June 2, 1942 - Dear Audrey

Jan Palson

02 Jun 2026 — 4 min read

Fort Banks - 1940s - Artist Unknown

Any town that does not know who MacArthur is deserves to be forgotten.

What a nice reliable postal service. Now, let's start with the relative case history. It's a good overview of who's who. Except I'm still not clear who the Aunt and Uncle are. Mom and Vicky are invited to visit which could be fun. So not "getting on the ball" results in extra drills. It's all about the practice firing that coming up. There will be no passes for a while. He's resigned to that. And it's a pretty good letter considering he's in the latrine. Even with the poor lighting.

Original Letter

Transcript follows.

Transcript - June 2, 1942

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

Dear Audrey,

I’ve been getting your letters awfully quick lately. Today is Tuesday and I got your letter and I didn’t expect one until Wed. It was a pleasant surprise. It also must have been a surprise to see my Aunt and Uncle. Another coincidence was my mentioning that we should drive down and see them sometime. Did you tell them how you got so tired and who did it? Maybe it’s because I never saw as much of them as the rest, but I always liked them. What do you want, a case history of the family? There are two girls, who are married, and one boy. I can’t remember the names of the fellows they married but Avis is the oldest and has a baby. Maybe it’s a boy and maybe it is a girl. Althea has only been married a short time and now she lives in Bridgeport or down that way someplace. By the way, Avis and her husband have a trailer and if you see her that should make a little conversation. Alvin works with my Uncle and he is either all thru high school or pretty close. Is that enough?

Don’t be afraid to kid my Uncle right back because he is a great one for trying to get someone going. He calls Natick a hick town so I can imagine what he will say about Boxboro. Not that I blame him much. Any town that does not know who MacArthur is deserves to be forgotten. I always thought of my Aunt as kind of strict but not stuffy. If you run out of things to talk about you can always talk about me. Tell them how I look like Henry Fonda and am beginning to look like Gary Cooper. That’s if you go over and I am assuming that you are planning to. Why don’t you go and if Vicky has the day off don’t forget to have her go. Maybe you can play tennis with Alvin. Well there is not much more I can tell you. I forget the address even.

I’m down in the latrine writing this and the light is very poor. I was going to write you right after chow, but we had to go up to the pits and drill from then until now (9:45). We did not get “on the ball” this afternoon so we had this evenings drill. You have no conception of the way they toss the figures around up there. Everyone is yelling a different no. at the same time. Everyone is getting bawl up. I dread the thought of the practice firing in a couple of weeks. I intended to write you a good letter, but I can’t think because I’m tired and this, well what I’m sitting on is worse than the bunk to write on.

I’ll probably miss that 12-hour pass next week because of all this preparation. I don’t care because I can’t get to Hartford anyway. This practice firing is going to be interesting, but it also means not being able to see you. So it really isn’t worth it. You tell Vicky that I expect some kind of a response to that gift. After all these months of doubting us, I was beginning to wonder whether we really did order anything or not. I’m sure I have forgotten what it is. Don’t we owe Aunt Amelia something on that? Do you want me to write and find out or do you want to? Well, I’ve got to get my beauty sleep so I’ll close. You are the nicest wife a fellow could ever get and I love you very much.

Lots of Love

Leonard