438th AAA AW BN
APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.
22 June, 1945 0900
Reims
My dearest sweetheart –
How I love you and miss you these days and nights! You’ll never really know, darling, until I can come home and tell you and show you. You can’t possibly conceive it from merely reading words. And feeling like that – here I have to sit in France – waiting, waiting – and yet thankful I’m not heading for Marseilles as so many other near here are. A trip to Marseilles, dear, means the C.B.I. without the States first. I don’t know what I’d do or you either, sweetheart – if I had only that to look forward to. I’d feel like going AWOL – I know. So the one comforting thought I have is that I will be coming home. When – I don’t know. We read in the Stars and Stripes that it will take most of a year to get all the men re-deployed. There’s no reason to believe we’ll be the last to go – because this job of being M.P.’s is just one to fill a temporary shortage. When our time comes – regardless of the job – we’ll go. Furthermore, I could be separated from the outfit at any time and come home with another.
There were 12 letters for the whole battalion yesterday – but that’s a sign the APO is straightened out and that any day now our mail will start to flow. One of the 12 letters was for me, dear – from Lawrence. I feel sad every time I hear from him. It was written en route to the Coast – at Ogden, Utah. He seemed to be enjoying the trip. But I still think he did wrong and that he was very inconsiderate of his family. I wrote him last night – and of course I didn’t tell him how I felt. I merely wished him luck.
Meanwhile – here – we know definitely that we’ll move to Nancy on Monday, the 25th. Hq, Baker and Charlie Batteries will be in Nancy, and Able and Dog go to Metz. That means I’ll be seeing Pete again. It’ll be nice having at least half of the officers together again. Nancy is supposed to be a rather nice city – of about 100,000. I hope there are some tennis courts there – as it seems that will be the only outlet for any energy I have and the only way of keeping in shape. All these cities, including Reims, are very crowded and congested – but I hope we manage to get reasonably good quarters.
Reims to Nancy, France
I should stop writing right now, darling, since I have several things to take care of here today – but I just feel like sitting here and writing all day. Say – I was glad to hear that Les White is coming along all right and that the doctors give him good hope of having a good arm. That’s swell. Have you seen him at all? Does he wear his arm in a sling?
Yes – it was thoughtful of Mary to send Lawrence a medal. I hope he got it, for her sake. You know, dear, I still have the one she sent me.
Sweetheart – they’ve just come for me. I’ve got to run down to the hospital and find out about a fellow I sent in last night. He had an acute abdomen and I want to find out whether or not they operated.
And so for a little while, dear, so long. Maybe today I’ll hear from you. There’s quite a few letters missing from the latter part of May and early June. I’ll take them all!! I want to read that you love me, darling. I like to read that as much as I love to tell you –
Love to the folks, sweetheart, and
How I love you and miss you these days and nights! You’ll never really know, darling, until I can come home and tell you and show you. You can’t possibly conceive it from merely reading words. And feeling like that – here I have to sit in France – waiting, waiting – and yet thankful I’m not heading for Marseilles as so many other near here are. A trip to Marseilles, dear, means the C.B.I. without the States first. I don’t know what I’d do or you either, sweetheart – if I had only that to look forward to. I’d feel like going AWOL – I know. So the one comforting thought I have is that I will be coming home. When – I don’t know. We read in the Stars and Stripes that it will take most of a year to get all the men re-deployed. There’s no reason to believe we’ll be the last to go – because this job of being M.P.’s is just one to fill a temporary shortage. When our time comes – regardless of the job – we’ll go. Furthermore, I could be separated from the outfit at any time and come home with another.
There were 12 letters for the whole battalion yesterday – but that’s a sign the APO is straightened out and that any day now our mail will start to flow. One of the 12 letters was for me, dear – from Lawrence. I feel sad every time I hear from him. It was written en route to the Coast – at Ogden, Utah. He seemed to be enjoying the trip. But I still think he did wrong and that he was very inconsiderate of his family. I wrote him last night – and of course I didn’t tell him how I felt. I merely wished him luck.
Meanwhile – here – we know definitely that we’ll move to Nancy on Monday, the 25th. Hq, Baker and Charlie Batteries will be in Nancy, and Able and Dog go to Metz. That means I’ll be seeing Pete again. It’ll be nice having at least half of the officers together again. Nancy is supposed to be a rather nice city – of about 100,000. I hope there are some tennis courts there – as it seems that will be the only outlet for any energy I have and the only way of keeping in shape. All these cities, including Reims, are very crowded and congested – but I hope we manage to get reasonably good quarters.
Reims to Nancy, France
I should stop writing right now, darling, since I have several things to take care of here today – but I just feel like sitting here and writing all day. Say – I was glad to hear that Les White is coming along all right and that the doctors give him good hope of having a good arm. That’s swell. Have you seen him at all? Does he wear his arm in a sling?
Yes – it was thoughtful of Mary to send Lawrence a medal. I hope he got it, for her sake. You know, dear, I still have the one she sent me.
Sweetheart – they’ve just come for me. I’ve got to run down to the hospital and find out about a fellow I sent in last night. He had an acute abdomen and I want to find out whether or not they operated.
And so for a little while, dear, so long. Maybe today I’ll hear from you. There’s quite a few letters missing from the latter part of May and early June. I’ll take them all!! I want to read that you love me, darling. I like to read that as much as I love to tell you –
Love to the folks, sweetheart, and
All my sincerest, deepest love –
Greg
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