May 31?, 1943: K.P.

“Well I am comfortably resting on my bunk after 17 hrs of extremely unpleasant K.P. duty.  It was my first time I have had K.P. since I have been in the army.  I hope you can read this as I am writing it laying down....

"We went on the rifle range last Thursday and Friday.  That 30 caliber rifle packs a powerful wallop. I came through with a cut lip and a very sore shoulder."

-- Letter from Everett “Sammy” Samuelson, Camp Hood, Texas, to my father, Winfield, Kans., May 31?, 1943.

Winfield, Kans., February 1936

My father's parents, Jessie and Leonard, ages 38 and 40, at a family gathering in February 1936. 

Thu, May 20, 1943: hoping

"I have been so thankful you got to come home for Mother's Day.  If this war doesn't come to an end, you might not get to be with us next year.  Here's hoping something will happen to end it before long.  Things are looking favorable but no one ever knows what might turn up nor how long the enemy can hold out."

-- Letter from my grandmother, Jessie Maybelle (Berger) Brown, Bloomington, Kans., to my father, Sidney DeVere Brown, Winfield, Kans., Thursday, May 20, 1943.

Sat, May 15, 1943: single stripe

“I've been putting my single stripe to work these last ten days, our section seargent was on a furlough, so I was given his duties.  We had some field problems and I was in charge of selecting the C.P., putting the radio into operation and estblishing securiety, which was a push over.  The most disagreeable part is digging in.

"Chow to-night was cold cuts, again, served in mess gear."

-- Letter from Dale Sooter (my father’s cousin), Camp Rucker, Ala., to my father, Winfield, Kans., Saturday, May 15, 1943.  (Spelling is per original.)  Two days before this letter was written, on May 13, Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered to Allied forces, ending the North African campaign.

May 1943: report card

“English...        E

Am. History...   E

Typing...           E

Literature...      E

Solid Geom...   E”

--Report card of my mother, Ruth Murray, for the spring semester of her junior year at El Dorado High School, 1943.  Since I have no letters from her in this time period, I’ve included this report card, one of the few documents I have from her.  Possible grades were “E—Excellent; G—Good; M—Medium; P—Passing; F—Failing.”  My mother lived in El Dorado, Kans., with her father, minister at the First Methodist Church, and her little sister.  She did not meet my father, who was in his sophomore year at Southwestern College in Winfield, fifty miles to the south, until the fall of 1946.