Received My Answer

[Editor's Note: On the envelope of this letter, Norma wrote "Received my answer 1953"]

June 8, 1953

Scan of Jim's envelope with the stamp upside down
(meaning "I love you")

Hi Honey,

I finally completed my tour of duty and am on my way home. Break out the bands, lock up the girls and call the kids in the house, 'cause I'm heading East.

We stop today (tomorrow) in Yokohama, then we're on to Pearl Harbor for two days, then we'll reach San Diego the 25th, and we're underway again for Norfolk about the 15th of July. "Damn," it will be nice to get off the West Coast for a while. And another thing, they have begun to discharge Navy men three months before their expiration date. If they keep that up, I might not have to leave the States anymore.

I started this last night, but didn't finish it. I was too tired.

Well, we hit port today and are supposed to pull out tomorrow at 3:00 in the afternoon. 

This morning before we pulled in, we flew all our planes off that would fly and was I glad to see them go.

The pilots will go stateside with us and get new planes when we get there. 

We had a tough time getting them off because of a 50 knot wind that was so strong it almost blew over some of the jets.

Did I tell you about the jet pilot who piled-up so much this cruise? He hit the fences three times. The day after his last one, I saw him in a plane warming up for a take off. I went over and told him I was checking his plane number so I could break out my fire hose when I saw him coming back. At first, he didn't know what to say and finally he blurted out, "You son of  a _____!" HA 

We kid him and call him the "sloppiest" damn pilot in the Pacific, but he doesn't care and isn't a bad pilot. In fact, he is pretty good.

Honey, I got your answer today to my question. Thank you, darling. It makes me feel wonderful to know you love me, too. Also, knowing you'll wait for me gives me something worthwhile to look forward to.

"No," I never heard of the carrier "Albany," it must be "Jeep" carrier. 

I noticed out relief "tub" arrived and it is the "Lake Champlain." 

I was talking with two swabs from it tonight. They didn't seem too happy about leaving the East Coast to come over here. HA 

I think it will be good for those Eastern boys to put up with the stuff for a change. 

Well, doll, I've got to sign off. I have a feeling we will be getting up early.

Answer soon.

I love you,

Jim

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Riding Around In Circles

April 14, 1953

Yokosuka, Japan

Post card of rickshaw drivers in
Yokohama, Japan, date unknown

Hello Doll, 

How is my baby? Honey, two days ago I got an eighteen page letter from you. This is the first chance I've had to answer it. We just hit port yesterday.

It may take me all night, but I like letters like it and don't mind taking a lot of time in answering.

I was over a while last night and "got with it" a bit, but I didn't stay long. I was back aboard ship by eleven.

Today we held our first baseball practice. The team won't be as good as it was last year. Too many men getting discharged.

You asked about Lash*. Well, I'll tell you what I know about him. He's 23 and comes from Washington State. He's about 5'10 and weighs about 190, but he isn't fat. There is a lot of muscle on him. HA 

And when he gets out, he plans to go back to dairy farming.

[* Editor's Note: As complained previously, Jim's handwriting is just awful. "Lash" is my best guess at this friend's name. It could also be "Jash" or "Losh" or "Tosh" because Jim had a habit of giving people nicknames and some weren't common words, but derivatives of names, words or phrases.]

Last night, some Jap gave my buddy and me a card advertising a massage parlor in Yokohama. We didn't notice the Yokohama and thinking it was Yokosuka, we got a cab, gave him the card with the address in Japanese on it and started out for a massage. We got about halfway to Yokohama and we decided we had better ask him how far it was. Then he showed us the name on the card. We were so "shook up," we had him turn around and take us back to Yokosuka. In all, it cost us about five dollars just to ride around in circles.

I was sorry to hear you couldn't take the job with the doctor. It sounded pretty good, but you know what is best for you.

Thanks, darling, for the birthday cards. You are always doing something for me and I don't want you to think it is not appreciated. It is, honey, very much.

A guy just came by selling raffle tickets on an electric razor. I took three, maybe I'll win it so I can shave. HA 

I'm about to run out of anything to answer but I'll keep trying. I'm in the writing mood tonight.

I suppose Eddy's and Dot's wedding was quite a blow out. In Japan, they would say an "ichi-ban" affair. Congratulate them for me and wish all their troubles will be small, or something like that.

