July 14, 1942 - Dear Battleship

Jan Palson

14 Jul 2026 — 4 min read

Fort Ruckman 1940s - Nahant, Massachusetts (Picture Credit: Capt. Gerald Butler)

All you had to do was turn around to work up a sweat.

You kinda know what he's going through if you've ever had a wisdom tooth removed. Now imagine it's 1942. Ouch! I really feel for him. Many men were rejected for service due to poor oral health. During this time, military dentistry is going to scale up in order to accommodate all the new recruits and new procedures/processes to become what they are today: state-of-the-art. Not soon enough for Dad. And it's too hot to work. Note: they aren't planning to actually wrestle. They are going to REDACTED, REDACTED.

Original Letter

Transcript follows.

Transcript - July 14, 1942

Bat H - 9^th C.A., Fort Ruckman

Dear Battleship:

I hope you are keeping in condition for my next visit. You want to keep yourself in shape. Do your road work faithfully and try pounding nails with your fist. Nothing like that to toughen your hands up. In developing your back, you could try pulling them out with your teeth. Of course I don’t intend to stand and take such a beating this time. I am not idle. I am practicing my sprinting and this time you will have to catch me. I am taking up wrestling too. I like to wrestle with you and I don’t care if I win or not. You are the nicest person to wrestle with. So nice and soft. I love you darling, very much. The tooth or the place where the tooth was is feeling better. It doesn’t bleed quite so much as yesterday.

I thought for a while that I would be one soldier who would use one of those pints of blood that are being donated. I got the sheet and pillow case all stained last night from drooling all over it. When I got to sleep it just ran out. There was nothing I could do about it. But I feel much better tonite. My imagination runs away with me when I go to a dentist. I have never liked to go to them and sitting in the chair waiting for him to get started had me trembling. I guess I’m allergic to them. This morning he wanted to pull another tooth and then when I refused to let him he wanted to do it tomorrow. I stalled him off until next week. So now see if you can look up a good dentist in Hartford. This other tooth he wants to pull, I don’t think is necessary. If the civilian dentist thinks it can be filled, I will have it fixed there. The h-ll with this guy. All I want is a checkup Monday and if you can find a good dentist it won’t take long. If you do that, I’ll let you beat me once. O.K.? Gosh it was hot today. All you had to do was turn around to work up a sweat.

Since I’ve had this tooth out I’ve been gold bricking. Every time the whistle blew I would go hide someplace. I have been getting away with it too. This afternoon I decided working was better than hanging around so I went down to work. It was too hot and so I beat it off. Too hot to work. I got a card from Peggy and so I am sending it to you. Also, I notice a poem in the newspaper one of the fellows wrote. One of the fellows who came in with me. I’m no judge on that stuff so I don’t know whether it is good or not. How do you like your new job. By this time you will have started in and so you will know. I hope they don’t work you too hard. You will be making pretty good money soon, won’t you? At least $30 a week. If you get any raises you will be making more money than I use to make.

Quite a little bread winner you are. Maybe I’ll let you bring home the bacon all the time. I’m good at washing dishing and scrubbing floors. I wished I had been there to taste your chicken last Sunday. It sounded very good. I knew you were a good cook all the time. You are a wonderful wife and I’m very lucky. I love you very much. I’m going on guard tonite so I had better take a nap.

Lots of love from your

Husband