Description
285 Monday 8:15 am (after censorship) Darling, I've mailed a package to Wendy this morning - parcel post (so that I could insure it). I hope she likes it. Another small box of miscellany to you will follow in 3 or 4 days. Yesterday Jim Boyle made a remark apropos of my speaking of wanting to get out of the Navy soon that made my blood hot with shame - for though [?] remark was not spoken of me, I knew that to some extent it applied to me. He said, in substance, angrily - “what sort of puny race of men do we have here, who keep talking of trying to get out of the service? Don't they know there's a war on - just what makes them think their personal judgment superior in the matter of deciding whose services can be spared, and when? I can't imagine, either, how a man could cherish a wife or a sweetheart [pg 2] or a mother who - deep down inside - would want him out before the war is over - puny people!” I could see his point. He says that he's never been to a station before where there was any such talk, and here it seems to be a main topic of conversation. He has been in the Navy and overseas longer than most of us (spent more than a year in Iceland); of course he is not married, but I have a feeling that that would not affect his attitude. Jim is an interesting person, much given to horseplay of an elegant sort and seldom serious, but when he is he can crack like a whip. Sometime I shall write you more about him. He is not always a comfortable person to have around, but is unfailingly challenging. And one of the most amusing individuals I have ever run across. To work now. I love you, darling, and of course I still want to come home to you. Again I'm glad it's not for me to decide when. Warren
