May 31, 1943

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T.O. - Tactical Officer

O.C.S. - Officer Candidate School

The terms 'problem' and 'gliding' refer to field training exercises. I believe the soldiers used these terms so their letters would not be censored. The name of a solider might have been modified slightly to avoid being censored.

Click the link below for the Wikipedia article:

Tactical Glider Training

May 11, 1943

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This is a very interesting letter. The terms 'problem' and 'gliding' refer to field training exercises. I believe the soldiers used these terms so their letters would not be censored. The letter mentions a Steve Hockay, but I believe this is Steve Bockay. I do not know if this was intentional. Again, the name of a solider might have been modified slightly to avoid being censored.

April 28, 1943

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In this letter, you briefly hear Paul comment on Joe not receiving his promotion in rank. My dad relayed the following about his war days. During the war, a soldier would gain rank almost automatically. However, commanding officers were hesitant to do so, as with an increase in rank, the probably of moving to a different company increased. In order to retain his men the commanding officer would withhold the promotion. I will discuss this in more detail in a posting on my blog: Where I'm From Is That What Makes Me at a future date.

April 15, 1943

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March 31, 1943

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I have included a photograph of the V-mail envelope with this posting.  In the future, the envelope will not be included as they all look the same.  If there is some variation or handwriting of note, it will be included.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

V-mail stands for Victory Mail. It was based on the similar British "Airgraph" system for delivering mail between those at home in the United States and troops serving abroad during World War II. V-mail correspondence worked by photographing large amounts of censored mail reduced to thumb-nail size onto reels of microfilm, which weighed much less than the original would have. The film reels were shipped by priority air freight (when possible) to the US, sent to prescribed destinations for enlarging at a receiving station near the recipient, and printed out on lightweight photo paper. These facsimiles of the letter-sheets were reproduced about one-quarter the original size and the miniature mail was delivered to the addressee.

For more information on V-mail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-mail