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A Few Words about V-mail, a Precursor to Today’s Email
As I mentioned in the last post, Babe’s letter postmarked July 29, 1943, was his first to his parents on V-mail. I mentioned Dave Kent, editor of the Military Postal History Society Bulletin, in an...
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Where Did Babe Fit Into the Mammoth Structure of the Military?
Antitank weapons (from World War II Infantry Anti-Tank Tactics, by Gordon L. Rottman) Moving on, it will be helpful to know a little about how the army was structured during World War II. At this...
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Babe’s Recent Letter Notes the Allies’ Italy Invasion; He Follows Later
In the last of Babe’s letters transcribed on this site, he wrote on Sept. 10, 1943: ”Right now I’m listening to the news over my radio and he is telling us about the landings at Naples.” Babe is...
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The Heartbreaking Story of Edith Delaney, USO Tap Dancer
Picture from the The Naples Record, Naples, N.Y., March 29, 1944 Edith Delaney, USO dancer Edith Delaney danced for the boys overseas. She was a tap dancer who performed with a three-member troupe that...
View ArticleLearning About the Fifth Army Mobile Radio Station in Italy
In the course of researching one of my earlier posts, I discovered the online scrapbook of the 5th Army Mobile Radio Station. Babe makes several references in his letters to signing off so he can...
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A Shout-Out to the Red Bull Rising Blog, in Gratitude
I was pleased to get an email on Feb. 22 from “Charlie Sherpa,” writer of the Red Bull Rising blog. The blog is dedicated to information about and for the “Red Bull Division,” the 34th Infantry...
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It’s Tough When Babe Sounds Like the 19-Year-Old He Is
ARGUS C3 Bakelite Camera, 1944 Model, via Etsy. http://etsy.me/xrcHBU In so many of the letters Babe writes, it’s easy to forget that he’s only a 19-year-old young man. His writing style is easy, his...
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Wondering About Mail Delivery: What Does a Postmark Mean?
The V-mail with this postmark was dated Feb. 16, 1944. The last of Babe’s letters that I transcribed — and the next two to come — got me wondering what it really means when a postmark is applied to a...
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Getting My Arms Around the Process of Delivering Wartime Mail
A portion of a diagram illustrating mail movement along the supply chain. The letters refer to V-mail, air mail, ordinary mail and packages. Throughout this project, I’ve been trying to get a better...
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Wartime Postmaster Details the Work of Mail Delivery in WWII
Frank C. Walker, postmaster general of the United States during World War II. If you have any doubts about how important mail delivery was during World War II, read the words of the then-postmaster...
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Looks Like Babe Just Got a Promotion
Return addresses from letters on March 7, March 23 and April 9, 1944. Inspired by a few recent comments on this blog, I’m trying to get back into the swing of posting regularly again. Turns out, I had...
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Seems Strange That We Kind of Know Where He Is Now
In the last letter, dated June 21, 1944, Babe reveals that he had pictures taken of himself taken in Rome, and in the same letter he notes that the people “in this part of the country are pretty lucky....
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Time Magazine, the ‘Soda Pop War’ and Babe’s Anger at Strikers
The Time magazine cover from June 5, 1944, which includes a labor-related article that Babe may have referenced in his July 19, 1944, letter. It’s not terribly surprising that in the course of these...
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The Postmaster’s Order Regulating How Soldiers Got Packages
Months ago, I transcribed a letter from Babe dated Nov. 11, 1943. Among its highlights was a detailed description of the stuff he wanted his family to package up and mail overseas — and a postmaster’s...
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Attempting to Identify Babe’s Location from the Clues in His Letters
Babe latest letters help indicate he had recently been in this area. The last three 1944 letters I’ve transcribed from Babe have relatively large gaps between them — July 22, Aug. 6 and Aug. 31 — and...
View ArticleA Tale of Two Hospitalizations: Babe’s Long Stay During WWII
In January 2014, a few days before the start of my daughter Sarah’s final semester at Missouri State University, she called shortly after 8 p.m. to let me know she was about to go in for surgery. She...
View ArticleChristmas 1944 Dinner at the 64th General Hospital
We’re taking another brief detour from our letters after I rediscovered some documents among my collection the other day. Now that I know Babe spent a significant portion of his overseas tour — about...
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New Information from a Visit to the Archives
Twenty years ago, on April 26, 1994, I wrote a letter to the National Personnel Records Center in suburban St. Louis. It was the first time I had requested information about Babe. At the time, I lived...
View ArticleWould Babe Have Had Enough Points to Come Home?
If Babe had lived, would he have accumulated enough points to come home after VE Day? The short answer: Probably not. Enlisted men needed 85 points to be considered for “demobilization,” according to...
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