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The birthday card Harris sent his mother from Vietnam - the front.
The front of the card.
His handwritten note inside, written while recovering on a hospital ship.
His handwritten note inside, written while recovering on a hospital ship.
What it says

Left page:
“Happy Birthday, Mom – I’ll be on the U.S.S. [Sanctuary] Repose for about six weeks – for a little vacation –”
The ship was actually the USS Repose. Harris was wounded on August 21 and it took a day or two to get out to the hospital ship; his mother’s birthday was August 29, so he hurried the card out before he knew the name of the ship he was on. On the envelope below, Harris caught the mistake: “Sanctuary” is crossed out and “Repose” written in his hand.

Beneath the verse, left-handed:
“I’ll try this left-handed – the right one is buried in bandages and it’s just a scratch. A corpsman picked this up for me. It’s all right.”

The envelope: U.S.S. Sanctuary crossed out, Repose written beside it, mailed free from the combat zone.
The envelope, mailed free from the combat zone to his mother in Silver City, New Mexico. The return address reads “U.S.S. Sanctuary Repose” in Harris’s hand.