Mar 7, 2016

Thu, Mar 7, 1946: a fabulous city

"I finally got here... Washington is a fabulous city.  All of the places I've read about and which have appeared in geography and history textbook pictures can now actually be seen.  Last night as my taxi pulled out of Union Station I caught my first glance of the capitol building with its peacetime halo of light.  This impressive sight seemed very familiar -- as if it were a place I had known long ago....
"Cmdr. Steele seemed pleased when Bill McKeon and I asked for overseas duty; but he wasn't overly optimistic about the possibilities Six months ago there was a crying need for Japan bound language men - now things over the Pacific are being wound up and Gen. McArthur's army men are handling the situation in Japan."
--Letter from my father, Washington, D.C., to his family, Bloomington, Kans., Thursday, March 7, 1946.

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