Wow! Last night we got up in a hurry and dove for our foxholes. Bombers were right over our head and you could hear the bombs whistle through the air above you. They hit down the way about 300 yds. Then the bombers took off for Bizerte and I went back to bed. We went on another small hike and went swimming again in the afternoon. Badali and I went to the show and then to bed. Good night.
Dear Mother & Dad;
I have a little free time now so I will answer all of your letters that I have saved to-date.
March 2, 1943 you have started to number your letters, but I don’t think I will number mine because I keep forgetting what number I put on the last letter. As for hearing from Margaret Fleshner & Behrens I have had quite a few letters from them.
March 3, 1943 yes I imagine the free letters go much faster as they have to go out of the way by air, and they also have to go by train.
March 5, 1943 so Murphy has bought Monty and Lloyd out has he? Well I don’t think he will stay in business very long now. He never was well liked.
March 7, 1943 I’m glad you had a nice time at ray and Jean’s wedding, too bad I couldn’t be there to go with few. You sure seemed to be having some cold weather lately. No Paul Wilson is not with his company. He is still in Casablanca. I think he is a telephone or switchboard operator.
March 11, 1943 so old bob bailey got out of it did he. I bet he was sure glad. Dad tell him hello for me if you see him. You saying that people back home are kicking on the income taxes are they. Well I will be glad when I can get back there and make enough to pay them. It’s a shame some of the people back home can see what it’s like over here and then maybe they would realize what it is to be able to live in America.
March 13, 1943 you have seen two only received part of the letters that I have sent in February. I know I have written at least twice a week but they must have been lost.
March 15, 1943 I’m glad you and Gee had a nice time up in Chicago at Esther’s. This letter was wrote half by you and half by Harry.
March 18, 1943 I’m glad too here that dad got a raise in pay and that you are having a swell time with Linda, but I bet she is a past. I bet dead sure has fun with her. I can just see him now.
March 20, 1943 I received the wedding pictures of Ray an Jean wedding. Also the article on Father Frawley. I bet Snook would have liked to have been home to have gone to that fire at Popes house. I can see Linda jumping up and down when the fire engines went by two listen mother and dad use my money for what ever you want to. I can never repay you for what happiness you have gave to me. All I ask is that you don’t worry about me.
March 22, 1943 you ask if I had received all of your letters in February? Well mother I can tell you now as I have destroyed all of those letters but you can rest assured that I’ve received just about all of them if not all of them. Glad to hear dad received my birthday card but so far I haven’t received his letter as yet.
March 23, 1943 yes ma’am I have the watch on so far it has kept very good time. I’ve received a candy, funny books, and newspapers. Try and hang onto as much film for my camera that you can, and I will let you know when to send it. I told you once before not to send me any and then I got a letter saying that you had some on the way. If you have already sent it OK as I need some now, and if you have held it up go ahead and send a few roles.
March 27, 1943 so you and dad have a garden well underway, have you? I can remember when I had the whole backyard in tomatoes. Gee gee what I wouldn’t give for a nice write to mail right now. We get tomatoes once in a great while but they are very small and do not have much taste to them.
March 30, 1943 you said in this letter that you had sent me 12 rolls of film. Well I have received only four of them. The others must have been lost somewhere along the line. Reader writes for a while and then stops, that I weighed about a month and she starts and I again. One week I had three letters from her and out is been about three weeks sense I have heard from her. You asked who our general was well I will tell you when I get home after the war.
March 31, 1943 there wasn’t any question in this letter or anything that I could write on. I had received every letter that you wrote to me this month, so you see you don’t lose many.
April 2, 1943 yes I sent the money order, and I still have the slept. So dad is getting his tomatoes in early is he, ha, ha. Just like his grasp. Most of the questions that you had asked me in 
this letter I had already answered before.
April 5, 1943 so Harry and Es came down after Linda did they. Linda was probably getting homesick anyway. Well mom about the pipe you sent me. I received it OK but after I had smoked it a few times I just didn’t like it, so I sold it for $4.00. How much did you pay for it. It might have been a good pipe but it’s nothing like a Kaywoodie. If you get another chance two send me one see if you can find one like the picture at the side of the paper. They cost all the way from $3.50 to $5.00 or that’s all I want you to pay for it. And if you can’t find one like that just picked me out one that looks pretty nice. I had one with a crooked stem but I lost it. Dad get on the ball I’m looking for a letter from you.
