I find today that I am not sure what to write about in addition to posting the daily letter.  I’ve looked at all the suggested writing prompts from Geneabloggers for Thursday, but nothing really seems to fit. So I shall take the time to give a quick biography of another family member.

One person that has been already mentioned several times by my grandfather is my great uncle Jim. James Laughead¹ Foster was one of my grandmother’s brothers.  My grandmother was the youngest of six children, born to her mother Emily “Emma” H. (Lawhead) Foster. Jim was the sibling closest in age to Gladys.  They were both born in Terre Haute, Indiana about 21 months apart. I think they had a fairly close relationship and Jim is the sibling I knew about before I started doing genealogy.  Until I started doing my own research, I didn’t know about the other four.

Jim was married twice and had no children. His second wife was Thelma Mayrose and they were married in Terre Haute, December 31, 1934. Like my grandfather, he enlisted in the Navy in 1942.  He was also sent to Norfolk for his naval training. Roscoe and Jim did eventually meet up in a few weeks after today’s letter. There are several letters written by Jim to my grandmother that are also included in this collection.

In 1945, Jim was serving on the ship U.S.S. Sylvania (AKA-44).  He was a CSF(T).  I don’t know what the CSF means. I have come across two separate possible explanations: a staff member assigned to the Center for Naval Security Forces or a Chief Shipfitter. The (T) means temporary.

In his civilian life, Jim worked in the plumbing & heating supply industry. In 1965, he was working for the Eastman Central D, Rawlplugs and Mayfield Manufacturing Co, and his beat was the state of Kentucky. Like Dr. Lentz, Jim also loved golf. After he retired, he became a “snowbird”, spending his summers in Indiana and the winters in Florida. I believe he lived in the Sarasota area, near where Roscoe & Gladys retired in the late 1970s. Jim Foster died in 1994, aged 90.

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Letter transcription:

Sat.

Dear Mother,

This was pay day – got $113². I’ll be sending some home I think the first of the week and as quick as I can I’ll have an allotment sent home rather than getting it all here – but it takes at least 30 days to do that.

We have had one of hottest days here that it’s been since I’ve been here and we had a rather hard day. Lots of recruits and lots of shots to be given.

Haven’t seen Jim or Raymond yet. I don’t know where to begin to look for them as there are so many camps around here if you could send me their addresses I’ll look them up.

I think we are going out to the beach for a little while. They say there are some ships in and I sorta like to see them. Don’t think I’ll do any swimming, etc.

Got my second shots todayᶟ. So far they haven’t bothered me, hope they won’t.

I didn’t get a letter today. Guess it was a holiday-but the mailman went the rounds.

Well, I’ll write more tomorrow

Love Daddy

Notes:

1. Jim’s middle name was his mother’s maiden name. You may notice that it is spelled two different ways in my narrative: Laughead and Lawhead. I tend to spell the surname Lawhead as the contemporary records invariably used this spelling of the name.  In the case of Jim’s middle name, it was spelled Laughead.  This was the legal spelling of his name so I will use this spelling when referring to him.
2. Check out this website for rank classifications and pay scales in the Navy during WWII: http://www.cv6.org/company/muster/organization.htm
3. American servicemen were also inoculated for a wide variety of diseases before being shipped overseas. The most common vaccinations were for smallpox, typhoid, and tetanus, though soldiers assigned to tropical or extremely rural areas were also vaccinated for cholera, typhus, yellow fever, and, in some cases, bubonic plague. (Taken from online article “Battlefield Injuries and Medicine” by  David White and Daniel P. Murphy, Ph.D. (http://www.netplaces.com/world-war-ii/the-horrors-of-war/battlefield-injuries-and-medicine.htm)

© 2012, copyrighted & written by Deborah Sweeney