June 8^th, 1945

Dear folks,

This is one day after my birthday but to tell you the truth I feel the same now that I am 29 as I did when I was 28. The trip has been nice so far but of course I would much rather be home with the wife and Denny than out here on the Atlantic. There are quite a few civilians onboard here this trip and the ship doesn’t seem right somehow without thousands of GIs instead of these tourists. Coming back will be more like the normal thing than now. I still don’t know who these people are but several of them are in government work but the others are apparently rich foreigners who got away from all the shooting and now are running back that it’s all over now.

I have a chance to throw a ball around this half of the trip but on the way back we will be much too crowded to do anything like that. There is one other Lieutenant that likes to throw a ball around so I don’t have any trouble that way.

The weather has been very good so far and I hope that it keeps up that way. Good weather lets us go faster and the faster we go the faster I get home and that is OK by me. The trip back is always the worst it seems.

Anything new from Joe lately? I hope that he gets a chance to see you folks pretty soon now. I sure would like to bring him along with me this trip and stranger things could happen.

I hope that all of you are ok and maybe I’ll see you pretty soon.

Love to all and remember me to Joe when you write.

Tom