California here I come

4 Replies

On July 30, 1942, my grandfather flew to San Francisco from Chicago. I am betting that this is probably the first time he ever flew on a plane. In his later years, he wrote that he had never left the boundaries of his native county until after he graduated from high school. I don’t know how far from Clay County he actually traveled before 1942. He definitely traveled to neighboring Terre Haute and to the University of Indiana at Bloomington where he received his Bachelor’s Degree and his medical training. He had possibly traveled to Chicago to visit his Uncle Wes at some point as well. But I doubt he had ever left the Indiana and Illinois section of the country until he was assigned to Norfolk in 1942. And I seriously doubt he had ever ridden in an airplane until July 30, 1942.

St. Francis Hotel, Union Square, San Francisco

St. Francis Hotel, Union Square, San Francisco

Since I have lived in California for almost 20 years at this point, and I consider San Francisco to be in my neighborhood, I am curious about the next chapter of the letters written while my grandfather was at Moffett Field. When he was ordered to report to California and Cub 13, the unit was still being assembled. Part of his orders included the direction “for duty in connection with the establishment of Cub 13”. Cub 13 was not planned by the Navy. Cubs 1-12 had been scheduled to be assembled throughout 1942 with 3 new cubs being established every quarter. My grandfather was stationed at Moffett for about two weeks before they finally shipped out to the Pacific. Moffett Field is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay near San Jose. Moffett was originally constructed by the Navy but in 1931 it was designated an Airbase. When World War II erupted, control of the base was returned to the Navy. Moffett Field has had many designations over the years. Today, Moffett is the home of the NASA Ames Research Center and goes by the name of Moffett Federal Airfield.

If you are familiar with San Francisco, you may recognize the name of the hotel my grandfather stayed in his first night in the city. For a former farm boy from rural Indiana, I am sure San Francisco was quite the experience. My grandparents traveled to San Francisco many times together in their later years. My uncle John eventually grew up and made his home there, where he died in 2011.

Oh, and guess who also ended up in California with my grandfather?

_________________________

Letter transcription:

July 30

Dear Mother-

It is not 9:00 P.M. here and I suppose and hope you are sleeping soundly. The plane was late leaving Chicago and they thought they might have to put me off at Omaha but they didn’t so as I said in the telegram we got here about 7:00 P.M. Then we came into town by air line bus and he had to deliver all over town and also when we got here my small bag was gone but now I have that

(page 2) all straightened out. Lentz was not to be found. He hadn’t been here so far as they were able to tell me at the desk.

And get this-The first thing I had to do was change into my blues. Just got them on and ready to get something to eat. There wasn’t a sailor whit who wasn’t in blue. Khaki was not no where to be seen on anyone but me so rather than be shot for a foreigner I thought I’d better change.

(page 3) I believe I like the train better. It was so rough I am jarred from head to toe I believe my womb[?] is down some (huh). I ate two meals on the plane but they didn’t fill very much.

Well when I come back from eating I may write more depending upon how tired and how far I have to go to eat.

Well ate and now about ready for bed-I’m plenty tired for some reason or other. Don’t know yet exactly what I do tomorrow about finding the place. I

(page 4) inquired and its about 30 miles out yet, but the bus goes past the past. I’ll probably have lots more to write you tomorrow eve.

I’m awful sleepy just now

So love Daddy

P.S. If you do write address it in care of Moffett field but you might hold off until you get tomorrow’s letter-Silly I guess the way I’m writing this but I’m sleepy.

Notes:

If you didn’t catch the name on the hotel stationary, my grandfather stayed at the historic St. Francis Hotel at Union Square his first night in San Francisco.

http://www.westinstfrancis.com/our-history

Change of duty

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Roscoe with his wife Gladys and their sons, John & Mark (circa July 1942 in Kentland, Indiana)

So the question is…what happened next? Did Roscoe return to Norfolk to receive his detachment orders or did he stay in Kentland until he was expected to report to Moffett Field in California on July 31st. If it were me, I would have picked up the phone and inquired whether or not I actually had to return to Norfolk, just to turn around and leave again.

