Philippine Islands

January 23, 1945

My Dearest Darling Wife,

Hello sweet little angel, how is my darling little wife. Awful, awful sweet I know and fine I hope. You had better be dearest. Gee darling I got two of the sweetest letters today and I was so darn thrilled to get them darling. They were so darn sweet and so precious dear, just like all your wonderful letters are. They were the third and eighth of January dear so that was pretty good. I also got four from the folks dear and the latest one from them was the eleventh. Gee darling your precious letters mean the world and all to me and they are so darn sweet. They make me so awful, awful darn happy and make me feel so wonderful all over dear. Gee darling it gives me the grandest feeling when I can hear from you. You had been getting my mail good to dear and I was so darn happy to hear that darling. Sure hope it is still coming in good dear. Honey you are so darn sweet and I love you so awful, awful much.

I am feeling fine now dearest and getting along all right. I have plenty of everything now dearest. Well honey it is raining here again today. Not to much but it doesn’t take much to make it muddy around here. I sure hope it isn’t to awful cold at home now dear. You haven’t got but another month until it will start warming up and I know you will be glad when that time comes dear. Was to work the morning shift this morning dear but the job I went out on was to wet to work.

Honey you was telling me about getting the annual report from church the other Sunday. Darling I sure am proud of you. A hundred and sixty dollars is sure swell Honey. Yes dearest you are sure right, when you give to God you are always repaid. We have needed him so much dearest and have to ask him for so much help during these times and he has taken wonderful care of us and our folks dear. It is so wonderful to know God dear and go to him for help. It will be so darn swell when I am in your sweet arms dear and can join your church and we can go to church together every Sunday. Gosh Honey you gave such a swell amount this past year and I am so proud of my darling little wife.

Gosh Honey I sure did hate to hear about Roy. Wasn’t that awful dear. I am sure glad that he wasn’t hurt worse and sure hope he is all right by now. I’ll bet you all were sure upset when you heard about it. Boy honey there is all kinds of felloes in the service nowadays and some of them sure aren’t to be trusted. There Roy went out of his way thinking he was helping them and then get that. Sure is a good thing they caught them cause they won’t knock any one else in the head or steal any more cars for a little while. They will get stuck a lot worse by being in the navy than if they were a civilian to and they sure have it coming to them. Sure lucky that they found his car and it wasn’t tore up any worse than it was. I’ll bet he really lost the blood all right, cause that was a good size place that they had to take four stitches. Sure hope he is all right by now dear.

Darling you was telling me in one of your letters today about the fellow from your church that his ship was sunk just out from here. Boy he is sure lucky that he was picked up dear. If it hadn’t of been for the navy attacking the navy of the Japs we would have had plenty of trouble I guess. I came in here the day before his ship was sunk honey and the ships I came with would have been in plenty of trouble I guess if our navy hadn’t of attacked the Jap navy and beat them off. Yes I will sure agree with him that this was an awful place in those days and of course will always be but I bet he wouldn’t know the place now. Boy things sure do change in a few months. It will be three months tomorrow that we came in here and have we ever done the work. It has been twenty four hours a day for seven days a week ever since we hit here and we just have a certain section to build up and fix up. I don’t believe there is another engineer outfit on the island that has done near the work we have. We really have a good outfit and we really get the work done. Sure glad you got to talk to that fellow Honey. The navy sure does treat their men swell and there is very few of them that spend over eighteen months out of the states. If I had it to do over it would be the navy or merchant marine for me. There is a lot of things I will be able to tell you when I get home dear that I can’t say anything about now. It will probably take me a year or so to tell you about all the trips and places I have been and all the experiences I have had. I am sure hoping and praying that our time isn’t far off to dear. That set back over on the other side has given everything else a set back to cause it is taking more men and material for that side now. There wasn’t any men for rotation this month but I am sure hoping that there will be a big quota next month. If that would just end over on the other side I think we would get back a lot quicker cause then they would have plenty of men to send over this way. Gee darling won’t it be heavenly when this whole thing is over and I am back in your sweet arms for good. Gee but we will be happy dearest and everything will be so darn swell.

Darling, you told me that I could start sending your mail with the address just like you have on your return address, so I will put it that way from now on dearest. Sweetheart you said you have our name on your mail box now to. Gee darling isn’t it wonderful to have the same name. For six years we wanted it that way dearest and now for over two years it has been that way. Marriage is so wonderful dear and means everything to a couple like us. We really love each other dear and our whole life is built around each other. Gee but it will be wonderful when we can really start our life together dear.

Honey dear you are so darn sweet and I love you so awful darn much and you know I always will dolly. You are so darn sweet and so precious in every way dearest. Honey isn’t it wonderful to think about our first embrace and all the wonderful ones we will have after that. Gosh darling I will hold you so awful, awful tight and kiss you so often. Honey you are going to write and tell me just how you are going to be dressed when I meet you in your room, aren’t you dear. Gee darling isn’t it wonderful to think about and to know that our day is coming. Please take wonderful care of my precious parts Honey, gee but they are wonderful and I love them so much dearest. Yours are fine dear, miss you so awful darn much. You are the sweetest and most adorable little wife in this world dear and I love you so awful, awful darn much and you know I always will dear.

Well sug I guess I had better close for this time and I’ll write you as soon as possible now dearest. I’ll be looking for your precious letters now dearest. Please be awful, awful careful now dolly and take wonderful care of my sweet little wife. Remember now dear, chin up and always happy. Tell all hello dear.

Love and more love to my adorable little angel.

Loads and loads of love to my dearest darling wife I love so much.