Dart has a lot to say after a week of not writing. Ever since his group arrived at their current location, drafts have been called up every day for men to become replacement crews for various ships in the fleet. Guys he knows have gone to all sorts of ships, from destroyer escorts to mighty battleships. Now, there are only seven members of his Treasure Island class who remain unassigned, and Dart is one of them. I wonder if they feel like the last kids picked for dodge ball in a grammar school phys ed class.
Those who remain aboard the USS ___________ must remain available for work parties on other ships or on any of the many coral islands that make up the area where he’s docked. He writes, “I can’t tell you how many ships there are here. I don’t know. But I don’t think I’ll ever thrill at the sight of ships again until I see this many warships in Frisco Bay or maybe in New York.” It would appear this young sailor is not inclined toward a career in the Navy.
Although they show movies every night on the fantail, and Dart has seen some of them, the real news is that he finally had a mail call and was thrilled to have a stack of 25 letters waiting for him! Until today, he’s not been allowed to mail letters since he was in Pearl Harbor, but now the system is in place for men in transit to send some letters out. Dart took the opportunity to stuff the mail box with all the letters he’d written up to now. He had cut back on writing, hoping to be assigned to his permanent ship before doing so, but now he realizes it may be quite awhile until that assignment comes, so he’ll begin writing again.
He’s often called out for a work detail, generally from late afternoon to midnight on a supply ship nearby. He was happy to be moved out of the compartment with all those Marines and into a larger, quieter space. In the process, he was able to retrieve his prized map of the Pacific and several other pilfered items.
“Looks like we’ve missed the use of still another full moon. And believe me, the moon is really beautiful as it rises above the deep blue of the tropical sea. Almost as beautiful as it is when it rises above the dear state of Ohio. There are, or were, a huge number of Ohio men on the ship. Every place we’d stand turned out like a reunion.”
He paints a detailed word picture of the scene from his hatch cover where he sits to write this letter. A battleship engaged in gunnery practice leaving flak puffs in the sky, a carrier warming up her planes for take-off practice, colorful signal flags adorning a myriad of ships and the bright signal lights flashing messages from ship to ship. He tells Dot that the small landing craft that come and go, dropping off and picking up passengers make his ship look like a Viennese taxi stand.
He decides the noisy deck is not conducive to writing the kind of love letter he’d prefer, so he closes. “I miss you, Dottie. I hope I never get over missing you whenever we’re apart.”
I’m sure Dot was happy to find a one-page bonus letter when she finally began to receive mail from him again. The purpose of the second letter was to make a start on answering the 11 letters from Dot that came in his first mail delivery. Her letters span the time from December 22 to January 11, and he quickly realizes how fruitless it is to comment on episodes she wrote about that took place over a month ago. Instead, he uses the the page to tell her that he believes their long separations will serve to prove how much they need each other in order to be happy and to remind them of the value of their homes and country. He looks forward to spending the rest of his life trying to make up for all their lost time.
He warns her not to expect much in the way of letters any time soon. Airmail stamps are impossible to obtain where he is. I guess his only other option is to send them through the free mail system, but those will travel by boat and could take quite some time to wend their way to Greenwich.
