Be Home Tonight

WESTERN UNION

 

CA 171 10   TOUR=WH CHICAGO ILL 21   156P

1946 FEB 21 PM 3 05

 

MRS A FORIST=

1010 BEECH ST LANSING MICH=

 

BE HOME TONIGHT GRAND TRUNK ONE THIRTY

BE SEEING YOU=

ARLINGTON

 

[And so ends the story from Grandpa’s Desk. It’s been a pleasure. Ed.]

Sea Flasher

Wed. Feb. 6, ‘46

Aboard U.S. Sea Flasher

About 200 miles from Honolulu

 

Dear folks,

We’re dropping off mail at Honolulu in the morning so I’ll write a little bit. It’s our first stop since leaving Manila and this one wasn’t scheduled. I hope you can read this but my pen is dry so I had to use pencil. The last letter I wrote was from Manila Jan. 21. I left for the Repl. Depot Jan 22 and was there 3 days. Our first day we were processed, filled out our forms, got our influenza shots (the roughest we ever had) and were assigned to Separation Center Groups. We are each assigned to a particular 25 man group going to the same place. I go to Fort Sheridan which is just out of Chicago. Most of the fellows in my group are from Detroit. One is from Lansing and one from East Lansing. There are 6 or 8 groups altogether on the boat that are going to Sheridan so there’ll be plenty of us. Our second day out at the depot we got our issue of winter clothing. I did O.K. on everything but the blouse. I got new O.D.’s, and one of the old type short field jackets. It’s a brand new one and if I can get it by I’m going to keep it. They make a comfortable jacket to slip into. I got one of the short battle jackets for a blouse. It’s an Aussie blouse but when I went through all they had were size 40 so blouse is really the word for it. I think you could almost get in it with me. After we got our stuff we waited for a ship and early Fri. morning Jan. 25 started out. We got out of the Depot about 9:00 and by the time we rode through Manila and got on the boat it was about noon. We pulled out in the afternoon of the 25^th (the 24^th back here). We crossed the date line Mon. so we had 2 Mon. in a row. Actually today is our 14^th day at sea although by calendar dates it looks like only 13. We started out rather slow and just started to make speed the last 3 days. We should have made it in about 18 days but we expect to hit Frisco about Mon. which is 20 days. There are over 2000 of us on board. Living conditions are about the same as they were coming out here. We get 3 meals a day except Sundays but the noon meal is usually pretty light. There isn’t a whole lot one can do to pass the time. We have a movie every night which is really a break. Some of the pictures have been very good. They have a ship’s band which blows off a little steam occasionally and they put out a lot of recorded music for us. Naturally time is dragging on this ride more than usual because we have all been waiting for the end of this one for about 3 years.

The weather has been pretty good but quite windy and this old girl has done a lot of rolling. There were some pretty miserable boys the first couple days. I just kept myself full whether I wanted to eat or not and when I felt a little too dizzy I just headed for my bunk. I kept everything down O.K. and after a couple days my stomach caught up with the boat and I’ve been all right since.

We lost one day by having to swing off our course to leave a sailor at Guam in the hospital. He fell off a boom while painting and I guess the steel deck didn’t do him any good. Now we have a broken feed line and have to go into Honolulu for repairs. They say it will take about 4 hours but I rather imagine it will be longer. I hope we can see a little of the place. We expect to be in Frisco Mon. or Tues. which is the 12^th. We’ll be in Stoneman for 2 days or so, spend 3 or 4 on the train to Chicago, another 2 or 3 at Sheridan and then out. So I ought to be ought [out] between the 20^th & 24^th sometime. Naturally I can’t be sure but it’s a fair guess. Until then, so long and I’ll be seein’ you,

Arlington