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230 Navy #3247 (Mil. Govt) FPO San Francisco Tuesday 22 May 9:30 pm Dearly Beloved Several days in which mail was scant - I will know how you feel, my darling, when it comes through that way: I'm not, perhaps, quite so conscious of it at the time (just sorry not to get it, but don't stop to count what's due); however, I discover the moment a batch of it hits me how much I really did miss it, and how a lot of little, subtle dissatisfactions are traceable to nothing more than not hearing from you as much as usual. I will apologize at length for the times when I don't write more than a sketchy page or two, because on the whole I'm doing the best I can; formerly (before I got laid up for a day or two) I frequently strained myself to write. I don't do that now unless my lack of correspondence is really getting out of hand. This by way of preface to an expression [pg 2] of the immense gratitude I felt for you eleven letters (including 4 long envelopes) that I received yesterday. They were a wonderful present, darling. News of Walter's being wounded came as a shock to me, too, though not at all as a sense of imminent danger and therefore not with the intensity it must have had for you and especially Helen. Just to make sure, I checked right away by telephone with the hospitals here but he wasn't registered; he is almost certainly where he indicated he was going. I have not heard from him directly, but I shall try in 3 or 4 days (We’re right in the midst of a change of command now) to make the trip to see him. Next I wrote him a note (gave him your message about how well Helen took it) and mailed it with Helen's letters and a letter from me to one of the M.G. Officers (also 8th section) on the island in question. If by any chance he isn't there the letters from Helen will be forwarded in their original envelopes. [pg 3] I hope she has written directly to his old address, too, because frequently it's redirected by the Fleet Post Office (which keeps a current list of transfers) without going the long way around. Inter-island mail usually takes much longer than the distance involved would lead one to expect: from 3 to 5 or 6 days. Tonight I wanted to write a note to Helen - I know what a profound shock this must be to her, even though the fact that he is to go with BOQ in three or four weeks indicates that his wounds aren't critical - but it's late and I do need sleep now after several nights of celebrating (or bemoaning) certain departures. It may be some small comfort to her, as well as a source of pride to Bobby, to know that he is the first authenticated instance I know of any Navy M.G. Officer's being hit, and I've talked to men fresh from Iwo and Okinawa. There have been lots of stories about specific men but all proved to be without foundation. Please give Helen my [pg 4] sincerest sympathies - and the assurance that the odds are about a thousand to one for any wound at all, ten thousand to one for severe ones. I was delighted to hear about the kimono and the box, to receive more snapshots and to hear of still more being taken (not sure what I can send you from now on because there are new censorship regulations out which prohibit, among other things, all scenic views, any pictures of civilians or Nisei interpreters - why, God only knows; that covers everything I’d want to send you except pictures of me)- so many of the things you wrote were lovely, darling, and I look forward to answering this batch especially. Light out time (11) I love you very, very much Warren Don't worry about that letter I wrote. I said what I did deliberately, knowing that the part about going out on a new operation would not affect whether I do so or not and might get me home. [Newspaper Clipping] Ray Cummings was at the wedding. According to him, the man was anything but dapper; he spoke very poor English; he was apprehended not by the patrol but, after the latter had spotted the pair, by a language team. She was not clad in kimono but in those curious Okinawan bloomer-knickers with vertical stripes in them - a ludicrous costume and one we have encountered here. She did, however, go back to the cave for a bundle of clothes before the wedding, at which she appeared in a kimono looking rather pretty. The wedding may seem ridiculous and sentimental on the part of American personnel concerned, but propaganda consideration certainly played a part in staging it. Its best feature is that every American camp on the island rocked with merriment over the affair W.