April 7, 1943 I think I have told you before that I had fixed my pen myself so I won’t have to send it home. You said Paul was getting chicken and ham quite a bit. Well you to when you are way behind the lines, but when you go up to the front you we “C” rations all of the time, and that consists of meat and vegetable stew or hash, or meat and beans. I haven’t seen a good meal first so long that I don’t know what a good meal would taste like. Once in awhile we get hamburger, and let me tell you that stops. No I haven’t lost Aunt Lillian’s address, I have wrote to her but I guess she has never receive them.
April 9, 1943 you were trying to guess where I was at that time I told you we were bivouac in a cork Forrest. You said I was in Algiers. Well at that time I was at port Lyautey, and later moved to Oran. So it will do you no good to try and gas ha ha. So dad is painting the house is he. I bet I won’t even know the place when I get home.
April 12, 1943 I have wrote to Juanita but have never received an answer yet, she is probably too busy with those kids of hers to write me, ha ha. It’s pretty hard to find anybody over here unless you know the outfit that he is in, and then they made the many miles from you.
April 15, 1943 (Dad’s Letter) so you have been plenty busy at the store have you, now don’t go over working yourself. By the time you get this letter you should have the house painted and out in the front yard enjoying yourself. Write when you can dad, and I know that you are thinking of me.
April 15, 1943 there wasn’t much in this letter except you telling me of Uncle Tom’s death. Too bad wasn’t it?
April 18, 1943 I’m glad you let them use the car and that’s just what I would have done if I were at home, so you’d did the right thing. I’m glad we know was over to see you while she was home, and also stood up for you. She’s a swell kid but a bits spoiled. I hope she gets over it before I get home.
April 21, 1943 I’m glad you received all of my letters, and so far I have received all of years to-date. I received the two funny books some time ago. Yes I am getting the champagne paper OK and now, so when the subscription runs out get it renewed.
April 22, 1943 I wood have liked to have been there when you made your first communion, but I guess faith just will the it another way.
April 26, 1943 so are rained the Easter get it. Well it did and rained here in Africa, but I spent all morning trying to find a mass. Later I went in the evening at 7:00 PM. I must have misunderstood you in one of your other letters. I thought you had already sent me 12 rolls of film, but instead you had only sent me for rolls and I have received them.
April 27, 1943 I am glad all of you were thinking of me on my birthday, but as for me it was just another day. Snook seems to be getting the same training that I received before I left the states.
April 30, 1943 I’m glad you received so many nice presence for your birthday, I wish I could have sent you something but there was just nothing worth buying. I sent you a scarf or table cover. I could just see little Hary out in the rain, in that Easter parade ha ha.
May 2, 1943 I’ve received all the packages that you have sent two me to-date.
May 6, 1943 Harold Colbert is pretty close to me but I have never had a chance to go over and see him. I have wrote him a letter though but I have never received an answer yet. I wrote to Mrs. Diltz, has she received it yet?
May 8, 1943 yes our days are just the same, I must have just put the wrong date on my letter. Our time is different though we are about 8 hours ahead of your time I know Mrs. Fleshner has little time to write so I’m not looking for any letters from her. I know I should write her she more but I just don’t get around to it either. We have been pretty busy so that makes it all the worse.
May 10, 1943 there was not much in this letter except you telling me about the rain. If it keeps on you are going to have some flood.
May 13, 1943 so you have a new screen door do you, I still don’t think I will recognize the house if you keep on remodeling it. Yes I received Harry Combes letter an I have answered it, but I guess he never did receive it so I will write him another one. Bud is sure lucky, that he get to come home on so many furloughs. One thing once you get over here, furloughs are a thing of the past. My $45.00 allotment was suppose to be started in the April check. So I don’t think it’s a mistake. Go ahead and cashed the check and if it is a mistake you can always return the money.
May 17, 1943 that window should help the lighting in the kitchen quite a bit. Well you wanted to know who all sent me birthday cards will hear they are at least some of them. You and dad, Mrs. Matie Hutchinson, I didn’t know her though. Vae & mother, Mr. Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Picknel, Jack & Hila, Sayde, Mrs. Fleshner, “Gee”, Aunt Stella, Esther, Ray, Harold, Mr. & Mrs. Grierson, Jeane, Billy, Bernadine, Bernard & Mildred, Al Davidson & family, Mr. & Mrs Barber, Charlie Shepard, Mrs. Nelson, Bud, Aunt Lillian, Es & Harry, Betty McCole, Pat Smith, and many others that I have forgotten to write down and don’t remember who they were. As for me coming home mother just forgive it, as we have a job to do and won’t be until it’s done. There are plenty of Fellows that will never see action overseas back in the states I admit they have it nice now, but they will just have to take a backseat when I get home, because a lot of these Fellows won’t stand for it. The life you live is pretty rugged you have some fun, and try to enjoy yourself the best you can. When we come home we will have plenty of stories to tell two.
