December 13, 1944
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310.57.1-4.2016 Transcription
Somewhere – France
With 7th Army (guess I forget to write this every so often)
13 Dec 44-4PM
Dearest,
You won’t believe it—& I still
can’t believe it!—that I’m
starting your daily letter up here in
the operating room during duty hours!
Yup, today has just gone kerplop in
the number of casualties—during
my 12 hours today there will have
been only about 12 to 14 cases in the
O.R.—which is just unbelievable.
Anyhooo, were awfully glad as it
means just what it means—
fewer of our boys are getting “mailed.”
Gee! I’m excited about the
rumor that mail came in again
today. You see, Headquarters where
the mail sargent [no puns —“Fred Chard”—about
male sargents, naturally!, in the active Theaters][1],
does his work is off away from
here where we operate, so we only
hear about mail via the grapevine
& usually dont get it until we go
off duty at the end of our 12 hours.
Speaking of mail—it surely
is good, isn’t it dear, to be able
[2]
to “talk-back” in response to each-
others letters, instead of all that
“onesided-talking” that went on for
seeming ages before our respective
letters started arriving in Bis[marck] & France.
Yup, so much nicer to read questions
& then “talk” the answers. Guess I
use to “talk-you-silly” when we
were together [let alone the prefacing, the
perseflaging, the “repitition-ing” —oh, yes, the
coining of words, too][2] but you loved
me anyway, didn’t cha? —huh!?!
Oh! oh! here comes some cases—“see”
ya later after work—& after I pick
up [I hope!][3] mail at H’dq’rt’s.[4]
Whoopie!—yet shucks! I got
“mail” from you but it was only
the Readers Digest card announcing
who gave me what for Xmas. Shucks!
(and this batch of mail was a pretty big batch, too).
Incidentally, the name Miss Somebody
(a woman’s handwriting) who wrote on the
R’d’rs Dig. card was W-I-S-E-Y, but all
else was accurate. Howzabout you
tellin’ ‘em dear what the name really
is & that the APO[5] is now #758. Tanks.
Again, as last night, I sure do thank
[3]
you heaps ‘n millions darlin’ for that
very swell Xmas present!
For a long time I could have
explained something:—All around me
officers & expec. enlisted men, are always
buying stuff-n-things-‘n-“junk” &
sending them home as souveniers. To-
date I have sent practically nothing, by
comparison—I just cant see
the “dole” of money to Frenchmen (as
written before) PLUS this:—some docs,
whom I believe implicitly, told me
this shortly after I hit France—“Stick
to Medicine & the business (army business)
streets & roads & you’ll live long.”
These guys who go wandering, shopping,
souvenier hunting, etc, etc either
make a “find” of booby-traps, snipers,
Leftist-gangsterism [lot of it][6] or the like. Soooo,
expect very few gadgets—souveniers—
“J U N K.”
Maybe I’ll get to bed a wee bit earlier
tonight if I stop now. Also I begin a
week of nights again (8PM→8AM) starting
tomorrow night. Soooo, here’s off to bed
to dream of you & Terry c̅[7]
All my love,
Dave
[1] Bracketed text is part of original.
[2] Bracketed text is part of original.
[3] Bracketed text is part of original.
[4] Headquarters.
[5] Army Post Office.
[6] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[7] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”