39) A trip to Australia with good food and fresh milk!--Sept. 20, 1944

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


Sept. 20 (1944)
Betty dearest,

Well here is the explanation for my not writing to any of you all back there for the last 10 days.

I have been down in Australia on Temporary Duty. I won’t be able to tell you much except that I flew down and I had a really swell time. The food and fresh milk really helped out after eating what they have here for so long. Darling I hope I didn’t cause you any worry about me. It was almost impossible to write while I was away from the Sqdn.

I had three wonderful letters waiting for me when I got back. They were the kind of letters that really make me realize just what I want to come back to. The days are really much shorter and the whole thing seems to move so fast when I get your letters like that. Honey I don’t want you to worry about me because I am really quite safe and my health is good.

The best thing that has happened to me in ages was receiving that swell picture of the girl I live for and dream of all the time. Gosh! You don’t know how much that picture means to me. I really did think that was an evening dress you had on till I read you letter. You sure look more beautiful every time I get a new picture. Maybe I will be able to see that smile in the flesh some time soon. Things will be so different when I can reach out and touch your cheeks instead of sitting here and staring at the picture and wishing I could speak to you. Well there isn’t any use thinking about coming home for several more months. There are so many fellows over here who have more time overseas than I do.

I got about four of the small papers you sent. I really did enjoy reading all the home town news. Where did you get that crazy stationary?

The party sounds like it must have been fun. Need I say “wish I were there.” I probably wouldn’t know how to act at a civilized party. You will have to teach me when I get back. What a swell way to learn anything. I mean with you as my teacher. Don’t mind me I just love the gal that's all. Isn’t that enough.

Say why don’t you get those same boys to take some more pictures of you so you can send them to me. Tell them they would really be doing something to help a certain soldiers morale.

Darling, the three letters I received were dated Aug. 22, 26 & Sept. 1.

Well that’s about all I can think of tonite except to say that Darling I will write as often as I possibly can and some in between times to.

I love you with all my heart. Goodnite and pleasant dreams.

Yours always,
Jack

Perhaps this is the photo Betty sent him.  It was taken around this time.

38) Dreaming of a future with Betty - Sept. 7, 1944

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

Sept. 7th 44
Dearest,

Well I just came home from the show. The picture was “Bermuda Mystery” with Preston Foster & Ann Rutherford . Right now they are tuned in on the Hit Parade. Just played “I’ll Be Seeing You” & “It’s Love, Love, Love.” Number 1 is “Long Ago & Far Away” wish they had Bing singing instead of “Swoonatra”. He spoils the song. Sure do enjoy listening to this music. Hope your not a Sinatra fan.?

Darling I got the delicious little fruit cake also the box of candy. Sure did surprise me to get something like that. Those little cakes sure are a clever idea. We got CocoCola tonite and did I enjoy it. We get a pint for 10 cents. We have a machine for the Group. This is the second time we have had it. Remember the “cokes” we used to fix in your kitchen when ever I came over? Wish I could live it all over from that & just skip some of the things I’ve done over here. But maybe if I hadn’t gone away I wouldn’t have realized just how much you meant to me. I am glad in a way because being over here has made up my mind about lots of things and molded lots of my thoughts & plans into the most wonderful, shall we say dream of the future. A dream that I will some how get back there to make a reality. Won’t you add your plans to make it a super wonderful dream!!!?

They have some program on now that has only Western songs. Maybe they will stumble on a good one.

I got some good books today. “Botany Bay” by Chas. Nordhoff & James Norman Hall. “Wellington” a biography by Philip Guedalla. “The Travels of Marco Polo” by Manuel Komroff, “Deserts On The March” by Paul B. Sears, “The Pacific Ocean” by Felix Riesenberg, “Payment Deferred” by C. S. Forester, “” the novel by Arnold Bennett that was made into the movie “Holy Matrimony” with Gracie Fields & Monty Wolley. Last but not least “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. So you see darling I have enough reading matter to last me quite a while. I find that reading seems to take my mind off of this place & these things & people & while I am reading it is all lost in a cloud.

Something of the same effect can be accomplished by continually thinking about you and how I want things to be for us after I can get back & settle down-- US--I would have to change my plans to do it alone or without you.

How much you mean to me and how much I want you to be always happy & lovingly sweet as you are can’t be expressed properly in a letter. Not with my sentence structure the way it is at any rate.

Darling I will simply have to write more tomorrow nite. I need to sleep right now. Goodnite & pleasant dreams.

Yours as you are constantly being told,
Jack

They are playing the song from “Oklahoma”, “People will say we’re in Love”. Really like that song.

I hope to get a big bunch of letters from you tomorrow. The two packages were all I got today.

My best to your Mom & Ann. How does Ann like school this year? 

Tell me about your school.

They just closed the program with “Shoo! Shoo! Baby”



NOTES:

1. Coca-Cola in WW II---When the United States entered the War, Coca-Cola president, Robert Woodruff declared that every man in uniform would be able to get a bottle of Coca-Cola for 5 cents, wherever he was and whatever it cost the Company. The company set up bottling plants as close to combat areas as possible in both Europe and the Pacific. It did more that just boost the moral of the troops; it gave many locals the first taste of Coca-Cola and poised the company for post war business worldwide.  We'll have to guess what might have been in the "cokes" Jack mentions that they fixed in Betty's kitchen.  Remember she lived in her grandmother's house when Jack knew her before he enlisted.  A jigger of Kentucky Bourbon perhaps??
2. Armed Services Editions---By the end of 1942 the Armed Services saw a need for an efficient system of distributing reading material to the troops. What was needed were books that were cheap to produce, easy for a GI to carry, and appealed to a broad audience.  The library section of the morale branch of the U.S. War Department came up with a type of book that could be produced cheaply and printed quickly. The paperback books were oblong shaped and were called, Armed Services Editions. Most were bound on the short side of the test block.  The Armed Services Editions printed all of the books that Jack lists in this letter.  It is a fair assumption that the books he mentions reading are Armed Services Editions.  These books were not intended for sale but were distributed for free to troops overseas and in veterans’ hospitals. -Click here for more information       
3. Your Hit Parade---Popular hit song show that ran for about 25 years -- Click these links to hear the songs Jack mentions in this letter.  I'll Be Seeing You          It's Love-Love-Love       Long Ago and Far Away      People Will Say We're In Love      Shoo Shoo Baby