Sun, Jul 25, 1943: uniform inspection

“There was a bristle of activity around Ship B immediately after supper as we prepared for the first uniform inspection.  Sailors from the fleet got a pretty good workout showing us newcomers how to roll and fold handkerchiefs, and quite a few boys learned to their dismay that the tailor had tailored too much off their trousers or jumpers.  Finally at 7:30 the whole company formed outside and stood stiffly at attention as Lieut. Morrissey gave us the once-over.”
-- Letter from my father, Sidney DeVere Brown, Cape Girardeau, Mo., to my grandfather, Leonard Reeves Brown, Bloomington, Kans., Sunday, July 25, 1943.  Ship B was the name the Navy used for the dormitory my father lived in at Southeast Missouri State Teachers College. In the last week of July 1943, British and U.S. forces began bombing Hamburg in an attack that killed 42,600 civilians.