“I miss you so much and can’t come home to
see you till Sat. I was looking for a letter from you Monday. I
know it’s crazy but I missed you so that I hated the Navy for
the first time because I couldn’t leave to see you.”
Excerpt from a letter Paul Wieser sent to Jean Coddington of Linden, New Jersey, October 1941, New York, New York.
“It is a lovely night and wish you were here with us.
Would love to go out & take a walk on such nights but you aren’t here to
go with me, and would only make me more lonely.”
Excerpt from a letter Laura Stone of Laurens, South Carolina, sent to her husband, Edgar Stone, USS North Carolina, November 1944.
“Darling, I received another letter from you tonight and I’m so happy that I could cry.
Just hearing from you when I’m so lonesome makes me hit the sky. It looks like I really
have it bad honey – but it’s wonderful.”
“I’ll see you in my dreams – and don’t stand me up!”
Excerpts from a letter written by Colleen P. of Seattle, Washington sent to Edward Dilley, USS North Carolina, May 1945.
For the men who served on the battleship USS North Carolina during
World War I, handwritten letters were their lifeblood. Miles out to
sea, facing unknown dangers, they had only one link to their loved ones
— thin sheets of paper made priceless with each pen stroke.
“I think those were what kept us going,” fire controlman James Masie recalled
during interviews conducted by the Battleship North Carolina memorial museum
in Wilmington. “Reading about what was going on back in the states and about
our families was a big lift to our morale.”
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