December 8, 1944
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310.54.1-5.2016 Transcription
Somewhere—France
With 7th Army
8 Dec 44—9PM
Dearest,
I meant that this letter should
be so brimfull of happiness &
pleasantness — but I just
must “blow-off” (at least in brief)
& then I’ll restart the letter just
as I “dreamed” it for over four
hours this afternoon:— You & Dad
write me about not being a
“hero”; getting Distinguished Service
Cross; etc, etc — in other words
asking me not to be foolhardy
& reckless & thus get “nailed.”
Dearest, you don’t even have to
be near a bullet or a bomb to
kill yourself in this organization
I am in!! — Just do what
they ask of you in the line of
work [what they ask of you as
individual, clamoring, case-grabbing
egotistical, unthinking, inconsiderate
& “unpanoramic-thinking” individual
surgeons][1] & you’ll be dead in
just a matter of months from
[2]
[ill health][2] exhaustion. The crux of it all is
as you already know — an Evac[uation]
Hosp needs at least 7 anesthetists
& we have 2½. 9 anesthetists are
preferable & we need 21 have [again][3]
two & ½ anesthetists!! These
surgeons, on their various specialties,
all demand/bicker/“knive”/heckle
& prod you to do them personal
favors [(of anesthetizing their case, then & there)][4] so they can be at ease.
so they can be caught up; so they
wont have to take their normal
civil, decent, turn at having an
anesthetists at their disposal!!
I’ll confess & admit to you as of
this moment I have been breaking
my damn neck in a foolhardy &
reckless way (as regards health & life, itself)
to keep up to their dem selfish
demands — & I have done a
good job of it — BUT, Emily,
it is not worth it!卐!«!Ü! to
you, to Terry[5], to my own life &
health to go on day after day,
week after week, kissing their
tempermental-prima donna asses!
P.S. Do you know Prima Donna concept
[3]
So, what I’m trying to work up
to is this —— I here as of this
moment vow to you that I will
no longer keep up this pace of
doing 3 (& sometimes 4) anesthetists
work just to please & keep happy
such selfish unthinking men!
Naturally, I think of our wounded boys —
but darlin’, how can God, or Commanding
Officers, or you, or anyone condem me for
not going beyond the full hard sincere
work of one-anesthetist man each day.
You know my personality [(how I go intensely at work)][6] & what I feel about
“doing” for our-boys, & as “your-agent” in
this war —— Em! I tell you I just
must do what I’ve [{vowed [and] said][7] [above][8] or I’ll never
get back to you & Terry. One (just one) thing
that makes it all “hurt” so is that one
nurse-anesthetists, for example, goes glibly
& unthinkingly off to Paris on a 4 day leave
when she knows what the situation is. Lord!
Now! lets see if I can get back
to that 4 hour “dream” I hade about
what to write you.
My very dearest,
The sun shown [sic] beautifully
today; we had ‘specially nice food;
AND five of your letters came!
[4]
Isn’t it all just too good to be
true!!? The first sun (oh! how one can miss
- it) & the first letters in weeks, are
really a figurative & literal God-send!
There were the ones:— your Nov
8th & 9th combined-writing (about Terry’s
9# 12¾oz [you SUPER-MOTHER,!!YOU!!][9] his constipation; Mrs
Greens letter; & your resolutions of that day) + your
Nov 15ths v-mail (letting me know my first
airmail arrived) + your Nov 16ths (about
furniture; power of attourney; & enclosed blanks) +
your Nov 17ths (about the $4 scales; Thumps[10] 4½ oz;
his ? = olac = ?;[11] & your weight gain) + your
Nov. 18ths (enclosing 5 air-stamps; having
received 2 airmails, a V-mail, & French advertisement;
the 87,9 Armstead, etc; & a post-war second honeymoon)
Also Dads Nov 18 airmail & a U. of W[isconsin] Alum air-mail.
Of all these letters [so much seems
pertinent][12] I must [because of paperweight
factor, & returning to work 20 out of 24
hrs via “unthinkingness” of people around
here][13] close quickly after saying this:—
simultaneously c̅[14] this I mail the
signed furniture papers in a separate
envelope. Your lawyer friend must
mean J.A.G (not J.E.G, as you wrote) meaning
Judge Advocate General which is in reality
a lawyer in army clothes – if one is c̅in
miles of here Ill fund him but I doubt
- Ill answer all later c̅ EVERY BIT OF MY LOVE
Dave
[1] Bracketed text is part of original.
[2] Bracketed text written above “exhaustion” in original.
[3] Bracketed text is part of original.
[4] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[5] Their infant son.
[6] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[7] In original, “vowed” is written above “said.”
[8] Bracketed text is part of original.
[9] Bracketed text is part of original.
[10] Nickname for their infant son, Terry.
[11] In original, there are arrows pointing from each “?” to “olac.”
[12] Bracketed text is part of original.
[13] Bracketed text is part of original.
[14] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”