Somewhere
June 8, 1944
Dearest Mother & Dad,
Received you letter of April 24 today along with one from Barbara and I.H.C. We have gone for such a long time without any mail so you can imagine how I feel getting mail. When I don’t get mail it seems like everyone has forgotten about me.
Well, Mom, I guess you have one of the luckiest boys that ever lived. Boy, I am telling you I went through an experience the other night I hope I never go thru again. I thought my time had come. You can’t imagine how I felt. It is hard to believe I got thru it. I know what Europe is getting now. My foxhole wasn’t quite deep enough then. I got a piece of shrapnel in it and it missed me about 12 inches. I was really scared. (after it was over). They dropped everything including the kitchen sink. I feel like I can go thru anything now. You can rest assured my foxhole is plenty deep now. My ditch digging experience working for Dad has certainly come in handy. Little did I dream of using it this way. I have dead Japs and lots of them. They are a terrible sight to see. Some were over six feet tall and really husky. Incidentally, don’t think I didn’t pray and pray hard the other night. I believe it certainly helped, too.
I don’t have any news as to when I’ll get home but it will be quite a long time I am sure. It seems like they have forgotten how long we have been here. It seems that we have such a wonderful record that they won’t let us stop. We are flying nearly all day every day and, believe me, that gets to be work. My ship is fixed as comfortable as can be but such long hours make it very tiresome.
Well, Mom, so much for now. Will write tomorrow if possible.
All my love, Son