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A long time ago I bought a box from an estate sale. Today, while cleaning out the shed, I found it. Looking through this person's belongings I found a hand written letter and a few old photos. The date at the top of the letter is July 1st 1945, and the location is Burma. I have not read this letter yet. I just ran it through the scanner and am posting it for all of us to enjoy. Maybe it's an interesting look into the past, maybe it's just boring. If you find anything particularly interesting in the letter post about it in the thread.
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# ? May 31, 2020 19:23 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 12:31 |
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Here's a photo that was with the letter:
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# ? May 31, 2020 19:25 |
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part 1pre:Dearest mona Hello sweet hart how are you for my self I am doing fine I am going to atempt to tell you some of the things I have done and some of the places I have ben one of my buddis is leaving for the states tomorrow so he said he would mail this when he got to the states. so I ???? write a few things that I thought ???????? you dont have to worry about me I am well over 400 miles behind the Jap lines I have ben less than 15 but that wasnt but for a few hours
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# ? May 31, 2020 19:39 |
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gary oldmans diary posted:part 1 I bolded the part I added. I imagine there were censors who would go through your letter and wouldn't let you write about anything that they thought would give too much information away. This guy found a way around it by just having a buddy take the letter back to the US.
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# ? May 31, 2020 19:57 |
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Here's up until page 5.pre:Burma Sun Jul 1 45 Dearest nora Hello sweet hart how are you for my self I am doing fine I am going to [atempt] to tell you some of the things I have done and some of the places I have been one of my buddies is leaving for the states tomorrow so he said he would mail this when he got to the states. so I can write a few things that I couldnt otherwise You dont have to worry about me I am well over 400 miles behind the Jap lines I have been [liss] than 15 but that wasnt but for a few hours sometimes I have to fly to a ??? strip to do some of my work that is what I tried to tell you once about the [kite?] I had to go close to the front lines to change a wingtip so I had to leave early in the morning and we had a big plane load of canned tomatoes about 6000lbs of them and ??? and all the stuff that we would need Before we left they told us the [rong] place so pilot landed with the load but the plane [were] to work on wasnt there so they had to call back to find out where it was. Then when the message got back to us we had to go about 100 miles closer to the front lines when we started to take [of] again one of the motors failed with that heavy load I was standing behind the pilot and [his] said go back and get the load ready to throw [of] by the time I reached the cargo door I had all the [roaps] cut and we had some of the tomatoes stacked in the door. But the pilot landed it back on the strip and we tested it out and took [of] and landed at the other strip but I was so scared I couldnt hardly speak some of them [ask] me if I was scared and you can guess what I told them but I have had to go on several other trips but not close to the front lines now I will try to tell you about some of out trips we left long beach cal the 25 of July and was on the us General Butner for 31 days we [stoped] at melbourne aus for a couple of days but couldnt get [of] Then we come on to Bombay India then we had a 6 day trip by train to the Burma ??? river there we cought a river boar for 2 days then a train for 3 more days to [normea?] India that was 6 29. we stayed there [untill] the 26 of [dece?] i am kiss u now fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Jun 1, 2020 |
# ? Jun 1, 2020 02:13 |
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doing gods work also i forgot a "but" on the 3rd to last line of part 1
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 02:22 |
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Yo dude your grand dad starts spelling out some funny sex poo poo he missed with your grandma in this letter!
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:05 |
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quote:
So bunch of sex poo poo after some of the highlights of Japanese air defense in Burma.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:12 |
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Scooter_McCabe posted:Yo dude your grand dad starts spelling out some funny sex poo poo he missed with your grandma in this letter! I have no idea who this dude is, or where he's from. *edit* Holy poo poo, I thought you were joking about the sex stuff, lol!
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:16 |
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quote:[Page 10]
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:24 |
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it's funny how he doesn't get super thirsty until the later letters, like it's just been building up the whole time lmfao
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:27 |
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You guys are awesome. What on Earth should I do with this letter? I can store it properly before I put it back in the shed, but that's about it. I'll post some of the other photos later.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:29 |
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spacetoaster posted:You guys are awesome. i mean do you know the family of the letter writer?
