Issue 4.12
Letters from home always have been very important to soldiers, and letters to and from
American soldiers in World War II were no exception.
Telephone conversation between America and England was non-existent however there was still cable telegraph between the continents called cablegrams.
I probably got a letter from my sister about once every two months. I wrote to and received from Eloise quite often. I tried to write Eloise four times per week or more. I did enjoy her letters about half that amount. Sometimes I sent her V-mail letter which was written on a one page form. These were then photographed and put on a roll of film along with thousands of others to be sent to America where they would be reconstituted and sent to those to whom they were addressed. This mail was free but it took about five weeks to reach its destination. A better way was to send regular letters that required a three cent stamp. We usually bought a packet of stamped envelopes at the P. X. and took the pack to one of the officers on our crew and have him sign (as censored) the whole stack at one time. All mail had to be signed as censored by an officer. Sometimes we would take the stack of envelopes to an officer crewman who had recently been promoted from 2nd to 1st Lieutenant so that he could get used to the new way to sign his name. All he had to do was to sign his name and say censored on the envelope. Of course the letters weren’t really censored but no one would write anything that would not pass even if it were censored. We wrote rather bland letters because we couldn’t tell when we flew or what the target was or dates or losses or casualties or where we were stationed or even information about the weather.
Some of my friends had stacks of envelopes thus censored and the officer that signed his name was shot down and was M. I. A. (missing in action) while my friends still had some unused envelopes. They continued to use the signed envelopes so one morning at briefing the briefing officer said “Those who are using envelopes censored by Lt. __, hurry up and use them. After all, Lt.__ has been M. I. A. for two weeks now.
I didn’t save any of the letters Eloise sent to me but she said she saved all of them that I sent to her. It is too bad I couldn’t have written more about my Arial combat days.