Month: June 1943

27 June 1943

Dear folks:

Today is Sunday but here on this atoll it is just another day.  As we have our services on Friday today seems to me as if it should be Tuesday.

Received a nice letter from Dan Frain which I answered pronto.  He will probably be over to see you one of these days.

Received your letter of June 15^th the other day and I am always glad to hear from you.

You ask if it gets cooler here in the evening.  I would say only about 2 degrees and two degrees isn’t very much.

We have now had a continuous rain for quite a spell and what I mean a rain.  My shack is about to float away.  All I am now wearing is my skivvies and even going barefooted.  It rained so hard that even my trench coat started to leaking so I had to place it in my dry locker to dry out.

I will send Robert a check the first of next month for his birthday, wedding anniversary and Mary Alices birthday.

Did I tell you that I received a letter from Algie’s children that attend Harding school.  Be sure and let them know that I received it and that I appreciated it.  Tell them I will try and answer one of these days.  It seems as if I am more busy every day.  Will I ever be glad when this is all over.

I now am getting some of my men a little rest and recreation.  Hope to get all of them some before too many months roll by.

This makes the sixth letter I have written to you this month and I will always try to write twice a week.  At times there won’t be much I can say except that I am ok and that my men and I are getting along ok.

I imagine that the Bolin funeral was quite large.  I surely do feel sorry for Merle.  I dropped her a line but as yet have not heard from her but I realize how she must feel.

My dog Radio is getting larger by the hour.  She insists on sleeping under my bunk.  Hope she doesn’t decide to have her litter under it.  I think I will tye her up to her dog house in a few days.

Hope that this finds all of you in the best of health and give my best to all my friends.

Why didn’t you put a picture of me in a blitz buggy at the college?  I don’t remember the picture you referred to.  Be sure to save it so I can see it on my return. 

Must close now.

All my love,

Leo

1^st. Lt. L.J. McLoskey

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19 June 1943

Dear Folks:

If it is as hot in Monmouth as it is here you will need an ice box to cool yourself off with.

As tomorrow is fathers day I am enclosing a five dollar bill dad and it is for you as it is impossible for me to get you a gift here.  Hope you have a pleasant day and I am sorry that I cannot be with you.

It looks to me as if we are now starting to close in on the axis and it should be over within the next two years.

The last few days I have really had the trots and what I mean the running trots.

You should have the magazine by now.  Be sure and let me know when you receive it.

What did you think of me loosing my cuspidor?  My men built me another one out of a huge shell and presented it to me.  Believe me I have one swell group of men.

We have a new chaplain and he held service for us yesterday.  He is a young man and is going to be ok.  You know we leathernecks call the chaplains and Padres “Holy Joe.”  Every person in the corps has a nickname.

Received a letter from Beaulah the other day.  Tell her I will answer it as soon as I find a little time.  They still have me on the go all the time.

Thanks for the stamps and  also for giving me the data on the 2^nd Nat’l.  Also, thanks for the newspaper clippings.  Dad, you are getting to be quite the lecturer.

Mother I am glad that you still have the spirit to have clubs and go to clubs that is what keeps you and dad so young looking.

Isn’t Roberts birthday some time this month, or is it July?  Let me know.  You never did send me Ada’s and Homer’s address.

Hope that this finds all of you feeling fine and write to me as often as you can as I am always glad to hear from you.  I must close now and get my nose stuck into some technical manuals.

All my love,

Leo

Lt. L.J. McLoskey

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6/13/43

Dear folks:

I received your letter dated June 7 43 this evening.  Very good service.  Wish it was all like that.

Also, today I received a letter from Libby telling me of the death of Harold Bolin.  It surely was a great shock to me.  I just finished writing Merle.  I surely do feel sorry for her.

It is now raining and what I mean really coming down.  Surely is welcomed by us because as I have written before we depend on all our water from the heavens. 

Mother we rearranged our shack today.  We put our cots in a different corner.  It helps because one gets very tired of looking at the same thing all the time and it looks very much as if I will be here for quite a spell.  However I am getting a little rest and recreation for some of my men in the near future but they will come back to me.

Have I ever got a headache this evening.  Have had a great deal of reading to do today.  I still refuse to wear glasses although I wear my dark ones all the time.

I am just not in the mood for writing this evening but wanted you to know I am thinking of all of you.

All my love,

Leo

1^st Lt. L.J. McLoskey

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1^st Lt. L.J. McLoskey

6/11/43

Dear folks:

Just a line to say hello and let you know that I am feeling ok and that my men are the same.

We had a very nice church service this morning and we all sang hymns together and had a wonderful time.  The Chaplain is a young man and very nice.

I am enclosing a clipping out of our newspaper which I thought you might get a laugh out of.

Hope that the flooded areas have subsided and that the farmers in the lowlands will still have time to get their crops in and harvested.  We will need plenty of food products to feed all the people when peace arrives.  

Dad, I expect you are glad that Memorial Day is over for another year.  Mother, I want you to take care of yourself and get some rest.  Both of you try to do to darn much.

Not much news and I have to hurry this one along as I have a very busy day ahead of me.  It surely does keep me on the run.

Mother the Colonel says for me to tell you that we are about out of mints, the ones in the can.

All my love,

Leo

1^st. Lt. L.J. McLoskey

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6/6/43

Dear Folks:

Received your letter dated 27 May 43 yesterday and thanks for the stamps and also the clippings from the newspaper.  The floods must be very bad.  Oh: yes I also got a letter Dad from you dated 10 April 43 that was mailed in Springfield, Illinois.  You had addressed it to the First Fleet Battalion instead of the First Defense Battalion.  Also, I got mail from Leota, Robert and Elizabeth.  Believe me we all look forward to receiving mail.

You know Leota is going to make a swell wife for some fellow and despite the age difference I have my eye on her as I don’t believe Elizabeths sister Mary will ever marry anybody.  Oh: well I won’t be back probably for two or three years yet.

Mother, I think it is darn swell of you to be helping the Aunts clean house.  Not many sister-in-laws would do it and Dad tells me you have their home looking very nice.

I think you are doing the correct thing by buying property.  Lets see that makes three now doesn’t it?

Look now if you need any of the money on deposit at the Trust & Savings you just go ahead and use it.  Maybe some day I will be able to repay you for all you have done for me.

My men and I are all in the best of health and I hope we continue to be as fortunate as we have thus far.  My pen ran dry so the reason for the difference in the ink.

According to the clipping the college had pictures of various men in the service.  Did they have mine and if so which one?

Let me know if you get the magazine that I mailed to you.  

See Mitchell Holliday had the McKinnon boys funeral.  How is Mitchell getting along?

It continues to be very warm here and we are fortunate that the battalion hasn’t had any more illness than they have.

Will surely have some experiences to tell all of you when I see you.  My only wish is that I could at least get home for thirty days before the final push as I believe it will really be a wow.

So Bobby stops off to the grandparents and gets his candy for himself and his chums.  I am glad he does stop.  How I miss that little devil.

Not much more news but I wanted to let you know I am still alive and kicking.

All my love,

Leo

1^st Lt. L.J. McLoskey

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