Dart had a windfall today – more letters that he wasn’t expecting. For Dot’s information, his address is now through the Fleet Post Office in New York, instead of San Francisco.

They just spent a couple of nights in another famous Navy city for another fabulous opportunity at liberty. He cannot mention the name of the city just now, but that will come later.

Instead, he’ll focus on answering the two letters he got from Dot today – the ones she wrote on July 18 and 23. “I hope you don’t believe what you said about my ‘good, steady disposition’. If it’s good, it’s surely not steady. Most likely, tho’ it’s steady but not good.

At this moment, it’s hot and rough around him. The ship “lifts, and drops, and flutters like an old maid dressing for company.” He feels quite green.  Now, back to Dot’s letter.

He most certainly has told his parents about the pending engagement. The day after he wrote the all-important letter to Dot asking if they could announce their engagement, he wrote to let his parents know. They are awaiting word that Dart has heard from Dot’s folks so that they can write a letter to the Chamberlains to welcome them to the family.

Dart seemed proud to include a quote from his father’s letter regarding the upcoming engagement. “We are proud beyond words, son, that you are going to have such a very fine girl as Dot as your wife, and that her parents seem to approve of you as a son-in-law. Now if we could be reasonably sure that you two nice people were going to be able to start off your life together with a minimum of financial worries and problems, we would ask for nothing more.”

Now Dart only wishes they could convince his parents to travel to Connecticut for the engagement party. In truth, I think their financial staits will prevent them from making the trip.

He admits that he may have the same response to every picture she sends him, but it’s because every picture captures a different mood or expression. And each one reminds him of a special moment he has spent with her.

There’s more talk about the timing of his leave, his plans for his liberties, etc. But there’s no news there. Everything at this stage is just conjecture because the Navy, if it has any firm plans, is not disclosing what they are.

He was the only man on special duty yesterday who could not take cover during the rainstorms because his phone cord wasn’t long enough. As a consequence, he has picked up a nasty cold and a bad sunburn.

Dot also got some unexpected letters today, from a sailor that she and Dart both know. “Perhaps you know him better than I, but time will remedy that.” The letters make her feel guilty for not writing in such a long time. It just felt foolish to mail his letters to the west coast Fleet Post Office, just to have them be rerouted back to the east coast. Her lack of letters does not reflect a lack of thought!

Her big news is that the Chamberlains got a phone call from Gordon tonight from Seattle! He’ll be home in 16 days for 16 days. Everyone’s disappointed he won’t get a longer leave, but they’ll take what they can get. Dot hopes the Navy will see fit to give Dart his leave on August 27 so he’ll have a chance to meet Gordon. “As it is, I don’t know how I can stand waiting for you that long! I’m dying to see you and say all the things I’ve kept cooped inside me for so long.

Simply reading the paragraph about the ring gives her goose bumps. She wears a size 7 and her only advice is to keep the ring simple, just like the girl who will wear it.

She’s living out of the house this week, babysitting for a 12-year old gorl and her 2-year old brother. She plans to accept no sitting jobs next week so that she’ll be sure to be home if Dart happens to call her.

No letters until August 5, when we’ll hear from Dart again.

Dart’s letter begins with a powerful prayer. “Please let it be true! Oh, if it could only come true now! The news that Japan has offered to surrender. By the time you get this, it will probably all have blown over. But now we hope and pray that it will all be over soon.”

Almost as though it’s too big a hope to wrap his head around, Dart switches subjects to the more mundane. He reiterates that the ship was emptied out yesterday so that cleaning and painting can begin. They will also fumigate every nook and cranny. “They’ll just about have to melt the ship down to kill that hardy breed of cockroaches which has grown up in the compartments.”

The portion of the crew not on leave is living in barracks about two miles from the ship. He says it’s convenient for liberties, but there are certain inconveniences about it, too. He mentions that they are still under “dual command,” but offers no further explanation of what that means.

The other inconveniences become clear when he describes his daily schedule, described by Dart as a “merry chase.” The barracks are in a quiet section far from the bustle of the shipyard. The men eat breakfast near the barracks, then take a bus to the ship for 0800 muster. They work on board until about 1100, then get back on the bus to go back to the barracks area for lunch. It’s another bus ride and muster at 1300.

He laments a lack of mail in his week at this location. To remedy that, he’s decided he’d better start writing to more people.