The telegram did clearly state “leave canceled, return to Norfolk immediately.” So after taking care of some business in Kentland, Roscoe most likely began his journey back to Norfolk. The next question is…did Gladys go with him. On June 10, 1946, my grandparents received a payment of $36 for the “reimbursement for the transportation of dependent (wife), for travel performed from Norfolk, Virginia to Kentland, Indiana, incident to change of station orders dated July 17, 1942”. This would indicate to me that my grandmother did accompany my grandfather back to Norfolk. Did they take the train? Did they drive the car to Norfolk and back? Why would they be reimbursed for the travel almost 4 years later? Did my grandmother leave by herself on the train and travel back to Kentland alone? When…What… Why???? And to make things even more confusing there is a statement of travel from my grandfather that states he left Norfolk at 1900 hours on July 23, 1942 and arrived at Moffett Field, Calif. at 1145 on July 31, 1942. This would imply that he left Kentland as soon as he had his power of attorney notarized on the 22nd and high tailed it back to Norfolk by the quickest method of travel possible. If he did go back to Norfolk, he was probably able to pick up any personal items he might have left at Mrs. Evans’ boarding house and perhaps he was even able to retrieve some of his truant laundry.

After leaving Norfolk, my grandfather most likely returned to Kentland until he was required to leave for Moffett Field. At some point during the second half of July in Kentland, the family took some pictures.

1942-07-17 - Change of Duty, p. 1

Transcription of initial change of duty:

July 17, 1942

Navy Department

Bureau of Navel Personnel

Washington, D.C.

From: The Chief of Naval Personnel.

To: Lieutenant (jg) Roscoe S. Yegerlehner, MC-V (S), U.S.N.R., Naval Training Station Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Va.

Via: Commandant, Fifth Naval District

Subject: Change of Duty

  1. When directed by the Commandant, Fifth Naval District, in July, 1942, you will regard yourself detached from Va., and from such other duty as may have been assigned you; will proceed to Moffett Field, Calif., and report to the Commanding Officer, Cub 13, at the Naval Air Station, for the duty in connection with the establishment of Cub 13, for duty with the Base Section, Cub 13, for duty with that unit when established, and for duty outside the continental limits of the United States.
  2. Report also by letter to the Commandant, Twelfth Naval District, for this duty.
  3. You are hereby authorized to delay until July 31, 1942, in reporting in obedience to these orders.
  4. Keep the Bureau of Naval Personnel and your new station advised of your address.
  5. This delay will count as leave. Upon the commencement of the leave you will immediately inform this bureau of the exact date and upon the expiration thereof, you will return the attached form, giving the dates of commencement and expiration.
  6. The cost of this travel is chargeable to “Pay, Subsistence and Transportation”.

RANDALL JACOBS [his signature]

The ball starts rolling

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July 22, 1942 was another turning point in my grandparents’ World War II experience. For the last two months, Lt. (jg) R. S. Yegerlehner has been stationed in Norfolk, Virginia at the naval base hospital. He was occupied mainly with examining & inoculating new recruits and administering first aid as needed. Up to this point, my grandfather had occasionally lamented the post in Norfolk. He could just have easily done the same job at the Great Lakes Naval base which was closer to home. The Navy’s method of deciding placement of staff has seemed quite haphazard to the untrained eye: men with families being sent out to sea and single men being given “cushy” jobs in Florida or other stateside bases.

If you recall, the Battle of Midway was fought at the beginning of June 1942. The Japanese were developing strategic locations and bases though out the Pacific during this time. By mid July, the allies had discovered that the Japanese were building an airfield in Guadalcanal. The United States accelerated their plans to attack and take back Guadalcanal before the airfield could be completed. The first marine division invaded Tulagi and Guadalcanal on August 7th. On July 22nd, it may not have been common knowledge in Kentland or the United States in general, but the Japanese had invaded New Guinea the day before on July 21st.

