January 24, 1945

This one-pager crams lots of news into a small space. There’s a small notch excised from the upper corner of the paper where the censor has removed the final word in the phrase “An island in the __________.”  Dart and his shipmates are engaged in the Navy’s favorite occupation – waiting. They’ve not begun unloading onto land yet, and no one seems to know when that operation will begin. Meanwhile he says, “the tiny bits of land here and there are the first ones we’ve seen in many days and they look cool and inviting to the guys who are still on the ship.”

Dart has joined the ranks of the “fuzzy-wuzzies” and had his hair clipped to a quarter inch. It feels much cooler. His skin has stopped blistering and peeling – even starting to darken a little, although he still dreams of getting a real tan some day. I think we see here the origins of the many bouts of skin cancer he experienced much later in life!

He’s bubbling over with things he wants to say which can’t be said. All he can tell Dot is that the sight of the island is beautiful from his ship in the harbor. Furthermore, he loves her.

We have only one letter left this month from Dart, and that one won’t come until the 31st. As I mentioned yesterday, Dot has no more for this month. I’ll try to check back during the week to add photos or other items of interest to the blog. Stay tuned!

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