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| William Blades is the first row, next to last person, standing next to the flag holder. The short one. |
Here is the third in a series of letters I am transcribing which my Dad wrote home to his parents during his first ten years in the military.
U.S.N.T.S.
Newport, R.I.
January 5, 1941
Company 79
Dear Mom and Dad:
Sorry I haven’t written sooner but I had to find out the fare home. I have had a sore throat for 4 days and it has just started to go away today. I am coming by bus and train - it costs $1.50 round trip from here to Providence. From Providence to Boston it costs 1 cent a mile and that will come to about $1.00 round trip and if I leave here at 12:00 noon I’ll get home about 2:30 p.m. so it will be quicker and cheaper. All we did last week was have lectures and we went ashore 4 days. Next week we will have gas chamber drill, and on Friday we will have our final bag inspection and Saturday morning we get paid and we had a company picture taken and it came out good. Well will see you Saturday.
Love “Bill”
U.S.N.T.S.
Newport, R.I.
Sea Unit
January 21, 1941
Dear Mom and Dad:
Got back alright and slept in the “Y” and checked in at the station in the morning. My name is on the draft list for the U.S.S. Wasp and I am leaving tomorrow at 1:00 pm by train for Norfolk, Virginia. The Wasp is going to Cuba as soon as they pick us up. It will take us about 20 hours to get there Virginia and we travel first class. I will write again and tell you how to address the letters. It has been 5 above down here for the past week and plenty windy too. Tell dad to get the transfers for the car and to let me know how he made out. I can’t wait to get down to Cuba. Let Hank and Lorraine know how I made out. Well I’ll write again from Cuba.
Love “Bill”
U.S.S. Livermore
January 25, 1941
Dear Mom and Dad:
We boarded our ship today at 10:00 am and was I glad. It is a brand new destroyer about 4 months old. We left Norfolk, VA right away for Dahlgren, VA and we are anchored there now. We will be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow afternoon about 1:00 PM and we will shove off for Norfolk, VA again Monday afternoon. From there we will go either to Boston or Cuba, if we go to Cuba I won’t be home until May or June. I thought I’d be sea sick but I didn’t fell the least bit. We sleep in bunks and we have two lockers apiece. The chow’s twice as good on ship then on the training station. I’m glad in a way that I didn’t go on the Wasp because there is 3,000 men on it and on my ship there is 180 men and you have a chance of quicker advancement. I will write again soon.
P.S. This is the address
Wm R Blades
USS Livermore (429)
C/O Postmaster
New York City, NY
Division (1)
429 is the No. of the ship
1 comment:
I liked the first letter. Parents (or maybe I should say Moms)always hate to hear their child is under the weather and they cannot be there to insure they are taking proper care of themselves when sick. At least he said the sore throut was getting better - whew!
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