1942-07-22 Telegram

7-22 2:44 a
Liet. R. L. Yegerlehner
Kentland Indiana
your leave hereby canceled return immediately due to receipt of detachment orders
Naval Training station Norfolk Virginia

Regardless, my grandfather’s orders were stamped July 17th. He was already on his way home when the orders were written in Washington that Friday. The orders arrived in Norfolk over the weekend and were on his commanding officer’s desk Monday morning. Dr. Lentz was among those who received similar orders on that day. Dr. Lentz wrote a letter to my grandfather after receiving his orders on Monday. Someone else wrote my grandfather an official telegram requesting his immediate return to Norfolk. Both the letter and telegram were received in Kentland on Wednesday, July 22nd. He didn’t know it yet but he was being assigned to a new unit called Cub Thirteen.

LIONS and CUBS were advanced naval bases that were deployed both on the east and west coasts of the United States.  From what I have been able to piece together so far, Cub Thirteen was unplanned and was hastily thrown together because of the escalating activities in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, back in Kentland, my grandfather received his letter and telegram. Later that day, Roscoe wrote out a document giving his wife, Gladys, his power of attorney. It was notarized by Ellsworth Wilson.

Power of Attorney transcription:

R.S.Yegerlehner, M.D.

Physician and Surgeon

Kentland, Indiana

Know all men by these presents that I, Roscoe Schiele Yegerlehner, of Kentland, Newton County, Indiana, have made, constituted, and appointed, and do hereby make, constitute, and appoint, Gladys Yegerlehner, of the same place, my true and lawful attorney, for me and in my name and on my behalf to receive and receipt for any and all sums of money or payments due or to become due to me, to deposit in my name in any bank or banks any and all money collected or received by her, to pay any and all bills, accounts, claims, and demands now or hereafter payable by me, to draw checks or drafts upon any and all bank accounts or deposits belonging to me, to act for me in any business in which I am now or have been engaged or interested, including the business conducted in the name of Roscoe S. Yegerlehner, or R.S.Yegerlehner, and in connection with any contracts heretofore made by me, including all contracts made in connection with the business of said Yegerlehner and generally to do and perform all matters and things, transact all business, make, execute, and acknowledge all contracts, orders, deeds, writings, assurances, and instruments which may be requisite or proper to effectuate any matter or thing appertaining or belonging to me, and generally to act for me in all matters affecting my business or property, with the same force and effect to all intents and purposes as though I were personally present and acting for myself, hereby ratifying and confirming whatsoever my said attorney shall do by authority hereof.

State of Indiana) SS                                         Roscoe Schiele Yegerlehner [his signature]

County of Newton)

Before me the undersigned notary public for said county and state, on July 22nd, 1942, personally appeared Roscoe Schiele Yegerlehner and acknowledged the execution of the above power of attorney

Witness my hand and notarial seal

Ellsworth Wilson [his signature]

Notary Public

My commission expires: My commission expires Sept. 29, 1945

Heads Up Junior

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I am trying to reconstruct a timeline of events from July 15th-July 31st, 1942. This is what I have so far.

July 15th – Roscoe writes that he will be firmly requesting a leave from his commanding officer in the morning

July 16th – Roscoe requests leave and it is granted. According to a “voucher for per diem and/or reimbursement of expenses incident to official travel (standard form no. 1012-revised)”, Roscoe left Norfolk, Virginia at 19:00 hours on July 16th. That would be 7:00 PM to all of us non-military types.

July 17th – Again according to the voucher, Roscoe arrived in Kentland on July 17th at 16:50, or 4:50 PM.

July 18th – Gladys receives letter Roscoe wrote on the 15th in the AM, prompting her to write a letter wondering where Roscoe is and when she should expect him because she has not heard from him.

July 20th-Dr. Lentz mails Roscoe a letter from Norfolk, with a 7:30 PM postmark.

July 22nd-Dr. Lentz’s letter arrives in Kentland and it receives a second postmark of 7:00 AM

Detail from travel reimbursement document

Detail from travel reimbursement document

The military paperwork and Gladys’s letter create quite a contradiction. My only thought for the discrepancy is….the military form was stamped February 1943, a good 7 months after the original travel occured. I think it likely that my grandfather mistakenly put the wrong dates on the form. I believe that my grandfather actually left Norfolk on Friday the 17th and arrived in Kentland on the 18th at 4:50 PM. This would account for my grandmother mailing a letter prior to 4:30 on Saturday, only to be surprised an hour or so later when Roscoe walked in the door. I still don’t know why he didn’t call or send word prior to his departure.