May 19, 1943 I can just see those floods back home. I remember when we used to drive out there and look at the river’s before.
May 21, 1943 what all did Mary and Eddie have to say while they were there. I have sent for rolls up pictures that I have sent through the base sensor so I haven’t seen what they look like or how many of them work cut out. You should at least get 60 pictures or negatives but I don’t know how many they will take out. They develop them free and send them on home to you without me getting to see them.
Letter # 9 missing.
May 26, 1943 I’m glad Harold likes the Air Corp. It’s a great place to be. Bernadine will be all grown up when I get home and I won’t even over.
May 29, 1943 Yea I know Rita is a little slow in writing. But I don’t know I don’t think she will ever change. Who knows maybe she well.
June 1, 1943 yes mother I can read your letters after they are photographed but don’t write in the red card at the bottom as that will not turn out. So Erve is in Egypt is he. Well that’s where I thought he was. Either there or Persia.
I don’t have this letter yet.
June 7, 1943 yes you told me that Jack Sandford transferred to the Air Corp. Well this is all I have to say now, as this is all the letters that I have received to-date. As for what we are doing now we are going on hikes just about everyday, and maybe go swimming in the afternoon. We have little to do right now so I have little to write about. Goodbye and let me know when you received the films and packages. I’ll be loving and thinking of you both.
YOUR SON “CHICK”
Had just a small bombing last night. Not many bombs were dropped. We went on a hike, and when I got back I wrote a few letters. We went swimming in the afternoon. We played cards for a while and then went to bed.
Went on another small hike. Went out and watched the artillery fire. They were firing 155mm. Came home sewed some Chevrons on and then played cards. In the afternoon we went swimming up at Bizerte. On the way back we stopped at a place where about 25 Italian planes had been strafed on the ground. In the evening I was corporal of the guard. We played a dart game and pinochle. Badali and I stood Wellman and Wynengard. They never one once all night at either game.
We went on a small hike this morning. Laid around the rest of the morning and then and then went up to Bizerte swimming. We went through the town so I took a few pictures. Came home & played cards until bedtime.
During an interview, Chick discusses the heat, their uniforms and keeping in touch by mail with family back in the United States.
This audio is from an interview conducted by Uni High students Natalie Dullerud, Claire Dickerson, Michael Anukwu and Joaquin Malik, as part of the Uni Class of 2016’s oral history project on the experiences of people associated with the U.S. military from World War II to the present. It was recorded in January 2012, in Urbana, Illinois, through a partnership between University Laboratory High School and Illinois Public Media, both on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign.
We had a large air raid last night. Boy those Stuka dive bombers would dive and when they dove they turned on a siren to scare you all the more. The anti aircraft fire was plenty heavy. Most of the bombs fell into the sea. There is not a dang thing to do here now so we went on a little hike. I went to the show tonight and saw a Andy Hardy picture. Hope there’s no raid tonight.
I was on guard from 7:30 to 9:00 this morning and then I went to mass. All we did the rest of the day was lay around. You can’t mail letters anymore so I guess we will be leaving soon also. If there is a show tonight I think I will go. Went to the show “Pierre of the Plains”. Came home and went to be.
Dear Mother & Dad;
Oh how I have been neglecting you again, but I have been too busy to write. Don’t look for are so many letters for a while as I have little time to write. Tell every one not to expect letters from me and tell them all below. I have sent you another package. The scarf in the package will need a good xxxxxx job by the time it gets there. A lot of their equipment is made from wood an you can see from the salt and pepper shakers. How do you like the pipe, ha ha put my souvenirs in a box and I will explain them all when I get home. I also mailed for rolls of film but it will have to go through the base sensor to get developed. Let me know how many pictures you get out of the four rolls. Well mother and dad I had better bring this letter to a close. Say a few extra prayers for me and I’ll be home one of these days, just wait and see. I’ll be loving and thinking of you both.
Your son “Chick”
Now that most of the company is gone we have little to do. We spent the day cleaning up the camp. There are just a hand full of us left now. I wrote a few letters and went on guard at 5:30 PM. I got off at 9:30PM and then went to bed.
