin, Phu Cat, and Landing Zone (LZ) Hammond, Vietnam; Fort Belvoir, Virginia Rank: Staff Sergeant Place of Birth: TX

In 1966, long before blogging, camera phones, and social network web sites, Allan Levin enlisted in the Army and began to document his service on almost every medium then available. He wrote dozens of letters, he took hundreds of photographs, he shot home movies on 8mm film, and he recorded his thoughts, reflections, and experiences on audio tapes, which served as oral correspondence to his friends and family back home. Levin served with two engineers battalions in various support positions, and he seemed determined to spend every moment of down time making a record of his time in country between the fall of 1966 and the fall of 1967.