As you will see by the following letter by Dr. Lentz, my grandfather had a bittersweet leave. The letter that my grandmother wrote and posted on Saturday is possibly one of the letters that Mrs. Evans said had arrived on Monday morning. Dr. Lentz presumably mailed it back with his own letter to my grandfather in Kentland. It might explain why this is the only early letter of my grandmother’s that has survived.

_____________________________________

Letter transcription:

Monday PM

Lt (jg) Yegerlehner-

Well, Junior, it is hot as the infernal regions today and no relief in sight. The official readings for Sat. + Sun were 104° + 101° and today about equal to those. Am in Ferneau’s room in front of fan writing this in my lap.

Enclosed find letters which arrived this a.m. according to Mrs. E.

The reason I am writing this via Air Mail special is that I am being detached Wed-July 22 to report for duty in the West Coast on or about July 31. These new preliminary orders and no specific place has been mentioned- I got the information

(page 2) about 1:30 PM today and about 3:15 PM while in the O.D. Room saw your leave papers + mentioned to Dr. Wack that you roomed with me – so immediately informed me that you have order reading similar to mine for a place on the West Coast which he told me not to mention. You will get the orders on your arrival from leave, so have a good time, and you will have opportunity to see our family when you leave for the coast via Kentland. So informed Mrs. E. accordingly + she feels rather badly about it.

Three (3) new doctors reported today – a Dutchman, a Dr. Weaver from New Albany, Ind.

(page 3) and a lieutenant Commdr.

Well-it won’t be long before we will leave this hot place. We will be practically on leave from time of detachment until the time specified to report.

With Kind regards and best wishes,

Lentz

And may I introduce you to….Gladys

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Letter Transcription:

Kentland, Ind.

7-18-42

Dear Daddy,

I rec’d your Wed. letter this morning and from it I thought you would be on your way home but since I have not rec’d letters of later date or word otherwise I am still in a “wonder”. Well, I will send this air mail special hoping you will get it Sun. evening.

We are still in the midst of a heat wave, but it looks like we may get some rain this evening. We haven’t done much this hot weather but loaf around. Ruth¹ is still here. Hasn’t heard from Floyd² and doesn’t know when he will be back from his work in Michigan. I rather look for him sometime over this week-end but she doesn’t think so.

I haven’t tried to write this week and keep up the news because I thought you would be home. Parr resigned as county agent and took a job with Allison-They are going to sell + move to Danville-he will work in Indpls. I think the new county agent will take Parr’s house.

Mark is running around in bathing trunks this afternoon. He is going

(page 2) to turn the spray on after while –then he + Jimmy + Bobby will have a good time.

John is composing today. It is too hot for him to get out. There is a breeze stirring and we have everything open that we can so we are keeping as cool as possible with the breeze coming in now + then. The boys have been watching the thermometer all day and keep us informed as to the heat. The last report was 101°.

Will send Mark to the P.O. with this, so it will go out on the 4:30-

Love Mother

______________________

I just have to wonder, what happened to my grandfather? The last letter he wrote was postmarked July 15th. In 1942, July 15th was a Wednesday. His letter was written and shipped out at 8:30 PM the same day. My grandmother received it Saturday morning which prompted her to write the above letter. Now presumably, my grandfather went to work Thursday morning (July 16th), found his commanding officer, and firmly demanded that he be granted leave. So then what happened? When did he finally leave Norfolk? He likely took the train home since he did not have the family car in Norfolk. The trip from Norfolk to Kentland is slightly less than 1,000 miles. In an earlier letter, my grandfather was reimbursed for his travel expenses and he commented on the mileage the Navy calculated for his trip from Kentland to Norfolk. I don’t know how long the train trip was, but since they discussed my grandmother taking a pullman (or sleeping car) when she came to Norfolk to visit, I would surmise that the trip takes a couple days or is a long overnighter. In his letter on Wednesday, my grandfather said he would either write before he left or call on the way home. By Saturday, it was three days later. Did he arrive later that day? Why didn’t he send word? Or did he? Since these events fall into one of those voids where letters were not necessary, I will probably never know the answer to these questions.

