October 11, 1943

S.W. Pacific

Oct. 11, 1943

Dear Mom & Dad:

Well again I’m safe on friendly dry land. It’s always a relief to set foot on shore after plowing thru these dangerous waters down here.

By now I spose Mickie has called you & told you that I was on New Caledonia & that was where I saw Lee – she’s right that’s where I was. Now after another short sail over the waves we are on another island whose name I can’t mention.

I’m sending a couple of enclosures with this letter. One is a Postal Money Order for $100 & the other is my subpoena which I received when I crossed the Equator. Thought you might be interested. Say, by the way, be sure to take out of that $100 any express charges you have paid on bags & footlocker. There aren’t very many places to spend money here or anywhere we go so I expect to be salting most of it. Just took a walk to the P.X. & bought 6 cans of Libbys Tomatoe juice – it’s what you crave the most in this hot climate. Haven’t had a glass of milk since leaving Frisco & won’t until I get back there again – do I miss it! We had beer on New Cal. But there’s none here. All drinks including water are luke warm – no way to cool it.

We came down here from New Cal. On a liberty ship one of the Kieser’s – it was much slower & more cramped than the Harris. The meals were better tho, so we really enjoyed the trip. One of the merchant marines had several cases of Coke aboard & he sold us a bottle now & then. Quite a luxury in these parts.

I wrote a V-mail to Jenille while I was on the way. She ought to get a kick out of it if she hasn’t had one yet.

We all expected to get mail as soon as we landed here but not a letter was here for anyone. It has all been sent on ahead of us. We won’t be here more than a couple of days because we have to make at least one more move before we join the outfit we’re assigned to. When we get there we should get all of our back mail – certainly hope so.

This spot we’re in now is a very hot but beautiful place. There are lots of stately palm trees, nice beach, & mountains in the background. The natives are black as the ace of spades & run around camp with only a cloth wrapped around their waists.

It’s just about chow time now so I’ll wind up & say goodbye. Don’t worry about me – feel wonderful. Might leave here before I get a chance to write again but will write as soon as I can.

All my love,

Dorance