1 October 1943.

William Mullins, Editor-in-Chief,

Boston Herald,

Boston, Mass.

My dear Mr. Mullins,

Last week I received air mail the enclosed miniature newspaper. With the chaotic conditions in which we are living today, I couldn’t help but send you this small note with both the writers and a few other boys in the Services- personal thoughts and feelings about this “glamorous” news- paper.

For years the GREAT and well known Boston Herald- advertising over the radio and through its own columns- cried out to the world of the good that the newspaper was doing for all mankind, the good it was doing for the country and the good it was doing in the war effort.

Now let us analyze what this grand and great humanitarian newspaper has done. The poor boy in the Service receives the paper. He spends a couple of minutes with his eyes and head glued to the fine print. He gets a little nervous so he lights a cigarette. He spends another couple moments- his eyes start bothering him. He then has to stop and take a rest. While resting he lights another cigarette. Being interested in the reading material, news from home and a little bit excited, he starts reading again. After going through this procedure for about five to ten minutes, the only course left open for him is to take a drink of that vile stuff called liquor. After having the Scotch and soda he begins to feel a little better- back to the grand paper he goes. By this time he’s hit on some of the political situations existing in good old Boston. So he lights another cigarette; his eyes start bothering him. He has to stop reading for a while- deep in thought he has to take another drink- then back to the paper again. After spending an hour of this procedure, he finishes up in exhausting condition, finishing a quart of liquor, a carton of cigarettes and is a nervous wreck.

Summing everything up, this is what has been accomplished by this great humanitarian newspaper:

1. Poor sailor unconscious next day, away from his war labors, so time is wasted- valuable time.

2. He winds up a nervous wreck and has to go to the hospital. Result: Doctors, nurses, bed space taken up.

3. Due to the amount of smoking he has done, it goes to his lungs and we have a tubercular case.

4. Due to this conglomeration his stomach goes bad and he becomes diabetic. Result: Waste of food on the Government’s part as he can’t stomach it, taking the bread and butter away from the poor civilian on the outside.

5. And the most important thing of all: Liquor. With all the distilleries turning all their hard earned efforts into the war effort all this good liquor is wasted.

Remarks and Results: So again this grand humanitarian newspaper- besides doing all this- has ruined another “poor mother’s boy.”

Hell, Bill, this can go on for weeks- but how are you, feller?

I am enclosing a picture of myself which you can put up in the “head”, so as to look at me in your spare time.

For the last few months I have been meeting to write you a note but somehow or other something always turned up. I sure would love to have seen you on my last trip to town but, unfortunately, I only had one day of it.

Well, Bill, I’ve sure done a little bit of travelling since I got in the service. After spending a few weeks in Washington I was then sent down to Norfolk, Virginia and- get this title, Bill- from a little two by four “junkie”, I windup with “District Salvage Conservation Officer of the 5^th Naval District”. Well, it was quite a job having direct charge of all the scrap in Virginia, North and South Carolina and part of Maryland; on the other hand it was a grand honor.

Well, for a few months I lived a life of Riley travelling through the District and, I might say, did a pretty good job and then got my new assignment. I am down here in the Caribbean and get this title: “Officer-in-Charge of Material Recovery Unit” with ten enlisted men, a Chief Pay Clerk and about $100,000 worth of gear for segregation, screening and preparation of all salvageable material. The way things look at the present time it will probably need another twenty five men to accomplish the task we set out to do. My personal opinion is that I might finish within a few months. Where we go from here is in the hands of Fate and Washington.

It is a grand life, Bill and I have met some swell fellows; fellows in their “forty’s” who didn’t have to go into the service, with tons of ability, giving u all kinds of big salaries just to come in and do a job for the country. How the hell any country in the world thinks they can “lick” us with that kind of situation, I don’t know.

As far as living conditions down here are concerned it is grand. We have the best of food and the best of living conditions. The only thing that is lacking is reading material and newspapers can’t do enough about getting the general public to send reading material to the different “boys” out of the states.

Well, feller, I have already won the “Battle of Washington, Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia” and am now in the “Battle of the Caribbean”; must close so that I can have a few “touches” to get my poor little body in shape for Uncle Sam.

Give my best to your darling wife and wish for the day when this thing is over so that once again we can all get together down to Eddie Laven’s cellar.

Give my personal regards to Jimmy Casey, Tommy Carens, Johnny Buckley, Eddie Civlin, the faking barrister Brest, the butcher- or, what the Hell, give them all my best.

From the guy who thinks you’re a “bum”,

LG:cd

Enclosure