HQ Co. 3rd Bn 135th Inf.
APO-34 c/o PM. New York, N.Y.
Anzio Beach Head Italy
Sat, May 13, 1944
Dear Mother:-
I have a little time so I'll try to write you a few lines to let you know I'm well and feeling fine. I'll write a airmail letter as most of my letters lately to you have been V-mail and you can't write much on those.
I shaved today and just came back from taking a shower and getting clean clothes. About the only clothes I have is what I'm wearing as we turned the rest in. It sure feels fine to get cleaned up once again but a fellow don't stay that way very long.
Yesterday we were given 5 candy bars; cigarettes, and a bottle of beer. the beer is made here in Italy and isn't so good as a fellow has to drink it warm. Sometime ago we were to have beer. It was to be keg beer. Well, a few German planes came over and dropped some bombs and blew the kegs to pieces so we had no beer. Boy, that was one night I was scared and everyone else was who was there. We are to get 2/3's of a quart of beer every 2 weeks now.
Well, how's the garden coming along? I guess you have every thing planted now including the lot. I hope you have good luck with everything this year.
How is Mary and Henry Lee? I guess they come to see you a lot. Soon Henry Lee's school will be out and he can spend a lot of time with you. Was he in a Easter program this year?
I guess you have been reading in the paper about Sergeant Kelly the big hero from over here. Well don't believe all you are reading about him. Somebody is just building him up. A lot of things he claims he done can't be done that say. "So I'm told." And whenever he says that he never was afraid, well he can't tell me or no one else that because you can't help yourself. Another thing, you can't take a mortar shell and throw it like a football. How did he know he killed 40 Germans. Did he stop to count each one? No, you don't do that either. Every fellow you hear up here on the front talk about him sure are sore the way the magazines and newspapers are giving him the write ups. He hasn't seen many months of action. The Division I'm in has been overseas the longest and has a lot of heroes, but you never hear a word about them. It looks like Sergeant Kelly is a one man's Army. The Air Corp. is another outfit that is getting too much credit for what they are doing. You never hear a word said about the Infantry. That's the fellows who deserve a lot of credit but don't get it. Those fellows with the help of the Artillery are the ones who are getting the ground and pushing forward to win the war, not the Air Corp. The Air Corp hasn't taken a piece of ground yet but that's all you hear about "Air Corp"--Hum Bug.
Well have you heard anymore of Freddie? Sure would like to see him get a discharge. Send me his address as soon as you hear from him. I don't know what outfit his buddies were sent to as I left before they did. If they keep him at Ft. Meade he sure can be lucky.
I never have gotten any papers since I left Camp Blanding. I guess once the boat brings them over I'll sure get a bunch of them. I wish they would come soon so I know what's going on in Staunton. By the way did they ever put up the Honor Roll that they were going to build and put in the park? I guess not.
I had a letter from Louie Calcari the other day. He didn't have much to say and I think his daughter-in-law wrote it as the writing was too good for his. To tell the truth I don't think he can write.
Well I guess Henry is still out at the water plant. His job should be good for 1 more year yet. I suppose Bill isn't doing anything yet only working around the house as usual. Seems like a lot of fellows are getting laid off throughout the U.S. That is what I see in a paper once in a while. A fellow in my outfit gets the Chicago paper. It's about 2 months late always so the news is old but it's something to read and pass away the time.
Did Uncle Henry ever come to see you all? I wonder if he got my letter I wrote to him? Have you heard from the Howards lately? I guess they are all well.
Well I think I told you all I know so I'll close hoping I hear from you real soon. Take good care of yourself and don't work too hard. So long.
Love,
Gus
Oh, yes. I believe tomorrow is "Mother's Day." Well there isn't a thing here that I can get to send you. Not even a card so all I can say is "Happy Mother's Day" to you. Wish you many more of them.
You know here a fellow can't keep up with the day or dates. You always have to ask whether it's Sunday, Monday or what. Same way with the dates. Too much to keep track of.
Although 15 of the letters that I have from my father to his mother are V-Mail, the first one is dated August 16, 1944, so Dad's comment that most of the letters he sent recently were sent by V-Mail puzzle me. There are so many letters from him to my grandmother that I have assumed that she kept every one he wrote. However, there is no letter at all written in March 1944, and there was a one month gap between the one he wrote on April 11 and this letter, after which the letters once again are written about once a week.
Stamped on the front of this envelope is a rubber-stamped box that says "Passed by U.S. Army Examiner" and the number 02662. It is signed Lt. R. O. Foster.
The envelope is postmarked May 16, 1944. On the back of the envelope my grandmother wrote "Received 26 May. Answered 31."
I was curious about the Sergeant Kelly that Dad wrote about. Doing a little research, I think that he is talking about Charles E. Kelly, a World War II hero known as "Commando Kelly." The details in the New York Times article written when he died in 1985 match some of Dad's comments.
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/13/us/charles-e-kelly-dies-at-64-a-winner-of-medal-of-honor.html
This letter will be posted to the blog on September 9, 2014. On this day one hundred two years ago my dad was born in Staunton, Illinois.
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