Jan. 28, 1944. From Charlie to Charlotte (3)
Today in our third letter from Charlie, we find a serviceman stuck at his desk preparing liberty passes for a hundred men who’d get to go ashore while he stayed behind. What follows is a letter home that’s honest about the small frustrations of military life: the paperwork that never ends, the income tax forms that make no sense, and a quiet victory over a commanding officer that Charlie knows better than to mention out loud!
28 January 1944
Darling,
Have just finished writing out a few of the passes of the men that are getting the weekend off because of the contest. Still have about fifty more to go but have to wait until those men get all the information in to me. Have already written out about one hundred and ten. Nothing happened that was exciting today.
No one knew exactly just which of the platoon would rate the weekend until after the inspection of weapons this afternoon. Tonight for some reason or other I felt that I would like to go ashore (go on liberty to you). I don’t know why I just had that feeling that I would like to get out of this place for a while or go mad. Then I have to stay and make out all the liberty passes so they can be signed in the morning. I have the other fellow helping me to make them out. He is still working on the bunch that I gave him to do. He’s just about finished now. Then we have to wait until the men get the passes in so we can finish them. We have a nine o’clock deadline set on them. I hope they are in by then.
I wrote Tiny a letter this noon. I have been waiting for a letter from him but haven’t got ten one for quite a while. So I thought that I would write to him and see what he is doing. Told him that I was sorry he wasn’t home when I called him Christmas. Told him that I might get in that way again some time. I sure hope that day gets soon. I sure would like to see you. Miss you lots.
Can’t figure out just why I felt like going on liberty tonight. That is the first time that I have ever felt that way. Guess that the place is getting me down and I want to get out. Just a caged animal, pacing up and down trying to get out.
Once again the mailman was not very good to me. He did bring me a little note from Mom again today. She was sending me bad news. Now don’t get the wrong idea about the bad news. I mean that it was bad news for me in that she sent me the income tax blanks that were sent to me. I can’t figure out what is what on the darn things. Yes, honey, I did take accounting but that was some time ago and they didn’t have the pay-as-you-go plan then. I don’t think that I will have to pay anything and I am hoping that I will get out of paying what I didn’t pay on last year’s tax. It was only fifty-one dollars but we might be able to use that money some day, won’t we? The way I figured it out I will get back about ten dollars from the government. That is what I overpaid them last year on the fifty one dollars that I did pay. I have until the 15th of March to file the return so I hope that I can get it right. I am going to fill it out and send it back to Mom so she can have a friend of our check it over to see if it is right.
I finally got those letters out to the Bureau so we could get some supplies. I wrote the darn things up about five times before the commander approved them and put his john henry on. Each time there be something else wrong with them. I wrote the letters myself and he always managed to find something about the letter that he didn’t like. The exec just hands me something and says to write a letter or memorandum on it and I write it up. He never questions anything that I write down.
Did I tell you about the argument that I almost had with the commander the other day? He said that he did like the way a letter was written and that it wasn’t correct. I almost told him that he was wrong but I held my tongue and thought maybe I would find something some day that would prove my point to him. I don’t know how much you have to do with correspondence that is signed “By direction” but this is what it was all about. On the letter I had from the Commanding Officer and then the exec signed it so I put by direction under the exec’s signature. The commander raised the roof about it and made me retype the letter and said it was wrong, you didn’t have “By direction” under the exec’s woods by direction under the exec’s name. Today we got a letter from the base headquarters that was started out From Commanding Officer and was signed by the exec, “By direction.” I should show it to the commander but he’d blow up about it. Any way, I have at least satisfied myself about it and I was right for once.
Honey, I guess that I had better sign off for tonight. The liberty passes just came in and I have to get them filled out so they can be signed the first thing in the morning. Good night dearest, pleasant dreams.
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