Philippine Islands

January 4, 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. Well dolly no sweet letters so far today but I am sure hoping that some will come in before the day is over. Gosh Honey I received so many wonderful letters this past week and they made me so darn happy. Gee darling your precious letters mean the world and all to me and they are so darn sweet. They make me so awful, awful happy and make me feel so wonderful all over. Gee darling for over two years now our letters have taken the place of everything for us, our embraces, our talks together and everything that we ever did. A person never realizes how wonderful letters are until you are away from the one that means everything to you and then you really find out, right Honey. Gosh Honey it gives me the grandest feeling when I can get your precious letters. I sure hope you are getting my letters all right now darling. Honey dear you are so darn sweet and I love you so awful, awful much.

            I am feeling fine now darling and getting along all right in every way now. I have plenty of everything now dearest. Well Honey it is a pretty nice day here, now so awful hot yet but I expect it will be before the day is over. It is getting pretty dry now again and I sure hope it stays that way for a while now. Sure hope you are having some nice weather now dearest and sure hope it isn’t to cold. Well Honey I worked from six till midnite last nite and I have been breaking in a Caterpillar tractor this past week and went out by myself the first time last nite. Got along all right but it sure is bad working at nite as muddy as it is. We do all kinds of earth moving, carryall work and bulldozer work mostly. Sure hope I can learn it all now. Well Honey I guess you see by my address that I made my first rating. It doesn’t mean much but it is four dollars more on the month. Every little bit helps. So instead of pvt. [Private] it is pfc. [Private First Class] now dear.

            Well Honey you said you got your new dinette suite and the rollaway bed. Is a dinette just smaller than a regular dining room set dear. Sure hope you like your things now dear. Gosh honey I am so darn glad you sold that other place and got such a nice little place. I’ll bet it is really easy to keep warm to honey and won’t be real cold I’ll bet when you and Pop get home at nite. I am sure glad you are close to the bus to dear and honey you said it was only nine cents if you bought a book of tickets. That sure is cheap honey. How long does it take you to go to work and come home if you make good connections dear. Gee darling won’t it be wonderful when we have our own little home and our own little car and won’t have to depend on no one for anything. Honey we can get everything we want I believe for six thousand dollars and we can borrow four thousand on this new soldiers bill of rights if we have two thousand to match it and that would just about make it right for us and we can have twenty years to pay that back in dear but if we both work we can have it all paid out in a fourth of that time dear. We have almost two thousand now dear and by the time this is all over we will have twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars. So Honey if we take two thousand to match the four thousand we would still have all we save now, after we get our two thousand, to still have in the bank and fall back on if we happen to need anything extra. Gosh Honey I know we will really get along swell in every way and have everything all straightened up in a short time and we will have so darn much fun doing it all dear and be so awful happy. And darling as soon as we see we have things near enough paid for you are going to quit work, gosh Honey won’t it be heavenly. Honey dear how much do you think it will take us to get started. We might not be able to do it for six thousand but I believe we can almost. Gosh Honey we will be so cozy and everything will be so darn wonderful.

            Well darling you said you got our Christmas cards and had them all addressed. Sure glad you got them in time to get them all fixed up dear. Honey did you have our name printed on all of them like you did last year. You said we had gotten a lot of cards to dear. Boy we will sure have a bunch to send when I get home dear and have to send to some of the fellows. You said you sent Phil and Vance’s wife a Christmas cards Honey, that was sure swell dear and honey if they don’t write any more you just be the same way and send them a card on Christmas or some holiday. I have kind of got away from both of them anyway, of course we are still good pals but I have been right with some of these other fellows for almost two straight years now and have just become better friends to them. Phil is in a different company than me and Vance is on a different kind of work so that way I’m not around them very much.

            Honey dear you said you got your vase. I guess maybe you told me about it in one of your letters I haven’t received dear. This letter was the one where you had received it through the mail. Boy I am sure glad it wasn’t broken dear and I am so darn happy that you told Mother some thing you really wanted and she could give you the money for it dear for me. Hope you liked the box of candy to dear.

            Darling you are so darn sweet and I love you so awful, awful darn much and you know I always will dear. You are so darn sweet and so precious in every way dearest. Honey dear I am going to hold you so awful darn tight and kiss you so often. Darling I know god hears our prayers and will answer them and keep us safe and bring us together as soon as possible now. Please take wonderful care of my precious parts Honey, gee but they are wonderful and I love them so darn much. 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 darn much and you know I always will dearest.

            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 dear. Please be awful, awful careful now dearest and please take wonderful care of my sweet little wife. Remember now dolly, chin up and always happy. Tell all hello dear.

            Love and more love to my sweet little angel.

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