"Everything else I have to do, I just do, but writing my baby a letter is my recreation"

Sunday
March 4, 1951
Dearest Peaches,

Morale hit a new high tonight and things are looking much brighter. Mail for the peons tonight! Six of them all in a mob, Oh happy day. Of course they were all mixed up, four of them to the fifth draft and two to “B” Co. I know there’s a bunch more someplace, but I’m not very choosy about how they mix them up as long as they’re from little Sugarfoot and they get ‘em here. Boy I’ll just tell you it’s been mean waiting for them to get here. You know how you were waiting for one and there must have been one from me a couple weeks ago. Course I did get a jump on you by getting those in Kobe. Guess I’m pretty excited over it cause I’m writing worse than usual tonight.

I don’t know how you could think these letters are good. It must be that you love me as much as I love you. They seem pretty dry to me, no news, no nothing except that I love you and you probably already guessed that.

Honey, I knew you were going to be lonesome when I left and you’re wrong about it being harder on me than you because I know where I’m at all the time and I only worry when there’s something to worry about and you don’t know where I am and have to worry all the time. I’ll try to stay out of trouble as much as I can but the old Corps always has the last word. This particular company doesn’t often get attached to a line regiment and so it’s usually pretty well in the rear area. About all they do is work like dogs. This platoon I’m in did get caught in last winter’s retreat but it was all a mistake then. Just hope they don’t have any more mistakes.

The reason I don’t mention any of the guys is that none of them that you know came to this outfit. Nearly all of them went to the regiments and we haven’t been around any of them to look them up. But this evening, Sagle, Eulie’s buddy from Brentwood Mo. Who’s in the same squad with me and I heard the 5th regiment was nearby and we scrammed up the road to hunt for Eulie and as luck would have it we ran into him going to chow after we had hunted all over for him and couldn’t find him. He was in good spirits but tired, he’d just got in off an 8-mile patrol through the mountains and that’s really a hike in these hills. Tomorrow they’re supposed to move up to the front again, they just came back last Wednesday, They’re just supposed to set up a perimeter of defense which shouldn’t be too bad. There are some nasty rumors flying that a bunch of Commies are headed this way to annihilate the Marines, they probably aren’t true but even if they were I’m afraid those Commies would be biting off an awful large chunk of pure poison. Even if I am mad at this lousy Marine Corps I sure will say it’ll be a cold day in hell before these Commies will get the best of it. I’ll even mow a few down if they really get me mad or if they come snooping around back here with the gear.

One of the worst things about this war so far is that it goes on for seven days a week with no weekends off and no overtime pay. Today was a pip. We shoveled gravel all day again, putting it on the same silly road that didn’t go someplace. Now I’m tired again. Must be I’m a thinker, not a worker, cause I find I need muscles that I ain’t got at times. Bet I have ‘em before I get done with this mess though. These guys can sure work me hard as long as they ride me around in a truck instead of walking me there. Besides I could use some more muscles if wes wants me to dig and haul all that dirt away.

Regarding the wall, which is already done no doubt, have it done as you see fit cause you can see how it looks as it goes up and can tell how it ought to be and all I could do was try to picture how it was going to look. Fix it up like you like it and I’ll like it. And have all the things done that you want to as we can afford it cause it needs to be done and Im living pretty cheaply right now and we’ll have a little more cash on hand. Just have it done, we’ll make out okay. I signed the payroll for a two hundred dollar check so when payday gets here I’ll send that and it should paint a couple of boards or something.

Seems like I didn’t start this soon enough cause it’s only five minutes till taps and I’m not near done gabbing. All that reading oiled my tongue in the middle and set it clacking on both ends. So I’ll have to finish this up tomorrow. Goodbye now and I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. I have an outpost watch in the morning and will have the afternoon off to rest up, or so they cay anyway. Pleasant dreams Pigeon, I know I’ll have some good ones tonight. (Continued)

It is now the next day and so onward with this little note. I’m now sitting up on top of a hill with a machine gun looking for Commies twenty miles behind the lines. There’s supposed to be some sneaked through the lines back to here bit I doubt that they’ll come around here anyway cause there’s too many guys here. They might sneak around and try to find little groups by themselves and attack them but they aren’t crazy enough to come into this many troops I don’t think.

They day is nice and sunny, though a little bit cold but we’ve got a little fire going and I’m pretty cozy bundled up in my big cap and parka. Found a lid off a grenade case so I’ve even got a neat little field desk to write on.

