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#149 Navy #3247 (Military Govt) FPO San Francisco Sunday 25 Feb. 3pm My darling, I'm writing in Reiny’s tent (everybody here too seems to call him that - not Ron, but Rein (hold)) during an intermission between watching two operations and waiting to go swimming. It's hard to describe my reaction to the operations, the first I've seen, unless to say that I must have been more interested than anything else or I wouldn't have stayed. Both were on the same patient - a husky youngster who had been drilling a shell to make it safe when it exploded. (The doctors here have such cases frequently, and the ones I had lunch with all seemed to feel that it was very pathetic more than being angry at the foolhardiness, though there was of course an element of the latter feeling. Most of the time the drilling is successful but there's hardly a wait on the island - not counting MG, which is fortunately more or less way from that sort of thing - which doesn't have at least one man for whom it didn't succeed.) This one was pretty bad - loss of his left hand, certain loss of his right eye and probable of his left. Reiny [pg 2] did the hand operation, together with an assistant, at the same time that the eye surgeon as preparing for his work. It was a marvelous thing to watch the way the two men, working fast to minimize the shock effect, located all the veins, tied them, removed bits of unexploded powder and cleaned the area. Not knowing how sensitive you are to such things I shall not describe any of it in detail; it was difficult for me to watch the eye operation but I wanted to see it and looked about ten seconds at a time, every two minutes or so. My tent, 11 pm Interruption to go swimming (very pleasant)- a couple of drinks and evening chow - a movie and two or three more drinks and finally back here, with lots of incidental conversation sprinkled in between - now its Henry Graham (Duty Officer today) outside - “Warren, turn that dam light out before I come in and beat the hell out of you.” Three swell letters from you waiting for me here and Wendy's photograph - the large one - gosh I hate to go to bed, honey, but I have to douse the glimmer I love you so very much -Warren
