Friday Eve.
Dear Mom + Dad,
Just another short communiqué to give you all the dope on the soldier boy. I took my first test the other day and it was rather easy. If the first test is any criteria I won’t have to study to hard. I’m getting the hang of the stuff and it isn’t so hard as I thought it was at first. It still isn’t too easy but I think I can make it without killing myself too much.
I was in El Paso the other night and went down in some of the slums of the town. You really can see some low forms of life in the lower end of towns. I’ve never seen such low class houses and joints even in the slums of New York City. They tell me Mexico is just as bad if not worse than El Paso. I’m going to get down there soon to see for myself.
I’m going to try to make a U.S.O. dance Saturday night. I hope they are as nice as the one’s in Abilene. I’m also glad to hear that Peekskill people are doing so much for the soldiers there. It sure makes a fellow feel swell to know that someone is trying to make his army life a little less trying. It is hard to realize how much it means until one has gone through it.
I was rather encouraged on listening to the news today that the U.S. seems to be doing a pretty good job on the Jap navy. I hope we can make a big push this summer as I feel that this summer will be the turning point of the war. Up until now it has been pretty disheartening the loss of Batan, Corrigidor, etc. Keep your fingers crossed and I guess everything will turn out right.I received a letter from Doc Duryee yesterday and it was very nice. I’ll get around to answering it very soon now. Tell Mr Blackshear that letters like that are a good idea.
I guess that is about all for now. I’ll write again Sunday.
Love to all
Bob
Bob
1 comment:
This is first letter where Poops has mentioned anything from the news about the overall war effort. The newspaper front-page image I included is just one I picked from 5/8/42 from a Texas newspaper (www.newspaperarchive.com). I do not mean to imply that this was the newspaper Poops was reading. I included it just to give some background.
The war effort for the US was not going well during this time in 1942. In April, Bataan fell. It was the largest surrender by the U.S. Army — 78,000 American and Filipino troops. What followed would be remembered as the Bataan Death March.
Just two days prior to this letter Corregidor fell. This was the last American stronghold in the Philippines, so these islands now come completely under Japanese control.
I'm guessing Poops expressed encouragement comes from news about the Battle of the Coral Sea which happened mostly on May 7 and 8. This was an aircraft carrier based battle that prevented the Japanese from landing a large invasion force at Port Moresby (New Guinea), and signals America's move from a purely defensive strategy in the Pacific to a mixed defensive-offensive one.
Also interesting to note from a historical perspective is during this time the West Coast had announced that all "Japs" from the area had to go into assembly centers.
I hope we get more of this in future letters as it gives added background and perspective to these letters.
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