Atop the foam
Dearest Sweetie;
You know old Hon; it is rather hard to write a decent letter while at sea. You have but two chains of thought from which to pick: reminiscence and thinking of the future. The things you see and do are always the same, nothing like the sweet fragrance of a walk on the beach. The wind, strong and salt laden, not like the whisper of the breeze you find on land. The rain and its horizontal fleeing before that wind, no sheet like that on the land. A patter of drops, maybe a deluge, but always from the sky and not the horizon. The loudspeakers and their orders loud and brash, the land isn’t that way. No, if your presence is desired, a lad tells you so. (I’m real sharp, almost understand every word they pass now.) Even the sky seems changed, no longer do I watch the sun go down nor the moon turn on its lights. Yes, things are completely differend when at sea. We argue a lot over the possibilities of the sea and the shore, nearly always a deadlock tho. The P.O. Telegrapher, the P.O. [Yoeman] of Signals and the American Lt (jg) who is our division officer. The P.O. Tel. and myself try to convince the other two of all the advantages of the beach, but absolutely no head way. Old ‘Nick’ (P.O.Te.) is an exact replica of Eric Blore and is quite a character. Had Asiatic duty before the blitz and would be quite content to return to China and his Russian “princesses’ for the rest of his days. Like our old China hands he swears at the Japs. Not so much because of the fighting, but mostly because they forced him to move out of Shanghi. Fifteen dollars a fortnite made one quite comfortable in seems. A flat, food, drink and other niceties enjoyed in life. I want none of that, only to come back to you hon. To go on picnics like Oot, Marj, you and I once planned. To drive in the mountains and stop where it is beautiful, a look a picture and off
again. To wander around the shore as we did in Canada, shells and smells and whips and such. To go to a cinema (plush seats and all) and hold your hand. To have you make coffee at two in the morn. Yes, those scratch the surface of my desires. The four freedoms harangue reminds me of a story. It seems that these two marines had a rather lengthy tour of Pacific duty and were participants in several landings. Now the mopping up was being carried out and during the process, these chaps had captured a bedraggled little Jap. Instead of returning directly to camp, they proceeded to give this chap a bit of schooling. Upon return, they immediately took the prisoner to the interrogators tent. As soon as the first question was popped the little fellow answered, “How I stand on rotation plan.” No it didn’t end like the story books, the leave was given to no one.
Love Always
Kenny Lee
Kenneth Lee Martin SM2/C
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