41)Time doesn’t pass so slow when ever I look at your picture--Sept. 24, 1944

APO 920 = Base H, Biak, Dutch New Guinea- Schouten Islands
Mokmer Airstrip

Sept. 24. ‘44

“Hello Honey”,

No letter today and I sure needed one. Guess I will get them all in a bunch. Wouldn’t it be nice to get just one letter at a time? I hope mine don’t arrive there in bunches. I am honestly so glad when I get a letter from you that I immediately forget all about whether they area in a bunch or not. Just so they get here, they are worth waiting for. As long as I know that you are thinking about me then everything will be all O.K.

Frank Hamilton the boy who used to live with me here in the supply building, went home on the rotation plan. He has been over here exactly twice as long as I have. Glad he got to go home. Don’t think my turn will come this year. I’ll be lucky if I get home by my birthday. Still want to wait??

After the drenching I got last nite I stayed in tonite. I would rather write to you than see a movie anyway. They are playing records over the P.A. system. Sure have been putting on some corny ones in the last 15 minutes.

This is really comfort. I am sitting in a nice easy chair with my feet propped up and of course your pictures are sitting where I can easily see them.

Today was hot but we had a pretty cloudy sky so the sun didn’t shine directly down on us. The records are getting a lot better now they just played “How Sweet You Are.”

Boy we really fixed something good this after noon. We had toasted cheese sandwiches made with some very good cheddar cheese I brought back from Australia with me. Pretty Good Eats!

Darling, I am now the proud possessor of a camera. “JR.” (that’s Frank) left his for me when he went home. It is a Kodak 120. If you can get some film that size please send it to me. I must remember to have some more pictures censored and send them to you. Did you enjoy the ones I sent you not long ago?

In that picture you sent, before I read the letter I thought that you had on an evening gown. Some mistake, but it could happen to any one.

I read a very good book the other day. It was the book from which they got the story for the movie “Man Hunt” the book was “Rogue Male.” While I was traveling I read one called “Honey In The Horn”, a historical novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1936.

They just played “Pistol Packin Mama” or “Rosealetta” maybe I’ll hear some good ones now they just switched over to the radio. They have some real good bands and right now they are playing “Deep Purple” remember that one.

My sweet let me thank you again for the little papers you sent. Can you keep sending them? Are they easy to get?

Just heard “You Rhyme with Everything That’s Beautiful” first time I’ve heard that one. Tommy Dorsey is on the program.

I just went over and tried to tune in a station that a friend of mine runs on one of the other islands. We could get it but lots of static & buzzing noises. They were really going to town.

Here I am again.

A couple of real nice fellows in the next outfit came over and brought some bread and we had cheese sandwiches. They are real swell fellows. They are both first Lts. And you would never know they had any rank at all. Some officers are like that. They being in another outfit we don’t have to worry about how we act to each other.

Seems like the time has really dragged by tonite. It is only 8:45 and seems like midnite.

Darling I can’t seem to think of anymore to write so I will sign off.

Remember that I love you and pray for the day when we can be together again for always and always. Please have patience and I will be with you before you know it. Time doesn’t pass so slow when ever I look at your picture and know that you are waiting. From the bottom of my heart I mean this. You know that I am yours till the end and beyond that even.

Jack

Goodnite now.


Notes:

1. Rogue Male---a classic thriller novel of the 1930s by Geoffrey Household. The main character is an Englishman who plans to assassinate the dictator of a European country. Made into the 1941 movie "Man Hunt" starring Walter Pidgeon. Link to wikipedia article about this book
2. Honey In The Horn--- by Harold L. Davis. Received the Harper Prize for best first novel of 1935 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1936. It is about life in the homesteading days of Oregon. Link to wikipedia article about this book
3. Listen to music Jack Mentions in this letter---Pistol Packin' Mama link---- Deep Purple link----You Rhyme with Everything That’s Beautiful link