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268 Navy #3247 (Mil. Govt) FPO San Francisco Saturday 7 July 9:20 pm My darling, I was shocked to learn about Nancy Moore - knowing how I’d feel under similar circumstances. I felt deeply sorry for Betty and John. I note from your details that Betty was as matter-of-fact about it as she could be - probably the best way to speak of it. I've just written them a brief note, mentioning also that (from his APO address) Arthur [Colwin?] is on Guam rather than Saipan. Arthur has just come in and I've greeted him with six envelopes to censor - my most industrious night's writing in some time. The other four include 2 to Jim Luke (one for mailing now, one not finished to be mailed in a week or so), one to the Overseas Freight terminal and one of miscellany for you. As it's just a few minutes to bedtime and tomorrow is Sunday morning, I shall [pg 2] now retire to the Club for a bourbon and ice water Sunday, 8th, 7:20 am Mmm - fried eggs for breakfast. But we’re back to drinking slops again - the stewards have broken all the Silex bowls and are serving coffee from the big urn in the galley of this general mess. I suppose it's too much to expect a decent breakfast until I get home. I stayed up longer than I intended to last night to follow an interesting conversation at the club consisting mostly of questions put to and answers by a young B-29 pilot who knows [Ladabouche?] (very tall, dark, mustached Supply Office Ensign - the one I used to be on the payline with) by virtue of the fact that his, Cahill's, wife is from Niagara Falls, N.Y., [Ladabouche’s?] hometown. Lt. Cmdr Kenney, the exec., also has lived there and was married there. Cahill hasn't been out on any missions (we have one lad around here often, a Dick Neville who was born and spent his early years in Japan, where he knew Reifsnider, who has 30 missions; so we hear what it's like to fly over Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, etc.) but he had a lot of interesting things to say about [pg 3] the Air Force in general and B-29s in particular. Perhaps the most significant was that crews, on being briefed, are no longer advised (they were never ordered) to kill themselves if they should land in Jap-held territory, but are urged to take to the hills and try to hold out a very few months until they can find their way into American lines. There were other interesting things that it would be indiscreet to mention - but it does appear now, from letters that captured men have been allowed to write home, that B 29 crews are not being murdered by the Japanese. Incidentally, in the notorious case which appeared in the papers some months back, the Japanese did have technical grounds for reprisals in the killing of B29 personnel - the latter were found with dum-dum bullets (so it is said) and they are a violation of international law. Darling, I'm not at all disappointed that you ‘feel more of the masculine lust for such things, instead of the usual feminine decorum.’ I am, in fact, very pleased, because there is no question of your femininity, and to me an overdependence on decorum is a sign of mediocre intelligence and/or the lack of independent spirit. I'm very glad you appreciate that kind of humor. Reading [pg 4] that paragraph of yours I had a distinct feeling of an added closeness to you, a kind of extra dividend. I've got ten minutes to get my laundry in. Like haircuts, laundry is now free - and certain items are even pressed. We’re getting more and more of the comforts of civilization all the time - but it's not and never will be like home! I love you, darling Warren
