April 12, 1944
Somewhere in New Guinea
Hello Ma:
Yesterday at mail, call I received four letters from you and two birthday cards, from you and Daddy, and the other from Aunt Kate and Uncle Ben. Also, three Easter cards, one from you and Daddy, one from Yvonne, and the other from Aunt Kate and Uncle Ben. Thanks. On April 4th I received the birthday telegram. Thanks. I think that it would be best to keep my watch until I get back. It might get lost and I don't need it now anyway. Too bad about Joe Fiddis being missing in action. [He is mentioned in later letters (April 29, 1944 and March 9, 1945) as doing okay. - Ed.] On that picture which I sent you showing the sunken Jap transport, the other piece of wreckage was, I believe, a barge. Received the twelve airmail stamps. Also, you need not send me anymore soap other than that which you have already mailed. We can get it here now. Received the miniature Baltimore Sun papers ["service edition" - Ed.]. I received the pictures of myself - for Margie. Also, the reprints for the other boys. In one of your letters, you had enclosed a newspaper clipping of a Red Cross canteen. The closest such canteen is over a hundred miles away at another base not as advanced [not as close to the front - Ed.] as ours. Also, there are no Red Cross hostesses. Once in a while, a nurse flies in on a hospital airplane, but that is all we see of a woman.
Nothing more has been seen of the crocodile. It probably moved to a safer swamp. Had a few more bomb raids. They are becoming monotonous. Tracer bullets look like a chain of red Christmas tree balls. Each end with a yellow flash when they explode thousands of feet in the air. An anti-aircraft gun firing at night is sure pretty when all you can see is flame flashes as each shell leaves the barrel. Did you receive the Mother's Day present yet? Hope so. What did Yvonne get for Easter? Well, there isn't much to write about. Nothing happens anymore here worth mentioning. Did you receive my pictures yet? I think that you will find them interesting. Well, that's about all from this end for the time being. Some of the boys are sure lucky to get furloughs back in the States. But then, too, I may be home when they are overseas. I should get back before Fred Roussey, anyway. So, until next time -
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| Earl |
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