Letters From My Father

Today, Father's Day, Mom came out with a small stack of letters that were given to her by Dad's cousin, John Lawson. Dad wrote these letters after he enlisted with the army during WWII. Most of them were written from Camp Gruber in Oklahoma, but there is one from England and a few from Germany. There is one letter--very worn and torn so you can't read much of it--that has his location crossed out by one of the Army Examiners--pretty interesting. John and Dad were really close--like brothers--and they were both in WWII. Here is an excerpt from one of his letters. . .

June 9, 1945
Auerbach, Germany

Well it looks like maybe I'll be over here a while now, as our division has been picked for the Army of Occupation, they had a pretty big write up in the Stars & Stripes about the division and all it had done, it told about St, Lo and the breakthrough that our division made, and also about the German counter attack at Mortain where our battalion was cut off for six days and it took two regiments to fight their way up that hill and two of us came out alive, I was in two explosions, both of them by a German A.T. mine which hold approximately 11 & a half pounds of T.N.T. I was riding on the hood of the jeep when the first one blew up and about ten feet away when the second one went off. The thing that pissed me off about that deal is that we had sweated out all six days together every time one of us went out we all went out, the Army also lost two of the bravest wireman they ever had too. I guess it sounds like I am bragging or looking for sympathy but I just wanted to get it off my chest & I know that you have seen enough war to understand how I feel, thanks a lot for the warning though just the same-boy those bastards have a hell of a lot of concussion to them, my wound wasn't very bad but the reason I got back so far and stayed as long as I did in the hopsital was because I had what they call shock or technically psychoneurosis I never told Mom that I had that also becuase they would think I might be off my nut, I guess maybe I am a little bit, I damn near cracked up when we were bombed by our own planes thats why I said what I did about them, well I'm glad I got that off my chest to someone who won't think I am blowing.

I will send you a picture of myself, in this letter. It was taken after the war ended over here, noticed the crease in the pants, I am really a sharp character now.


It was so nice on this Father's Day to have a small piece of my dad to think about and learn about. Most of this is stuff I didn't know. It was heart-wrenching and yet wonderful to see his handwriting and know that a part of him lives on.

Happy Father's Day Dad. . . I love you and miss you and think about you every day.