Dear Folks:

So much mail has been coming in from you folks that I would feel like a heel if I did not write you every opportunity I have.  This has been a fairly quiet day and it looks like tonight before dark I might have time to get a few letters off.  Some of the boys killed a hog so for supper tonite we enjoyed pork – good treat it was.

I was sorry to hear that you did not get the sandals but in talking to some of the fellows they said that perhaps the hemp used in them might contain insects or germs.  I couldn’t tell from your letters whether you received the bolo knife complete with the case or what.  Dad said only the handle came and Mom sounded like the whole thing arrived.  I don’t wonder that you don’t understand how it is used but a Filipino almost builds his life around it.  He can build a house, split coconuts, get food with it and fight with it.  Even the smallest boys carry one.  I know you would have liked the sandals.

In your letters were many clippings which I’m always anxious to get.  I think that in as much as the Free Press is many months in coming it would be a good idea to put a copy in an envelope and mail it first class – in that way it is somewhat recent.

In connection with requests here is another.  I’m publishing a battalion newspaper and it is to be run off on the mimeograph.  Now the request is this.  In order to reproduce headlines and column headings onto a stencil we need print letters which are usually cut out of cellulose so they can be traced onto the stencil.  There may be other means that I don’t know about but that is one.  So when you are in ‘Bluffs perhaps, LeRoys or Rominger’s or a stationary and supply house, could fix me up.

No, I haven’t received the packages you mailed last February but perhaps these will come through.

On today’s mail I had two letters each from Mom and Dad, and I wished I was allowed to tell you how fast they came.  I would certainly like to get home now when spring is beginning to green the land and to see the house.

Yes, I was certainly shocked at the President’s death and undoubtedly he will rank as one of the world’s greatest men.  And Ernie Pyle too.  I understand he was here on Okinawa for awhile before going to Ice Island.  He was buried in the army cemetery there along with GI’s he wrote so skillfully about.

I think your letters are very good Dad, contrary to your occasional reference to their inferiority, and I know it isn’t always easy to write.  I gather that your business is doing good and I’m sure it is.  I knew you could do good when you got the opportunity.  So much has happened since I left – more probably than you realize.

I haven’t seen Dick in the last 2 days.  He is very busy to say the least.  He is certainly a good kid and he is all around okeh.  And the Army is not coercing him. I will let you know when I see him again.

Had a letter from Nancy today and from the more mature tone of her letters, I can hardly reconcile her to the youngster she was when I left.  It is beginning to look like the Mosses are getting romantically inclined.  I think Dick is more than interested in Helen Emick and I would certainly like him to promote that gal.  I’m aching for the quietness, contentedness, and satisfaction that I hope I can soon have in my own home.  I’m developing into a family man and I hope before too many years, a part of that ambition will materialize.

Love,