10 December, 1943

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 515 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Dec 10, 1943     1045

England

Dearest beloved -

I suppose that if you received my mail daily in sequence – it would read like a chronicle. It must be confusing to get them mixed, as you probably do. As I figure things, with censorship and the usual hold up of letters in the early days of arrival, you should be just about beginning to receive my mail somewhere about this date. Am I correct, dear? Of course this time of the year with Christmas packages and all I guess the mail is delayed even more than usual. I think you’ll eventually find, dear, that you’ll hear from me by air-mail in about one week’s time, which isn’t bad. I remember when I was in Fort Jackson, S.C. – it sometimes took 4 days for my mail to get home. Only there I was able to call frequently.

If you have my letter written last night, darling you’d know that we received no mail yesterday because the mail truck broke down. It finally got in about 0100, and was sorted out this a.m. – but no mail for me. So what can I do about it, dear? Nothing except to use my imagination again – and I sure do feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t got one and has to be away from home. I’ve been using mine pretty steadily, darling. When I don’t hear from you, I tell myself you are writing anyway and then I try to imagine what you might have written – and it’s always something sweet, dear.

Yesterday I heard a re-broadcast of an old “Hit Parade”. Number one at that time was “Brazil” and number two “It seems to me I heard that etc.” Frank Sinatra crooned, and the audience sighed deeply. Incidentally, I heard that someone was found at a Sinatra program who actually fainted. Investigation showed she hadn’t eaten all that day. In the evening I heard the program “Mail Call” direct from Hollywood – which is broadcast to soldiers overseas only. Lionel Barrymore, Dennis Day, Baby Snooks, and a few others took part. It’s wonderful, dear, to hear an American program – no matter what it is – And the American announcers sound so homey. And you know how irritating the advertisements used to sound? Well I’d like to hear a couple of choruses of Pepsi-cola and others. The B.B.C. and the stations of the continent have no advertisement at all. The program runs until the end of the half-hour or hour, the time is announced and the new program started. On the hour – the British Stations give the chimes of Big Ben from London – instead of the staccato notes of the WBC or CBS.

I’m getting as I can recognize more and more of the French and German that we hear so much of on the radio – so I’ll have to consider this trip as partly educational, dear.

I’m going to stop now – without closing the letter. I’ve got to do a couple of things before lunch – and perhaps today’s mail will be in, early p.m. Solong for now, Sweetheart

2200

Hello dear –

That was a longer pause than I anticipated. Several things turned up – but the one that took the longest was an unexpected trip to the hospital. One of our officers has been quite sick and I had to go see if he were going to be transferred out of our outfit. I didn’t get to the hospital until 1630 and after checking up on several of the boys – I met an M.D. who hails from the North Shore. Well we got to talking and he invited me to the Officers’ Mess. It was too late to get back to ours, so I stayed. Then we smoked awhile in the Officers’ Lounge and before I knew it – it was quite late, darling, and we had to make our way back thru the blackout. No, dear, I don’t often forget myself and let the hours slip by – so you needn’t start worrying about my being late for dinner and supper. If I know you’re at home waiting, I’ll be on time, dear, you’ll see. I don’t hurry now, because there’s no one here to hurry to. It will be swell seeing you often during the day (and night too, of course). That’s one of the privileges of being an MD, you can see your wife a whole lot more of your lifetime than the layman.

Coming back tonight – the moon was big and the sky clear – for a change. I looked up at it all the 31 miles back and dreamed of you. If you saw the moon too dear – you must have felt something because I was concentrating very hard.

On returning here I found no mail. I don’t mind so much but I’m beginning to worry about your receiving my mail. I do hope you are by now. I’ll close now Sweetheart because I’m tired and want to get some sleep. Be patient darling. I’ll write tomorrow and meanwhile –

All my love to you, dear

Greg