He writes that his pal Hal Martin, who has a place on Lake Sunapee and with whom Dart has shared some liberties, is going to Boston for the weekend. While there, he’s going to check on train schedules for Dart, to aid in his planning for the eventual leave. Where that schedule is concerned, he’s still in the dark. His parents want him to come to Cleveland first and be there when Burke is home, but he would rather go straight to Greenwich. Naturally, Dot wants the same thing.

Speaking of plans for his leave, he knows they’re in agreement about her traveling back to Cleveland with him, but he disagrees with part of her plan. She suggested she could stay at the home of a friend from Andrews, but he wants her to stay at his parents’ apartment. His mother means every word of her invitation, and besides, he and Dot have much to do during his 30 days, so he wants them to be together every possible moment.

He interjects how wonderful it was to hear her voice on Sunday. She sounds exactly the way he remembers her.

He tells her to accept the Miller’s invitation to go sailing with them while Dart’s in Greenwich. “I’ll probably be seasick, but I’d surely love to go. No swimming from the fantail for me, though. Better warn Mr. Miller that he can put anything he wants to over on me, because I don’t know a thing about sailing. I can sing out with a mean ‘Heave around on five,’ if he happens to have five mooring lines for his boat. ”

Maybe they should have the party for announcing their engagement on his second night in Greenwich. That would give them the maximum time to be openly engaged around her friends and family. Like the thought that opened this letter, that seems to be too much for Dart to bear thinking about. He wants so much for their engagement to begin as soon as possible!

Dot’s letter also begins with big hopes for the news out of Japan. “God grant that you and Gordon and thousands of other boys won’t have to leave the country again. Oh, I hope it will be official soon!”

She was hoping for an uncensored letter from Norfolk today, but got no letters at all. She can’t complain, because she hasn’t been writng very much lately herself.

Gordon called again last night and Betty let Dot speak with him for a minute. He said he got Dart’s letter a long time ago, but would wait until he was home to tell her about it. He sounds so good that she’s beginning to think the Pacific climate works wonders on folks.

Three weeks from tomorrow she will finally leave Franklin Simons. “I’m sure that’ll be a blow to everyone concerned. There’s no conceit in my family – I have it all.” She admits it hasn’t been a bad year and a half, but she hasn’t moved her life forward much, either. Still, she’ll miss the people there.

It’s now looking doubtful that the Chamberlains will be going to Sunapee over Labor Day. They had hoped to host Dart’s parents, but since they aren’t coming, Arthur Chamberlain is not sure it’s worth the time and gas to go up there themselves. Maybe they can swing a quick trip when Gordon’s home.

The end of summer is shaping up to be a busy one. El’s roommate is coming this weekend, Gordon will be home the following week for 16 days, followed by Dart’s visit and their engagement announcement. She hopes she’ll be able to settle down and learn how to study again.

Tomorrow she goes horseback riding with Janie, El and friends. She has only ridden bare back before, so she assumes she’ll be providing plenty of laughter for her companions, especially if she gets a frisky horse.

How she longs for the day when letters will not be a necessity between them. (But, oh how happy I am that these letters are around for me to savor!)

“Guess the words ‘I love you’ are just about the best three in the world, but ‘See you shortly’ run a close second.”

Dart is in an uncharacteristically forlorn state of mind today. He’s tired of the suspense about Japan. Did they really make an offer to surrender? Will Uncle Sam accept it? Is this blasted war over or not?

He’s also disgusted with his current assignment. Why couldn’t he have gone to Boston, Brooklyn or Philadelphia? Why must he be stuck in this “forsaken, good-for-nothing hole”? (Wasn’t he speaking kindly of the place just last week?) All he wants is to be out of the Navy and back with Dot and everything else he loves.

Right now, he’s almost wishing he was a drinker so he could go out and “pitch a drunk to end all drunks,” but people who do such things disgust him, so he can’t allow himself that indulgence. He warns her not to come near him or he’s liable to bite off her pretty head. “If you can love me after you’ve seen me in a humor like this, that’s all I can ask.”

He returns later in the day to write more. He reports that after ironing a suit of whites, eating two hearty meals and sleeping most of the afternoon, he’s feeling much better. “To be so much nearer than we were, yet  so far and unable to see each other seems to make me much ore homesick than a beautiful sunset at Ulithi or the most lonely watch at sea. Another thing that makes me that way is that so many of my shipmates are being married or having their wives come down here to live. There are still a few single fellas with whom I’ve made a couple of liberties but two of them were up at Lake Sunapee when I was at liberty yesterday.”