There is a guy in my division from Detroit who is getting married when we get home. I told him I wanted to come over to help him drink his whiskey and if he wasn't going to furnish it, I would bring my own. He said for me to bring my own and he would help me drink it. Not what I would call a charming host. HA 

One of the guys just brought me a sandwich and a pint of milk from the beach. It sure is good, want a bite?

Well, sweet thing, I gotta sign off for now.

Answer soon.

I love you,

Jim

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Sweet Thing

December 13, 1952

Lost at sea

Hi Norma,

From left: Danny Kaye, Vera Ellen, Bing Crosby,
"White Christmas," ca. 1954

It will be at least a week before I can mail this, but I was thinking about you and decided to write anyway.

We are two days out of Honolulu, going to Yokosuka, Japan. We are supposed to arrive there the 22nd of December.

I probably told you already, but they worked the hell out of us in Pearl Harbor and on the inspection there, we got a "Good." I don't know just how good that is.

We haven't had any trouble with our catapults and arresting gear for about two weeks now. Maybe we won't have any more. I hope so. 

Did I tell you, I saw Vera Ellen (the actress) in a night spot in Honolulu? Not exactly Honolulu, a town called Pearl City, just outside Honolulu. 

I suppose she went there to avoid the crowds. A drunk swab (sailor) kept going over to her table and telling her how beautiful she was, also how he would like to take her out. At first, she was getting a kick out of him, but finally she got tired of it. Then the bouncer tossed the swab out. She was with some big, good-looking guy I've never seen or heard of. In fact, I didn't even learn his name. It might have been her body guard. 

[Editor's note: Curious phrasing in the paragraph above and it makes me wonder if Jim was the drunken swab making a play for Vera Ellen or if he was drinking with the "swab." If there was no interaction between Jim and Vera Ellen, how would he be in a position to learn her companion's name?]

It looks like we will be in Japan for Christmas. Oh well, as I said before, it beats Korea.

"Oh," I almost forgot, we haven't had any pile-ups since you started writing again. I think you bring good luck.

I heard on the radio about that guy, Delmore, dying. That's tough. I used to like to hear them sing.

From now on Norm, when I tell you something that concerns me, you believe me, not something that someone else tells you, O.K.?

It seems some people are trying to take care of me. Every time I go out with a girl a few times, someone is getting me married. Even my mother (the dear, old soul) gave me a mother to son talk on the subject of matrimony while I was home. HA  She thinks I should marry before I get out of the service or immediately after. HA  I'm not the marrying type. I'll take that back. Every guy wants to get married some time, but I'm in no hurry. I'm only twenty-two, so I've got lots of time left. I can't see those guys who marry at 18 to 20. They spend time taking care of a wife and kids that should be spent out looking around the country, getting a practical education. 

I didn't even finish high school, but I think I know as much as a college graduate who hasn't been out of the States.

And when I've seen enough and been around enough, so that I can make a good living for a woman and make her an interesting as well as good husband, then I'll get married. You may not agree with me, but that's the way I look at it.

And another thing, if a tourist went to Japan, he would go see things like the shrines in Tokyo, or the abbeys in Yokohama, or the remains of the atom bomb in Nagasaki. Those things don't interest me. I like to be with the people in the middle class, people like myself who work for a living. I like to sit and sip sake with them and talk. Of course, we have trouble understanding each other, but we manage. That way I learn their habits and customs and ways of doing things that are simpler than the way I previously did the thing. That, to me, is an education that surpasses anything a college could offer.

"Boy," I got all wound up here and can't seem to stop. Hope you don't mind.

Glad to hear you are taking piano lessons now. You can play for me. I really love to hear a piano.

That damn shorthand confuses me. I guess that's one thing I can't learn traveling around.

And Merry Christmas to you, honey. I hope yours is better than mine.

The election suited me O.K. That's the way I voted.  [Editor's note: Eisenhower defeated Stevenson in the presidential race.]

I'm losing some weight, but not much as yet, but I will this winter.

Your bowling is improving, keep at it, it is good exercise, if nothing else.

Well, "beautiful," I've "yapped" long enough for a while. Sometimes I get in a mood that I could write all night and this is one of them.

But I've got to sign off. So, answer soon, "sweet thing." 

Love, 

Jim

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