I continue to sort through the documents in my grandfather’s Navy file this week. I do know that he left Norfolk before the 20th and he was definitely home in Kentland on the 22nd. I am currently working on reconstructing a timeline for the next two weeks of my grandfather’s life in 1942. I’ll keep you posted!

Notes:

  1. Ruth (Salter) Yegerlehner was Floyd’s wife
  2. Floyd Yegerlehner was my grandfather’s youngest brother.

Sometimes it is a little hard to think of things to write

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Letter transcription:

Wed.

Dear Mother,

Just got home-read your short Sun letter. Sometimes it is a little hard to think of things to write about and some days one hardly feels like writing because of the scarcity of news. Just reminds me of what it might be like to be in jail only I guess we have a little more liberty.

We have another air raid warning tomorrow nite. So that means another night at the base. That’s a ‘lovely” duty. Just go there and sit and listen to the whistles blow. I’d like to know what they sound like down here once.

There is a fellow here now in the room Dorothy stayed in. The Dr. that was going to take it you remember was transferred and she hasn’t rented it until yesterday. Had plenty of chances but you know here-only the best.

I’m going after leave again tomorrow and this time I’m going to get it–maybe-at least I’m going to put up some pretty good arguments. That is If if I don’t get orders before that.

Got paid today-still had about $20⁰⁰ left

(page 2) from time before. Just about enough for the ticket home, but I haven’t gotten my laundry yet. This makes 16 days and believe me I’m getting down very low. I’ll almost have to get it before I can come home.

Got a letter from Clay City today. Things seem to be going as usual there.

Well, I’ll either write or be pretty definitely on the way home tomorrow eve. That is I’ll know pretty definitely that I’ll have a leave by then-

Love Daddy

____________________

Well, it would appear that my grandfather did get the leave he desired. This is the last letter I have from him until July 30th, just over two weeks later than today’s letter. His trip home didn’t turn out quite the way he expected though. Stay tuned for some interesting twists and surprises!

Liebster Blog Award

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liebster-blog-award-small

This week I am being honored with the Liebster Blog Award. For those of you who have never heard of it before, the Liebster is given to newer bloggers with less than 200 followers. Liebster is the German word for “favorite”. The award is typically passed on once you receive it, being a sort of the chain letter for blogging. Once you have been nominated you need to answer eleven questions posed by your nominator, select eleven blogs you would like to nominate, and then come up with eleven questions for the new award recipients that you want answered. Whew!

I was honored by ljhlaura who writes the Branch and Leaf Blog. She was one of my earliest followers. Since I am still relatively new to blogging, I had a hard time coming up with eleven blogs with less than 200 followers. Many of the blogs that I follow at this point have large followings so they are ineligible for nomination. Two examples are Judy Russell’s The Legal Genealogist and Hinges of History. If you follow genealogy blogs, you KNOW who Judy is. Hinges of History is a blog that I only discovered this last week. Its entire focus is the WAVES of World War II. The WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, were women who enlisted in the Navy. More than 100,000 of these amazing women signed up during World War II. I would like to think that my grandmother might have signed up if she had been 10-15 years younger and had not had a family at home to care for.

I tried to be diligent and make sure that the blogs I nominated had less than 200 followers. Unfortunately, not all the blogs I am nominating have their numbers of followers posted so I tried my best. Many of these bloggers welcomed me right from the start and I can’t wait to read each one of their new posts every day (or week).

