January 4, 1946 - Tientsin, China

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This is the absolute last letter from the shoe box. I am hoping to once again post letters. I am making an appeal to my relatives to go through those boxes of momentos, and provide me with additional material. I would love to read some of letters my father, Joe wrote to his friends and family.

Until then, I hope you have enjoyed reliving a troubling time during our nation's history from the angle of the average 'GI' Joe. It has been a pleasure sharing with you.

November 30, 1945 - Tientsin, China

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 This is one of two letters that I have written to my father Joe by his brother-in-law, Al. Al was a marine stationed in the South Pacific. This letter is written from China. On my mother, Norma's side of the family, her brother George was in the Air Force and stationed during WWII in China and also spent some time in India.

My dad and his step brother Paul as well as brother-in-law always liked to joke and tease. In this letter, Al sends Joe a hundred dollar Chinese bill (worth about 2 cents), so Joe could go and buy a camera. Of course, this was almost an impossibility as most consumer items were in short supply.

I am sure Joe enjoyed the humor, as he kept and preserved the letter and bill for all of these years.

February 7, 1944

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A valentine from my father, Joseph Forrai to his brother-in-law, Al Paskowicz. I am not sure whether the illustration was done by my father, or if he had one of his buddies draw it. I am also surprised that my father ended up with something he sent to Uncle Al. My father and Al were very close, and they shared the love of photography. I do have photographs that my Uncle Al took. My thoughts, are after the war, Al returned some items to my father.

To learn more about V-MAIL click the wikipedia link below:

V-Mail

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.

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