"These guys all laughed at me but I don't care, I just can't feel about these people the way they do."

March 1, 1951

Dear Helen Jane, alias (P.G.)

Winter is with us again today. I had it figured that spring was here but it was oh so cold this morning and even colder now. No way of telling how cold it is but it must be considerably below zero now, with the wind whipping around like mad.

It’s not so bad for us cause we’re in a nice, fairly warm tent and apt to stay here all night but the poor guys up on the lines are bound to be having an awful time. They started a major attack all along the lines here this morning and are having a tough time of it from appearances. They have been bringing casualties back here to the hospital in droves all day long. There has been a steady stream of them all day long and it sure does burn a guy up to see it happening. We work over by the Prisoner of War compound once in awhile and those guys stand around and say Okay, Okay, and all the time I’d like to kick their damned teeth in. Most of them gave themselves up voluntarily so maybe those particular ones really mean okay.

The artillery boys kept me awake a long time last night. If they were shooting at Commies they really must have torn them up cause they were shooting them so fast they sounded like machine guns. They kept it up most of the night and no sooner than they stopped the tanks cranked up and took off and kept me awake some more. It was worth losing some sleep to have all that support for the boys though. With all the boys they’re hauling back here I bet they’re really stacking up the Commies. More power to them.

To change the subject a little, your old man really pulled a big deal today. We were tearing up a building across town this morning and I found about a dozen sacks of rice and wheat so I brang back four sacks and traded one of them to some Koreans to wash clothes for the whole platoon tomorrow. There’s forty guys in the platoon and all of them have everything that they own dirty so I made a pretty good deal. I could have given them onl half a sack but these people don’t have much to eat any way and there’ no use in a guy taking advantage of their hardships. These guys all laughed at me but I don’t care, I just can’t feel about these people the way they do.

This family that’s going to do the laundry just got back here last night and they were over here digging up some vegetables they had buried before they left. I went out and watched them and they were really happy to find them still there. If it was me I’d be happy to find the stuff gone cause it stunk like it had been dead for years but then I guess it’s all in what you’re used to.

Darn it, the squad leader just came in with a stack of mail a mile high and still none for me. My morale just dropped seventy-four points. Cuss it anyway.

By the way, all these guys say they’ve been getting hotch from home so if you feel so inclined you can dish up a bundle of Kinsey or some such and send it this way. Even if it does take a long time to get here it probably won’t spoil on the way. It sure would be nice to have a little pepper upper these cold evenings, or warmer evenings either. I don’t know just what kind of package to send it in but you can think of something I bet. Sure would like to be home sitting around the fireside with you in my lap and a bottle of Manhattans handy, I forgot to tell you that I swore back on them I guess, but I did.

We had fresh meat for dinner again today. Ham this time and it was tough too. But very tasty along with boiled fresh spuds. So life can be beautiful sometimes.

Well Sugar Puss I think I’ll go to bed and sleep off this despondency that has overcome me since mail call. One of these days I’m going to get some letters at mail call and I’m going to sit down and write a real happy letter. So goodnight Sweet Princess and pat little Sparky on the tail for me. Be a good girl and don’t work too hard. Save a bunch of energy up for our honeymoon.

All my love and kisses,

Willy