  1. Mustang.Koji and his blog Masako and Spam Musubi
  2. Jenn, aka the Writer Gril, and her genealogy blog Unveiling My Past
  3. Donna Catterick and her new genealogy blog This I Leave
  4. Grant Davis and his blog The Stephen Sherwood Letters
  5. Kaitlin and her blog Keeping History Alive
  6. Chris Wimsatt at The Buff Genealogist
  7. Sheryl and her blog A Hundred Years Ago (I know she’s just over 200 followers, and I don’t care!)
  8. Jacqui Stevens  and her blog A Family Tapestry
  9. Gpcox at Pacific Paratrooper 
  10. Jaggh53163 at “Greatest Generation” Life Lessons
  11. Susan Buck and her blog Branches of Our Family

So here are the questions I was asked and my answers:

  1. When did I start my blog? I started my blog over this last Thanksgiving on November 23, 2012.
  2. What motivates you to write? I am not sure I have an answer to this one….I feel a great need to share my grandparents’ letters and to write down some of my family research before the stories or the letters get lost forever. I never really thought much about being a writer so I feel somewhat odd calling myself one.
  3. Do you have closer to a dearth of a plethora of writing ideas to bring to fruition? I love the word plethora. We used the word a LOT in college. I would say that I have a plethora of documents and a whole heck of a lot of source material to draw upon. I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.
  4. Did you have a hard time naming your blog? I’ve gone by the moniker genealogy lady for awhile now (cough…well over a decade). My husband starting using it as a nickname for me when I would disappear into the office and not emerge for hours. It just seemed like the natural name for my blog.
  5. Where were you born? I was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
  6. How far to you currently live from where you were born? I am about as far as you can be and still be in the continental United States.
  7. Where would you live if you could live anywhere? I love the idea of living in Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain, etc. but I would probably be happiest somewhere in the mountains, in the woods near a lake, with very few people around.
  8. What’s your favorite season? Tough one as I like each season individually.
  9. Why is your favorite season your favorite? I like Winter for the snow and the holidays; I like Spring for its sense of newness and everything being reborn and the coming of warmer days; I like Summer for its heat, childhood memories of lazy days of camp on the lake, and its carefreeness; I like Autumn for the beautiful fall colors (which I rarely see anymore) and changing temperatures and the year end rituals of harvest & Halloween
  10. More introvert or extrovert? Hands down I am an introvert, and proud of it!
  11. What kind of people inspire you? Fearless & brave people; those who are not afraid to fight for their causes or against injustice; people who stand up to bullies and defy the odds.  Whether it was the brave women who fought for our right to vote, abolitionists who helped slaves escape the south, Germans who hid Jews during World War II, or the kid who stands up for his friend against the bully on the playground.

My questions for my nominees: 1) Why did you start your blog? 2) Name a hobby besides genealogy/writing that you also love. 3) Who is your favorite ancestor? 4) What is your favorite book? 5) If you could meet one of your ancestors, who would it be? 6) Why did you choose that ancestor? 7) If you could go back in time, what period would you chose? 8) Who is your most frustrating brick wall ancestor? 9) What is your favorite ice cream flavor? 10) Are you a professional genealogist or do you just this for “fun”? 11) Cat or dog person?

Wednesday’s Child – Carrie E. Steuernagel (1887-1889)

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Steuernagel, Carrie - gravestone

Photograph of gravestone by Tonya & Keith Tetidrick from Find A Grave

Carrie E. Steuernagel was the youngest child of Charles A. Steuernagel and his first wife, Henrietta Paulina Yegerlehner. If you recall from last week’s Wednesday’s child, Henrietta was my grandfather’s aunt. Carrie died one month and nineteen days after her mother died, and just one month shy of her own second birthday. I do not know the cause of her death. I also find it hard to fathom the amount of grief that Charles experienced in his life. He had a rough time when it came to family. He lost his first wife and two of their three children within four years. When he married his wife’s younger sister Matilda, their marriage did not fare much better. Matilda and Charles were married seven years before she died a month after giving birth to her last child. They had five children together; two of which died as infants. Charles married a third time and lost this wife after only five years of marriage. Dorothy died within days of giving birth to her third child.  I think Charles gave up trying to find a wife afterwards.

Carrie is buried at the St. Peter’s Church Cemetery at Hickory Corner, Owen County, Indiana (FindAGrave).

____________________________________________

Letter transcription:

Mon. P.M.

Dear Mother,

It seems as if I’m getting the run around. Now the Captain has put me off until Friday. He may know of some orders coming in etc. or something else anyway today he told me to come back Fri. Fri I’m going to tell him I have some definite plans made for Sun and Mon and must get off at that time. Of course he may have other definite plans also. It might be as you said some time off between duties.