He’s learned that he might be able to get a 72-hour liberty when Burke is home, giving him 24-hours in Cleveland. That would mean he wouldn’t have to use leave time to see his brother. He wishes he knew more about when his leave might come up so he can start making definite plans.

He warns Dot to get caught up on her sleep because there won’t be much time for that during his 30-day leave. He wants to meet all the folks in Greenwich he hasn’t yet met, go sailing with the Millers, introduce her to some people in Cleveland and dance (a lot!) with his fiancé. He wants to spend at least a week in Connecticut and for her to spend at least that long in Cleveland.

He takes up a topic that’s been troubling him for some time. He recalls that she once wrote that she’s against long engagements with indefinite endings, but he’s concerned about their financial security. He wants them to have enough joint income that they won’t have to live with either set of parents, or ask their folks for financial help. He wants to finish his education so that he’ll have a more successful career, whatever that may be.

He plans to take full advantage of the GI Bill, but there are still serious problems with them getting married while they are both still in college. On the other hand, there may be more problems if they wait until after school to get married. It’s a problem for which he has not yet found a solution.

While it looks as though the war may be over soon, it’s still likely to be a long time before Dart is free from his obligation to the Navy. He wants very much to be engaged to Dot, to tell people she’s his future wife, to have that sacred agreement between them – but he doesn’t want to involve her in that entanglement if she’s uncomfortable with the uncertain timeframe. It’s something they’ll have to discuss seriously – and soon.

Changing topics, he tells her that last night, as he walked along the streets near the river, listening to the echoing whistles from nearby ships, he had a sense of impending disaster, even while the world talks of peace. “It seemed to be something in connection with the atomic bomb. A sense of guilt or remorse at it’s now being the lot of our country to develop that most dreadful weapon. Now we as a nation have an even greater heritage than the preservation of Democracy; that of keeping this bomb safe from the hands of those criminals who may use it to start another war.” That statement gave me chills. We’ve not been entirely successful at controlling the proliferation of atomic weapons. Did anyone imagine in 1945 that in 70 years we’d still be embroiled in trying to contain what we had put out into the world?

Because Dot suggested that he should try to let her know in advance when he plans to call her, he is now telling her that he’ll try on Sunday, August 19, although there may be something that pops up to prevent him from making the call.

She guessed correctly that a liberty he mentioned recently was in Panama. He’ll try to write to her with all the details because it was a beaut. Writing about it will keep him in practice.

He’s curious about what Cynthia wants to see him about, but he’ll make plans to honor her request when he’s in Greenwich. He’s glad to know that Gordon will receive his CEM rate in November, if the rates aren’t frozen by then. Better still, he should spend his time hoping that Gordon will be stationed in the States by November.

He ends this letter with “Quite a bit of excitement a few minutes ago. Some wild rumors of peace. Whistles, shouts, dancing around the room.”

Dot was happy to get two letters from Dart on Saturday – one of them so thick the postman had to add a stamp to it. She wonders why his letters still have to be censored. I wonder the same thing.

She and Janie went horseback riding the other day, as planned. Although they both made it home alive, there was a time when Dot thought only Janie would be able to make that claim. Something went wrong as Dot was trying to post in the saddle and her horse took off on a wild tear. Dot was clinging to Belle’s neck with all her strength while her feet dragged along on the ground and her life passed before her eyes. Somehow, she managed to scream and the horse “condescended to come to a stop” just as Dot was sure she could hold on no longer.

On Saturday night, Dot went to the movies with Janie, El and her folks to see “Christmas in Connecticut,” with Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan. Seeing all that ice and snow on the screen really helped cool them all off, and she can’t remember when she’s laughed harder.

Like the rest of the nation, Dot’s ear has been tuned to the radio reports from Washington. She wishes Japan would just hurry up and admit they’re licked and get this thing over with. She hopes the end to the war will mean he’ll be in this country for good. She begs him to get out of the Navy as soon as possible and to not volunteer for any special assignments. She reminds him that she didn’t join the WAVES, the Cadet Nurse Corps or work in a defense plant, so he owes her this one little favor. Seeing an end to bell-bottomed trousers and navy blue coats will not break her heart one little bit.

