Bolan had been a career soldier. At age 30 he was a 12-year veteran and on his second Vietnam tour. He had never married. His mother, Elsa, a youthful 47-year-old second-generation Polish-American, wrote him faithfully on Tuesdays and Fridays of each week and sent him a "care" package twice monthly, each one filled with tangy Polish sausages, cookies, and a small cake or two. Her letters were always cheerful and uncomplaining, and she often enclosed snapshots of

Cindy, Mack's pretty 17-year-old sister, and of Johnny, the kid brother just turned 14. Sam Bolan, Mack's father, had been a steelworker since the age of 16. Mack always thought of Sam Bolan as being as dependable and as indestructible as the steel he made, and though Mack and Sam never corresponded directly, the letters between mother and son bore frequent messages between the Bolan men.

From one of Elsa's letters, for example: "Pop wants to know if it's true what they say about Asian women. Ha!"

And the reply from Mack: "Tell Pop there are a lot of truths about Asian women and I'm diligently seeking the full story. A-ha!"

Cindy Bolan, at the time of the tragedy, had only recently graduated from high school. Her big brother represented her ideal of masculine perfection. She wrote him each night, continuing the letter diary-fashion and mailing it weekly, often confiding her secret fears and problems in the rambling letters. Example: "Mary Ann keeps trying to talk me into going to a pot party with her. Have you ever smoked pot? I hear it is used widely over there."

Counselor Mack's reply from across the sea was: "With friends like Mary Ann, you don't have much need of enemies, do you. As for myself, I have plenty enemies enough over here without adding pot to the list."

In another exchange, Cindy remarked: 'It's always a problem. I mean, you know, how much is too much? I never had that problem with Steve, but Chuck keeps me shook up all the time. I mean, he has a hands problem. Know what I mean? I'm crazy about him but I don't know just how to handle this problem of his."