I wrote Mrs. Ahern so probably won’t be bothered by that anymore.

I’m just as much put out and feel as badly as you do about the summer but I can’t figure any solution because if there is no place to live I don’t know what can be done. These houses in Oakdale are OK but they don’t have gas or electricity so that is definitely out. A Lt. and his wife and 7 children are living in one and cooking in the fireplace but I don’t want that. They have been there 3 wks. Yesterday. Sounds

(page 2) like Wittenberg, but they can’t get the stuff to finish the lines.

Maybe we can talk those things over when I get home. I’ve been more dissatisfied here in the last 2 wks than before because its just like you said, the whole summer is almost gone, but I can’t see what can be done about it.

Got a letter from Uncles Wess today¹. They are in Mich., spending the summer. He still writes about the Spanish + American War². Guess it was as big to him as this one is now.

I washed out a suit of underware today. Mine are all in the wash. One bunch has been there since June 30, Maybe they will be out by Fri. Hope so or I’ll have to come home dirty.

Well, as I said last week. I’ll keep on writing each day because Fri. he may put me off again.

Love Daddy

Notes:

  1. Uncle Wess was Silvester Schiele, Roscoe’s mother’s brother. Silvester’s wife Jesse was from Michigan so it seems logical that they went there to vacation in the summers. Search the archives or tags to find more posts regarding Silvester.
  2. Silvester served in Company I, 1st Illinois Infantry in the Spanish American War in 1898. He was a musician. I recently found him in the U.S., Spanish American War volunteers, 1898 database on Ancestry. I knew he had served in the war but not that he was a musician! This letter provides the “smoking gun” evidence to corroborate the oral history that has been passed down.

Amanuensis Monday – July 12, 1942

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There is definitely a routine to my grandfather’s letters at this point. Many of his letters open with how many letters received and which ones. This is a fairly typical interchange between my grandparents: I received this one, etc but nothing from such and such a date or I haven’t received anything for so many days. As the war progress, this will become the opening routine of most of their letters. Work for my grandfather seemed quite monotonous. More sailors arrived every day for the doctors to examine and inoculate. More jg’s were also expected. After a break of about 11 days, another doctor finally received orders to be transferred to another post. My grandfather also seemed very anxious to get a leave home. He did not exactly say why specifically but I’m sure we can all sympathize with his desire to go home, at least for a little while. At this point, he received some resistance from his commanding officer and the leave was not granted. Roscoe sent in his application for Flight school. He informed Gladys of his decision but waited for her response. I’m not sure that he liked what she wrote back. He began to second guess his decision to apply. By July 11th, he had not heard anything about the application and did not know if it was accepted.

I learned a few things this week that I hadn’t known before. My grandfather liked to read detective stories. He was taking a correspondence course and another weekly class on Navy regulations. He didn’t know if his sons knew about their mother being pregnant yet. I don’t know what the custom was in those days for telling the family about a new arrival. These days, families seem to wait until the first trimester has passed before passing along the good news. In July 1942, my grandmother was certainly past the 3 month mark in her pregnancy. I know my grandmother was a trim woman and as the pictures from June attest, she certainly was not showing her pregnancy (at least to the uninformed eye). I can tell somewhat because she looks a little rounder in the face compared to other pictures I have of her (before & after 1942).

This next week will certainly bring some changes and break the monotony.

__________________________________________

Letter translation:

Dear Mother,

I’m writing this at the base as you will note from the stationary. There really isn’t much to write about but there is just a little lull right now so. Sun Duty is a thing that everyone doesn’t like because it makes 7 days in the week instead of six and it gets pretty monotonous sitting here with not much to do, only accident and the minor run sicknesses.

We had special order (?) passed around that th to be on the alert for saboteurs and the like but so far there has been nothing unusual happened.

Had a good dinner – Ham, cabbage, mashed pot[atoes]

(page 2) Ice tea, Ice cream + coke. With soup to start things off with.

I’m going in the first thing in the A.M. to see about the leave- Maybe I can get it for sometime during the week. I hope.

Well, will write more later

Love Daddy