Letter VIII G.I. Labor

Smitty near Lae, New Guinea in front of his tent

You may notice in Smitty’s letters that he does not mention his rigorous training or even combat in his later ones.   As a child I asked if I would ever catch him in one of the old news reels and he said that he surely doubted it.  He made a point to avoid any photographers in the event his mother caught sight of the pictures of him in combat.  No matter how hard things had become, he found something else to talk about, but he did have a tongue-in-cheek humor that could amuse someone even while he was complaining.

the Pyramidal tent

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Letter VIII                                G.I. Labor                                         6/17/44

Dear Mom,

Work!  Work!  And more work.  After a week here, we still can’t figure when it is all going to end.  We put tents up, then take them down.  That…