What can I say to fill the void? I know flowers and letters are appropriate but still it's hardly enough. I'm Johnny Boy, and I'm sick both physically and mentally. I smoke too much, am constantly coughing, never eat, always sit around in a daze. All of us are in this general condition. We are all afraid to die and all we can do is count the days till we go home. We're all in desperate need of love. When we go to Saigon, we spend all our money on women and beer. Some nights I dont sleep. I can't stand being alone at night. The guns don't bother me--I can't hear them anymore. I want to hold my head between my hands and run screaming away from here. I'm hollow, Mrs. Perko. I'm a shell, and when I'm scared I rattle. I'm no one to tell you about your son. I can't. I'm sorry.
Johnny Boy
Cpl. John Houghton--"Johnny Boy"--was the friend of Terry J. Perko, a lance corporal from Maple Heights, Ohio, who was killed on 21 February 1967, five months after arriving in Vietnam. They were serving with the 1st Anglico Detachment, 1st Marine Division, operating out of Chu Lai. Terry's twin, Jerry, also served in Vietnam at the same time. John Houghton, in Vietnam from October 1966 to October 1967, now lives in Camden, New Jersey, and works as a deckhand on a tugboat.
