Letter or Postcard – Letter
Sender – Ralph Peterson
Recipient – Phyllis Peterson
Postmark Place – St. Petersburg, Florida
Postmark Date – 20 March 1943
Letter Date – 19 March 1943
Text:
My dearest wife and baby,
Here it is night again and as yet no mail from you, so I thought I would write and find out what was wrong. I suppose you aren’t able to write yet. Also, I might have got one in today’s mail as it hasn’t been passed out yet. I am hoping and praying that there is one there for me. I’m going to keep writing to Berlin until you tell me different. Another thing, I might get shipped any day now. A bunch of guys are going the coming Monday. I think there is about 50 going but I won’t be one of them. I might go any day next week, though. If I do and I have time I will send you a telegram. That is, if I have time. They don’t give you much more than a half-hour to get your clothes and get to hell out of here, but I will try and let you know if I possibly can. Well how are you and the baby getting along? I hope you are well and the baby is growing like a weed. She isn’t still all red yet, is she? I mean, don’t they change color pretty soon? I seen one once and he was all red and puckered up. Is our baby like that? Maybe she will outgrow that. Did all your clothes come in handy? I hope you have enough. I feel kind of rotten today. I have a cold and one hell of a sore throat, and then today we were out in the hot sun putting up pup tents. We also had to carry a full pack all this forenoon. The thermometer was exactly 93 today. With a full pack I sure had plenty to sweat about. All my clothes were wringing wet. Tomorrow is another bad day for the whole squadron of 400, as the whole bunch is on KP for one day. It will be our last KP job while we are down here. I can’t think of much to write now and we are going to have mail call in five minutes so if I get one I will write some more. Just got back from mail call and no letter from you, but I got one from Clarence. He is coming home for a ten day furlough. I wish I was in his shoes. That’s about all for now, as I have to get up at three tomorrow morning. Night dearest babies, from Ralph
PS – Write real quick.
Notes: Got to remember that this is a very unsophisticated 19 year old guy. Possibly the baby he saw once was his younger brother Scott. Clarence was his oldest brother, who was stationed elsewhere in the Army.