Detailing D-Day, 30-cent haircuts and military life: USO unveils digital collection of letters from WWII soldier |
Detailing D-Day, 30-cent haircuts and military life: USO unveils digital collection of letters from WWII soldier
The United Service Organizations (USO) is rolling out a new digital collection of never-before-seen World War II-era letters — and the search is on for the family of the soldier who penned them.
There are more than 300 letters in the collection launched Wednesday by the USO. The notes were written by U.S. Army private Louis “Speedy” Weber to his wife, Frances, while he was serving on the frontlines in Europe between 1942 and 1945.
The letters offer a glimpse into the life of a servicemember — the heartbreaking and lighthearted moments, and the momentous and mundane ones, too.
In one message to his “darling” dated June 10, 1942, Weber describes going to bed at 1:30 in the morning, only to be woken up four hours later.
“I don’t know whether they want to make men of us or kill us before we get to Japan,” he wrote.
“For breakfast, we got one egg, prunes, coffee, and toast,” the soldier wrote. “P.S. Regards to the family. I miss Mom’s meals very much,” he said.
A week later, Weber detailed getting a 30-cent haircut to comply with military regulations: “A G.I. Haircut means that you must have one and a half inch of hair on your head. There are all kinds of regulations in this man’s army, a man wearing a moustache must take it off and you should’ve seen the faces of the men as they were shaving it off!”
“I don’t feel as blue as I did yesterday,” Weber told his wife.
“Things are beginning to shape up and they don’t give me a minute to think about anything but Army life, and in a way that’s the best thing for me,........