No letters tomorrow, but Dart will return on the 14th.

Dart begins with another grouse, despite the events of yesterday. As of this morning, all hands, except those who were specifically scheduled for duty were granted liberty for  24 hours. Because he’s standing in for Hite and Hite had a watch scheduled, Dart lost out on another liberty. He’s grumbling about being punished for trying to do a good deed for someone.

As he writes this, Dart observes several brightly colored Piper Cubs flying overhead. “Civilian flying must have been taken off the restricted list.”

A while back, Dart had inquired of his father how much gasoline would be available to him during his leave. The response came today. It seems that the answer is “all that the car (and pocketbook) can handle.” I was just wondering the other day how quickly rationing and shortages ended after the war ended. Apparently, things got back to pre-war “normal” very quickly.

Still, Dart has another complaint! He actually never served his late night watch yesterday. He arrived on the bridge about an hour early and decided to take a brief nap in an out-of-the-way spot nearby. Leaving word to call him when his watch started, Dart settled in for a little snooze. The next thing he knew, it was 5:30 in the morning and his watch had been over for 90 minutes. For all his trouble, he could have stayed in bed and had a comfortable night in his own cot. It seems the Navy has gotten rather lax in the past few hours!

Really, this crabby fellow bears little resemblance to our cheery Dart. I think he’s sorely in need of a long leave!

The shipyard – usually a sea of humanity in gaily colored hard hats – is nearly dead today. Everyone’s out on liberty or leave. But the biggest thing on his mind now is when he will be able to buy the ring. There’s likely to be no time on his whirlwind trip to Cleveland to see Burke. Besides, he still doesn’t know what size she wears. He’s also stewing about how the two of them will actually announce their engagement at the big dinner.

But most of all, he’s thinking about how fast his discharge will come through. It’s only fair that that married men with children should get out first. “All I can hope now is that the Navy can spare one weary, single, lazy fire control striker, and that one will be lucky enough to be me. Seems like so far, I’ve been unlucky in many little things and lucky in the big ones. One of the things I’ve been luckiest about is finding a girl to share my life with me. That girl is you, and to you goes all my love, always.”

Okay, I guess he’s still able to put aside his gripes and focus on his blessings.

Dot’s jubilation echoes Dart’s of yesterday. “We are now entering the ‘post-war’ period everyone has been talking about so much. Soon we may begin to do all the things we said we’d do ‘after the war.’ Thank God and all who helped bring it about that peace has finally come. My only hope now is that it’s here to stay.”

The Chamberlains were eating dinner last night when the news of the surrender was broadcast. Dot was so excited she ran upstairs to hang their flag out the window. Then she went out to the roof and shouted with everything in her. “The war is over! My brother’s coming home! Dart’s coming home!” A passer-by asked, “Who’s Dart? Is that your husband?” All Dot could say was “No, not yet.”

When Ruth heard Dot’s comment, she said that since Dot promised she’d not marry until after the war, and now the war was over, she’d probably be in a mighty hurry to “make the fatal step.” Dot assured her mother that it would probably be years before she and Dart could make it all official. “It just wouldn’t be practical right now.” But Gordon calling every night from Seattle also isn’t practical, but Betty sure seems to enjoy talking to him, anyway!”

Dot’s so excited by the events of the past 24 hours, beginning with no more gas rationing! She drove her mother’s car to the service station today and said “Fill ‘er up,” for the first time in four long years!

“In the midst of all our celebrating, Dad asked us to say a prayer for those who made our celebrations possible but didn’t live to see them. It’s hard to know just where to draw the line on celebrations. To our family, the ending of the war means that you and Gordon will be coming home for keeps. But for many families it only renews the hurt that’s been with them ever since they received that dreaded telegram telling that their son or brother had been killed in action.”

She tells Dart how lucky she feels. She loves him far more today than she did yesterday, but it’s been like that for a very long time. “It’s rather a strange system Fate has; It took a war to bring us together the first time, but it will take Peace to bring us together again, forever.”

If his leave starts when he predicts it will, she’ll be seeing him in about 3-1/2 weeks. If his 30 days moves as slowly as the time of waiting passes, it’ll feel like an eternity.

After assuring him of her continued love, she adds a P.S. :  Have you heard the news? The war’s over!!!!”