Yesterday turned into one of those great days in a person's life for me. My sister and I were going through some boxes of very old family pictures that were stored away in one of our Mom's many closets and struck gold...There at the bottom of a large cardboard box was a big fat manilla envelope labled "George M. Nelson...WWII letters home." I nearly passed out from shock (and Joy!) I have always known that Dad wrote letters home during WWII, but had almost given up hope of ever locating them, as his parents died long ago and I figured they had probably been thrown away or lost by one of his remaining siblings. I'm sure that my mother forgot about them long ago and before Dementia began to rob her of her precious memories, or she would have given them to me years ago. In any case, I haven't counted them or read them all yet but I'm sure there must be 50-60 letters her that were written (mostly) in 1944 and 1945. I'm not ashamed to say that this brought tears to my eyes either, but they were tears of joy, as I have always wanted to know what he was like as a 17-19 year old serving in the US Naval Armed Guards during WWII. In the few letters I've read so far he talks about joining the Naval Armed Guards service and his experiences in Gunnery School, where he trained on everything from a pistol to 5-inch guns,including all the anti-aircraft guns like the 20MM, 40MM and 50 cal.machineguns. Of course being a 17 year old boy, he enjoyed this very much. I will share more later, as my Carpal Tunnel/Tendonitis is barking at me now..

Wahoo!

Oh my GOD!!!! I am jumping up and down for you!!!!

This is truly fantastic news. I could picture the whole thing and the tears in your eyes. Your dad is smiling down!

Awesome!!!!!! Looking forward to hearing more!

Today have been sifting through my Dad's letters home during WWII and found one of his drawings. He was quite a good cartoonist even during his teen years and often sent home his drawings for his younger brothers. This one features the characters Mutt and Jeff from the "funny papers". There is a note on back that identifies the other character, but the name is too faded to read.

That is soooo cute! Didn't realize your dad had that talent. How precious to find such things.

The artistic ability he had is something I'm proud to say is a talent Dad passed on to me...at least as far as his cartooning is concerned. I spent several hours Sunday (his birthday) working on the WWII scrapbook I am creating in his honor. I really can't tell you guys how wonderful it is to read all these 65 year old letters home he wrote, but I'm sure M1 knows the feeling of "contact" with a departed loved one that is experienced each time we work on projects like this.(I would never ever begin to compare this scrapbook with Marion's huge tributes to her Dad, but she knows what I'm trying to say, I'm sure!) I didn't really understand until now just how many foreign places he got to see (among other things), but the list is long for 18 months overseas during WWII. There are letters & envelopes from Pearl Harbor( I know that isn't a foreign port! ) , Manilla, Guam, Peleliu, the Figi islands, Ceylon, India, Australia and a few others that I can't remember right now. Something else of interest: I have more than 100 letters he wrote between 1943 and 1946 and he only mentions Germany or Germans one time. To the men who were fighting the war in the Pacific, Europe was a million miles away and they were entirely focused on defeating the Japanese. Dad mentions that he re-enlisted for The Duration plus 6 months. In a letter dated August 3,1945 he writes: "The scuttlebutt here is a rumor that the Armed Guard is being transferred to the Marine Corps, so the next time you see me I may be wearing a different uniform. I guess that won't be so bad". Dad of course had no idea about what was about to be dropped on Japan, and the rumors he mentioned might well have been a reality had the Japanese not surrendered. By that time all the servicemen like my Father who were in it for the duration would have been expected to take part in the planned invasion of mainland Japan. All I can say about that is GOD BLESS HARRY TRUMAN!!

Jim, wonderful post! Nicely stated!

There is no need to be remiss about your statement regarding what I do and what you are trying to do. I certainly DO NOT mind the comparison. The main point regardless of the time spent or the outcome is this; we are both thrilled beyond belief and each little memento brings us closer to our long, lost loved ones. There is no better feeling in the world...well at least for many of us here.