Dart describes his idealized Easter Sunday in the tropics, and then describes the rather disappointing reality. The men were soaked to the skin by salt spray on the boat ride over to the hospital ship for services on the fantail, soaked again by the salt water oozing from their pores as they stood too long on the sweltering deck, jerky and jumbled service. There were a few nurses in attendance – the first females some of the guys had seen in 14  months.

They’re enjoying holiday schedule on the ship today. “It’s strange to see guys loafing legally. They loaf a lot anyway, but today they don’t look so guilty. For a day, the busy tapping of chipping hammers and the gentle slap of paint brushes is stilled.”

He’s been enjoying some fine radio programs all day, especially the NBC Symphony with “Firebird Suite,” one of Dart’s favorites. The classical music is not appreciated by the “deck apes” around him. He says whoever coined that description of some of the characters on a ship hit the nail squarely. They give a bad name to simians. Dart is sure some of these guys have thumbs on their feet.

He was able to tell Dot that shortly after arriving on the Haggard, he was involved in a major raid on Tokyo. No more can be told at this time except that they ran into little resistance and it’s cold up north in Tokyo.

The letter ends abruptly, presumably due to lost pages, but he is in the middle of saying that he enjoys her descriptions of the kids she babysits for. He warns her not to look too much into Carter’s compelling eyes because… (we’ll never know where that thought was going because the pages that contained them are long gone.)

It’s a long and cheerful letter from Dot today. She had a beautiful Easter, which started off with the delivery of a perfect corsage from Dart that arrived minutes before leaving for church. She didn’t know they grew such fine American Beauty roses in the South Pacific!

The Chamberlain clan filled two pews of the Second Congregational Church of Greenwich. They missed having Gordon, Don and Dart with them, and said special prayers for their safe return.

Dot begs forgiveness for not writing last night and pledges to write twice one day this week to make up the deficit. She and her new friend Nancy went to see “The Fighting Lady” last night. It was a sort of documentary about life on board an aircraft carrier. She believes she now has a better idea of what Dart’s daily life is like. There were a few shots of the fire control equipment on the carrier. Dot says they look even more complicated than Dart described, and she’s in awe that he understands how they work.

She and Nancy stayed up until 2:00 A.M. cleaning Dot’s bedroom, in spite of needing to get up for sunrise services at church. She gave Dart a little more detail about Nancy; cute, with curly red hair. A very sweet girl. Dot suggested that Dart might have a friend who’d want to correspond with Nancy, who’s a big fan of the Navy. If he has no friend who’d be interested, maybe Dart himself could write her one of his great descriptive or satirical letters.

There couldn’t have been a more perfect day for parading around Greenwich in Easter finery. The temperature was in the low 70s and the sky was a brilliant blue. Dot’s father paid his family a sincere compliment today, first by attending church with them (a rare occurrence) and then by saying that he defied anyone to say there were better looking girls than his in the Easter Parade. How sweet of the gruff old guy to say. Dot says the feeling of the day reminded her of Thanksgiving because everyone in the States has so much to be grateful for. The war seems much closer to being over than it did a year ago, and now she prays it will be good and finished by next Easter.

She closes the letter by saying she doesn’t believe Dart can fully fathom how deeply she loves him. He has far exceeded her wildest dreams of the perfect mate.