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:30 |
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clammy posted:i mean do you know the family of the letter writer? No, not at all. There was no envelope or anything. Just the letter and some photos with it.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:31 |
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do you guys think mona was hot
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:36 |
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spacetoaster posted:No, not at all. yeah but do you remember the name of the deceased in the estate sale? or can you find it? maybe the family would like to have it
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:37 |
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clammy posted:it's funny how he doesn't get super thirsty until the later letters, like it's just been building up the whole time lmfao That's all one letter.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:38 |
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please tell us how grandpa hosed and where he liked to bight grandma (rear end)
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:40 |
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clammy posted:yeah but do you remember the name of the deceased in the estate sale? or can you find it? maybe the family would like to have it No, it was consolidated military stuff from several different ones.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:40 |
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I wish you would keep these two cards for me you have to see what they are That was at the bottom of the PS section almost missed it. That would likely be a reference to Kama Sutra Cards. Pretty popular with the GIs:
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:46 |
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spacetoaster posted:No, it was consolidated military stuff from several different ones. ah, well that's too bad. i guess we're all destined to be forgotten, eventually. it's pretty cool though that this guy's thoughts can live on here for a minute
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:48 |
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clammy posted:ah, well that's too bad. i guess we're all destined to be forgotten, eventually. it's pretty cool though that this guy's thoughts can live on here for a minute Yeah. That story about the plane losing an engine and them all having to get ready to throw 600 pounds of canned tomatoes off the plane must have been a pretty hairy situation.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 03:51 |
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Here's a few of the photos that were with the letter: The name: Hall, is written on the back of the top left photo.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:02 |
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clammy posted:ah, well that's too bad. i guess we're all destined to be forgotten, eventually. it's pretty cool though that this guy's thoughts can live on here for a minute Well those pictures have names. Sgt Robert P Dawson stood out. So we know they were in Burma. I know by the uniforms those guys were US Army and not British. Since they dealt in planes a lot they were probably apart of the US Army Air Force: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Burma_India_Theater So now it's just narrowing down the unit.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:02 |
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Scooter_McCabe posted:Well those pictures have names. Sgt Robert P Dawson stood out. So we know they were in Burma. I know by the uniforms those guys were US Army and not British. Since they dealt in planes a lot they were probably apart of the US Army Air Force: Good idea. I'll scan the rest of the photos. If anyone can see a unit patch, or hell, just some kind of designation that'd help.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:04 |
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spacetoaster posted:Good idea. I'll scan the rest of the photos. If anyone can see a unit patch, or hell, just some kind of designation that'd help. So far based off Robert P Dawson National Archives kicked back these: https://aad.archives.gov/aad/display-partial-records.jsp?f=3475&mtch=4&q=Robert+P+Dawson&cat=all&dt=893&tf=F
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:08 |
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Scooter_McCabe posted:Well those pictures have names. Sgt Robert P Dawson stood out. So we know they were in Burma. I know by the uniforms those guys were US Army and not British. Since they dealt in planes a lot they were probably apart of the US Army Air Force: that's pretty loving rad dude
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:19 |
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:23 |
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Here's the original batch of photos with the backs scanned.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:29 |
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Here is the ship he came in on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_General_H._W._Butner_(AP-113) Ports of call match up with his letter as well.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 04:47 |
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Some corrections: Pg 2, top - fly to a forward strip Pg 4 - he was on the Butner for 31 days out of Long beach. I think the last word is probably dec[ember], he has to be in that area from about sept '44 to jan 45. I think the river may be a mangling of Bhramaputra which would fit geographically. Pg 7 - Probably aluminium planking used for temporary airfields Pg 9 - you what I could do or have you forgotten about that Here's pg 5 since no one actually transcribed that: code:
His journey is something like: -Leaves Long Beach 25th July 1944 -Landfall - 31 August - Arrives in Calcutta area after 10 day rail journey - 2 September - Goes up the river supply route along the Brahmaputra - 5 September - Arrives somewhere in Assam, The NE extremity of India. - Stays in Assam until 26 December - Moves to a place in Northern Burma known as Warsup[or similar] but appearing under a different name on the maps, stays there 6 months January - June 1945 - 24th June - Moves to Myitkyina on the Irrawaddy river in Burma/Myanmar. By this point the Japanese had pretty much been routed from Burma, Rangoon was captured in May and the rest of the Japanese army was in dispersed units being hunted down by British, Indian, Chinese and US armies. The names on the Photos are cpl James W Lake[s or r] Sgt Robert P Dawson PFC I. J. Murphy cpl S.A. Hall Also noted on the back is one Skoggs, there is one Joe Skoggs on the NARA archive so that is likely a positive match. Also Sgts Ross and Moor[e] Jaguars! fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Jun 1, 2020 |
# ? Jun 1, 2020 11:00 |
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So found this article, it's about the Hump, it has some place names that might help with what's in the letter. Might be able to place units to locations. If these guys were dealing with the planes either were probably maintenance or supply clerks since they talk about all the crap these things were carrying. [url] https://www.airforcemag.com/article/1009hump/[/url]
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 13:01 |
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Okay good news, following the transport unit angle it yielded results for units that did transport. But better yet air base names. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India-China_Division,_Air_Transport_Command#Stations
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 13:11 |
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letter is cool. i hope with the magic of the internet that maybe family members could be tracked down and see how horny grandpa was
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 13:21 |
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drat i hate handwritting. you are giving me flashbacks to my history thesis OP
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 13:45 |
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I'm impressed he waited a few pages to sext her Was probably the 3rd draft
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 13:50 |
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This is ultra cool, thanks for posting. I like how the guys are hitting sick poses with their guns even though they're hundreds of miles from the enemy.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 14:15 |
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Bold Robot posted:This is ultra cool, thanks for posting. I like how the guys are hitting sick poses with their guns even though they're hundreds of miles from the enemy. From reading the internet about Burma, and the surrounding areas, have a lot of wild game. They might have been hunting. But yeah, they were probably posing lol
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 14:23 |
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The Skoggs would be a great name for a band.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 14:58 |
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 12:31 |
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spacetoaster posted:Here's a photo that was with the letter: I think the first name is Cpl. James W Coker.
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# ? Jun 1, 2020 15:49 |