Sunday Dec. 19, 1943

Dearest Kitten:

I love you with all my heart. The emptiness in my heart can only be filled by your presence. How I wish that it were possible for me to tease you until you got mad and then I would take you in my arms and all that you would feel is your great love for me. All your madness would melt like ice in a warm spring day.

I have just returned from breakfast. We are not having to stand Reveille on Sunday anymore. About this time, if I were home, I would be teasing you as we got ready to go to church. It may not be too long now before I will be able to do just that. We hope & pray.

Now for some news. A cadry is leaving tomorrow morning without me. My friend Sgt. St. Jean is leaving on it but they are not going far. There are some more Cadries to be sent out and I will probably be on one. There is one that is being sent out to form a new outfit, and I hope that I will be on that one. The Cadry that is going tomorrow is forming a company of all old men that are ready for overseas duty. By old, I mean men who have been in the army a long time.

For the next three weeks I am going to be an assistant instructor in navigation. There are nine officers and thirty men who are to do the instructing. Each week for three weeks we take sixty men from a company and put them through the course.

For the past two days it has been so cold that it has frozen ice down here. There is a small pond across the street from us and it has been frozen across the past two days. We feel the cold more down here than if it was zero and we were north. Maybe in a month or two I will be north, let's hope.

You will have to watch Bobby to keep him from putting stuff into the stove. It could cause a lot of trouble if you are not careful.

Do not let your family get you down. The main trouble is that you see them too much. When I return for good, we are going to move to where you will not be able to see them very often. In that way you will not be hurt by them and when they visit us or we visit them, it will be an occasion and not the regular thing to do.

Of course you can not help thinking of me. I am your husband who loves you with all the affection in his body. Sweetheart, it makes me proud to even write that, I am the father of your two beautiful children.

Just keep praying that the telephone call that you are hoping for will soon come through. It will not be for at least a month, and then again you never can tell.

I would have liked to see Barby standing by her bed. She is getting to be quite a girl now. It will be a tough job for you to watch the both of them. They will both be getting into trouble now.

Do you mean to tell me that you are going to start rationing your pieces to me, when I get home? I am only kidding, Sweetheart. It will be a good idea.

As far as I know, I do not have any black mark against me. Please stop worrying about me. I am sure that I am old enough to take care of myself by now.

Sgt. St Jean told me that I may be given a platoon and it would mean another stripe. I am not planning on it though. If I am sent out on Cadry it would probably mean another stripe.

I was glad to hear that Bobby has been taken care of. It is a job that should have been done a long time ago. And thank goodness Barby is all set now.

Last night I received your letter of Wednesday and I knew then that Bobby was OK. Your new pen sure writes lousy.

I can go into town anytime now as the men do not care to go out. There is nothing to do when they do get to town and a lot of men are saving their money for furloughs. Some of the men will not get their furloughs due to the cadries that are going out. If they are on cadry they lose their furlough. I was very fortunate to get mine.

By the time that you receive this letter you will know what I bought. Xmas cards. How did you like yours?

You must have been ambitious to wash and wax the floor. I only wish that I could have been home to help you out.

I am going to go into the main camp to cash the two money orders that I received from your mother and Eva. $2.00 each. I wish they had not done it.

Please send me Pat's and Andrew's address. I can not find Pat's. I thought that I had it entered in my address book but it is not there.

Well, Beautiful, I have to close now. I love you with all my heart. Regards to everyone & kiss the babies for me.

Your Loving, Devoted, & Faithful Husband

Bob

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