a letter from my dad to his mom

[skyking]

I was looking for something and came across this V-Mail from my dad.

"Dear Mother,
I received the letter with Don's picture about a week ago and was really glad to get it but I have to carry it in my pocket so it won't look so nice.
I also received Sarah's graduation announcement.
I am now in the isl. of Saipan I have been here since the 15th of June. I am all right please don't worry.
Please send Don's address as soon as you can. Please write soon.
Lots of love,
Robert

from PFC <skyking's dad>
4th MAR DIV
C/O FPO SAN FRAN"

The people he mentions are a brother and sister.
It got me for a minute and then I realized it was a slice of life a long time ago, about people I have never met save my dad. I figured it was worth sharing, a letter from an 18 year old a long way from home.

 

[lxskllr]

That's a cool thing to have :^)

 

[Printer Bandit]

What happened to your aunt and uncle?

 

[OutHouse]

thats cool. I also have letters my dad (also a 18 year old a long way from Texarkana Texas) and grandpa wrote back and forth while my dad was in the south pacific with the Navy in WWII. my son will get them along with his flag, my grandpas flag from WWI and my flag, i hope he passes them down to his kids.

 

[skyking]

What happened to your aunt and uncle?

I do not know. My dad kept his side of the family apart. He moved far away and I vaguely remember one visit from Sarah when I was very young.
He must have had his reasons is all I can say.

 

[Perknose]

What a priceless piece of life that came into your hands!

My Dad wrote wonderful letters. Hell, I used to write letters to my friends and family. What will most of us here leave behind?

Tossed off bits that left a fading magnetic footprint on a rusting hard disk encoded in some practically inaccessible, antique, early 21st century operating system?

What's an operating system, grandpa? What's a hard disk? What do you mean, you had to wait for boot up? What's a boot up?

 

[skyking]

These little scraps of paper do hold meaning. Mary has letters her brothers wrote from boot camp during the Viet Nam years.
Things get put on paper that are never said otherwise.

 

[gooseman]

Keep it. Cherish it. I don't know if you still have your Dad but I lost mine in 1966. I would give all I have for something like that.

 

[mnewsham]

Not really too relevant as I dont know anyone in this letter but I found a letter from 1865 today in a stack of old documents at work, it was in surprising condition all things considered.

even snapped a pic just cuz.

(it is in archival polyester)

 

[keird]

Keep it. Cherish it. I don't know if you still have your Dad but I lost mine in 1966. I would give all I have for something like that.

Wisdom. Sometimes it sucks getting wisdom.

 

[halik]

Keep it. Cherish it. I don't know if you still have your Dad but I lost mine in 1966. I would give all I have for something like that.

:thumbsup:

 

[OutHouse]

i found letters on Ancestry.com written by one of my uncles (father side) to his wife when he served in a Lousiana regiment during the civil war.

 

[CPA]

Not really too relevant as I dont know anyone in this letter but I found a letter from 1865 today in a stack of old documents at work, it was in surprising condition all things considered.

even snapped a pic just cuz.

(it is in archival polyester)

that is....awesome!

John Adams is my favorite book in part because of the letters between Adams and his wife.

 

[unokitty]

"Dear Mother,
... I am now in the isl. of Saipan I have been here since the 15th of June. I am all right please don't worry.
.... Please write soon.
Lots of love,
Robert
4th MAR DIV
C/O FPO SAN FRAN".

The 4th Marine Division landed on Saipan 15 June 1944. The severity of this battle was indicated by the 2,000 casualties suffered in the first two days of battle... The Division sustained 5,981 casualties killed, wounded and missing. This represented 27.6 percent of the Division's strength. The Japanese count was 23,811 known dead and 1,810 prisoners were taken.

...

The combat record of the 4th Marine Division in World War II was exemplary. In ... one year and 19 days it participated in four major amphibious assaults and won two Presidential Unit Citations. The Division suffered a total of 17,722 battle casualties during the four assault landings on Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. (14,424 wounded and 3,298 killed or died of wounds.)

It was a different world then. You've found something rare. Don't ever loose it.

Props to your dad.

Uno

 

[skyking]

Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima

That litany of foreign names defined our family in my childhood. He went there as damaged goods, and came back almost wrecked. They called it shell shock and tried to brush it under the table.
He grew up in the farming communities of SoCal, working in the fields. he was strong, so they made him a stretcher bearer on Iwo Jima. he carried many of the wounded and dying young men, and had to decide who lived and who died. If a casualty was clearly not going to make it, they would set him on the side of the trail and go back for a better candidate for survival. The weight of that is not imaginable to me.

 

[unokitty]

... If a casualty was clearly not going to make it, they would set him on the side of the trail and go back for a better candidate for survival. The weight of that is not imaginable to me.

My kid brother was a medic. I don't know that I could do that... Or to do what your dad did.

Still, your dad is part of a very, very, very tiny group of people that are bound by their experiences. No one can ever buy a ticket to become part of that group... No one, outside that group, will ever know what those experiences involved.

Anyone that can go through that, and still write back to his mom to tell her 'not to worry' has my respect.

Uno
Sentry Dog Handler
US Army 69-71

 

[skyking]

Thank you Uno for your kinds words and YOUR service. I clicked your link and just wow.