Dearest Folks:
Yesterday was a banner day (as my banner days go). During the morning I had been a way from camp doing a little firing and when I returned about eleven Jack came busting in like a Kansas cyclone. Now the situation was reversed, I had been going over to see him and here he was chatting with me in my boudoir. He had gone to Aslito airfield on Saipan on his day off and while there decided to pay me a visit. He went to operations and found that in order to get over (here) he needed a signed certificate to the effect that he was officially off duty, and having only a few minutes he got such a slip from an engineer captain and so just made the plane over. Said he was a little outranked on the plane – opposite him was a colonel and two lieutenant colonels. After a long trip of four minutes he landed at Tinian and immediately started to find my outfit. First he hooked a ride with (a) navy chief who took him in a general direction. Next he was picked up by a Seabee and finally after a half dozen lifts, he found me. You usually wander around in fifty different directions trying to find an outfit. Jack came over on some picture business and brought a little New York photographer with a camera the size of a typewriter case. The major was good enough to let us use his jeep and so from noon until five we traveled the length and breadth of the island and I pointed out to Jack and Jake the interesting points. They were happy to have a look around and we were especially lucky to get a car to do it in. They ran around getting the choice shots and while they were doing it I wondered how by the fortunes of luck and war Jack and I were nosing through the debris of Tinian, much as we had knocked around together back home. Every now and then when we would ride along or do something we could liken to a similar situation back in Nebraska. Jack was wearing a shoulder holster and dark glasses and looked like a swashbuckling commando general. We went in some rough places and the jeep nearly threw us all out more than once. Jack had been stuck pretty close to camp since being on Saipan and it was a treat for him to get out and see something. All in all it was a good sightseeing tour and I’m sure Jack and Jake enjoyed it. I hope to get over to Saipan once before I leave although it’s hard to lay plans much in advance.
Aside from this break in the routine tonight was another beer issue day and another three cans is waiting to be opened. Cooling it is a problem and I don’t go for it lukewarm.
Yesterday received a notice from Reader’s Digest about a postwar deal so returned the card. Also had a letter from Nancy. She must be quite grown up by the tone of her letters and probably I’ll be plenty surprised at the change when I get home. I can well imagine the changes that have taken place in three years but even at that I’ll have to treat them different when I get back.
In case you had forgotten this month is my third anniversary – I mean in the army. The 18th will end up three years and a five percent increase in wages. I must be getting to be what they call a veteran – although I can’t see myself one of those things. I hope I won’t put in another hitch before I see home again.
Well I don’t know much else there is to write about. I surely enjoy your letters too especially those l-o-n-g ones. Probably when we are home again you will swear never to write another, and I’ll bet that gets to be as much a problem as the washing used to (be). My correspondents are very few and aside from you I don’t do much writing, although as the war nears the end I better start looking for a spouse. I keep thinking how lazy and ner-do-well I’m going to be for a few months after the war – and how sweet and heavenly it will be to stretch out in a full bed and when the sun comes up pull the covers up a little higher and sleep a couple more hours – or feel the heavy blanket when it’s still and frosty and freezing outside – or a hundred other little things that I think of from time to time.
So I guess I’ll know(?) off tonight and maybe open up a can before bed time.
Love,