Just got done reading all your letters again and they were as good this time as they were last night. They were pretty well spread apart though. I think I told you that on the other page though. Seems like from the way your letters read mine didn’t get to you in proper order either. So I guess they mess them up going both ways.

I’m glad all the kids are keeping the home front a happy place for you sugar. It really is better if you get out with them instead of staying home all the time. Sure appreciate old Mick coming up and taking you out. He really is a swell guy alright, A little peculiar to figure out sometimes, but always on the up and up. It’s too bad he doesn’t want Peggy to come down while he’s there. He’ll be away from her long enough when he gets over here and it looks like he would want her there as long as he stays in the States. At least I’d want you with me if it were possible. Just like I say though, he’s kind of odd about some things. Anyway I sure appreciate him coming around once in awhile. I know you must have had a good time with Gus and Rita, even if you probably couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

Don’t you worry about me not writing kiddo, cause it won’t happen unless it’s a case like when we moved, when there’s no place to mail anything after you write it. It seems like the most important and enjoyable thing I do all day is write to you. Everything else I have to do, I just do, but writing my baby a letter is my recreation.

How did you like that money I sent in the last letter? I knew I’d forget to put the silly stuff in and I did but I’ll try to remember it this time.

This country is odd in a lot of ways naturally, to us, but one thing brought to my attention right now is they’re custom of burying their dead. Because I’m sitting right in the middle of a bunch of graves. Seems like they bury them at random around the hillsides, maybe in the spot they die in for all I know. But they terrace out a little piece of a hillside and prop the person up in a sitting position facing east and cover him or her or it up with dirt until when they are done they have a little terrace on a hillside with a mound about four feet high and ten feet in diameter in the middle of it. You see them everywhere you go but this must be a popular spot here, maybe it’s the Forest Lawn of the orient, cause I can count about twenty five or thirty from here. I guess it’s no more trouble doing that than digging a big deep hole though. I’d like to take some pictures of this stuff over here and send you but I don’t see how I can manage too well without a camera. I’ll just have to tell you all about it when I get back. These people have absolutely no concept of cleanliness though. Their houses are like pig pens and they have very dirty personal habits. They don’t bother going to their little pens, they call out houses, to go to the toilet half the time. And if they are walking down the road and have to go, they go, then and there, even if they’re in a crowd in town, men, women, and kids, they all do it and I guess it doesn’t make any difference to the guys whose house they do it in front of, it’s just a little more fertilizer for his rice patch to him. It was quite shocking to observe the first few times though. I kept imagining myself taking a pee on the corner of 5th and Broadway or someplace like that. Couldn’t quite see it. I suppose though, they have their own brand of modernity and that some of the things we would seem pretty revolting to them. Guess that’s enough geography for today though.

Concerning packages, like I said it seems to take them a long time to get here but if you want to send something to eat that won’t spoil along the way please do so cause anything added to this diet would make it twice as good. Use your own judgment about that you send, you know what I like I bet. You could stick in some flashlight batteries and some stationary along with the eats. We got plenty of soap and shaving stuff so don’t send any of that. Some candy, caramels or something like that, no hard candy, we get life-savers by the bushel. Just anything you want to send will be welcome though.

I don’t much think I’ll be able to get home by Easter to make up for lent but I should be home by next fall and we can make it up then. I guess I didn’t mean I’d just become a man when I wrote you that, it was just that I realized I had grown older when I got here. I don’t think either of us will need any hormones or hadacol when I get home but if we make up for all this lost time we may need some of them after I’ve been home awhile. Unless you’re not in the mood cause I will be. I’m sure.

It’s not right to talk about those things and get ideas when we’re so far apart we can’t do anything about it, is it? I think these first few weeks have been toughest on us, we’ll kind of get used to the routine and it won’t be as bad until it’s almost time to come home and then the anticipation will be almost as bad as parting was. But we can stand it as long as we know we’ll have each other when this is all over again.

Little lover pet, I think I’ve nearly run down for this trip. If I feel gabby this evening I’ll drop a few more lines but I’ll close this one and get it on it’s way. It’s about time for us to get relieved so I better look like I’m watching. Too bad I couldn’t tell you I’ve interrupted this letter ever once in awhile to bump off a commie, but I ain’t seen a dang one.

Be good honey and drink a couple beers for me. How I would like to have a couple dozen of them this afternoon.

All my love,
Bill