Author Archives: John
I Will Be Godfather
July 8 and 10, 1945. Two more letters from Stanley while he is home on 30 day R&R. On the eighth he is at the house typing a letter while Anna has been taken to the hospital at “about 4 in the morning”. As he is writing the letter there is no word yet on … Continue reading
Orders for Rest and Recuperation
July 5, 1945. Stanley is back in the States and has been back in Albany for a few days and writes that “It sure feels good to be home again after twenty-one months overseas.” He arrived home on the 3rd and laid down “about 7 PM on the bed for a while”. He states that he … Continue reading
Stanley Arrived From England
July 3, 1945. Anna writes a short handwritten letter to Dad. She notes that the following day is Independence Day but not for her because she “is still double.” The baby is two weeks overdue, but as far as Anna is concerned, “…no matter how people figure, babies get born when their time comes.” Even … Continue reading
I Hope to Amount to Something
June 18 and 24, 1945: Dad writes two letters home from Guam. He acknowledges that he received two letters that his mother wrote to him dated May 6 and 13 in reply to a letter that he wrote her on April 17 while he was on the troop ship headed to the islands. He comments, … Continue reading
The City Sizzles
June 16, 1945: A letter from Anna to Dad which she included with a card that she sent him for his birthday. Anna notes that the letter is “from the three of us yet but who knows by the time you get this letter a new fellow will have made his debut into this world. … Continue reading
We Don’t Get Any Mail
June 15, 1945. Stanley writes what will turn out to be his last letter from England. The air base at Deenethorpe is starting to empty out of GIs and airmen, and Stanley’s workload has decreased to almost nothing. He mentions that he is just getting over a cold and that the “effects of the cold … Continue reading
Hopes of Seeing Stanley Soon
June 13 and 14: A V-Mail and a regular letter from Anna. As with the letters that were written close to each other, for the purposes of narration and storytelling I will treat them as one. Anna writes the V-Mail “as a go-in-between before you get the regular Bible which I write. This may be … Continue reading
We Aren’t Here on a Picnic
June 9, 10 and 11, 1945: Dad writes a few short letters home to let his family know that he is “in very good condition.” He comments that “The boat trip sort of wore me down but that is behind me. I’m looking forward to the one which will being me home to you folks … Continue reading
We Must Keep Their Morale Up
June 1 and 5, 1945. Dad writes two letters home from Guam. Every day the camp on the island is getting closer to being comfortably inhabitable. He writes about the preparations that are happening. “We just got electric lights [and] a public address system setup over which we get [the] latest news and music. The … Continue reading
All My Work is Finished
June 1, 8, and 11, 1945. We have three relatively short letters from Stanley to Dad. With VE Day having come and gone, the 401st has long since wound down their bombing operations in Europe. At this point, they have completed their post-engagement missions of flying POWs to processing bases in Western Europe as well. … Continue reading