Typed letter to Aunt Amy from a Navy trainee on the eve of 'Bel's' wedding

Scanned page 364 of Book 1 — Scan of original. Open full size →

Page 1 of a typed letter on U.S. Navy stationery. The faint two-color letterhead shows a destroyer silhouette and three printed legends:

In training for the U.S. NAVY at Chicago, Illinois

Body of the letter, single-spaced typewritten with hand corrections in ink:

Dearest Aunt Amy,

I am really just bubbling over with hate for the navy at this particular moment. Bel to be married at eight tonight and here I sit as helpless as a prisoner in a padded cell. I am so burned up about it that I don’t think I would ever like the navy again even if they made me an admiral with leave for the duration. Nuts! It certainly wouldn’t have made any difference to any one had they given me enough time to fly home and then come right back after the wedding. But not them. They wouldn’t even consider it. “It might be an emergency to me but the navy didn’t consider it as such!” (The words of the Cap., my pet hate!) An ex-lumber jack. It would have been so wonderful to see you all again. I haven’t seen Mandy in years. I would also have liked very much to meet the lucky man.

I got the card saying that you were giving me a subscription to Readers Digest for Christmas. It will be mighty nice having it. It is about the only mag. I have really more or less kept up with. Don’t have time to do any real reading and Readers Digest is one heck of a good way to keep up with things. Sure do thank you lots, Aunt Amy.

My school work is coming along pretty well. I have had half of my training over with now and if I can manage to keep up I will be here for about ten more weeks. I am not at all sure about that little factor though. This taking code on the typewriter is something else.

AI Notes

Page 1 of a typed letter on patriotic U.S. NAVY stationery — the letterhead bears a faint warship silhouette and the printed legend ‘In training for the’ (upper left) ‘U.S. NAVY’ (center) ‘at Chicago / Illinois’ (upper right). The writer (unsigned on this sheet) writes ‘Dearest Aunt Amy,’ and rails against Navy bureaucracy for preventing him from attending ‘Bel’s’ wedding that evening. Includes thanks for a Reader’s Digest subscription and an update on training-school progress. Page ends mid-letter. The writer is Donald McKay Allston Jr. — the companion items on page 361 include an envelope with the printed return ‘Donald Allston 4053 / 19 B Bartow-Jackson / U.S. Naval Training School / University of Chicago / Chicago 37, Illinois,’ matching this letterhead and routing. The University of Chicago hosted U.S. Naval Training School activities (radio/communications and Japanese-language) 1942–1945, dating this letter to that window. The ‘taking code on the typewriter’ reference confirms this was the Naval Communications/Radio program. ‘Bel’ is the bride — unidentified in the album but evidently a niece/cousin in the FitzSimons-Allston-Walker circle whose evening wedding the writer’s Cap. refused to grant leave for. The ‘have liked’ typed phrase on the second paragraph carries an inline hand-correction (an inserted letter struck through above the line); transcribed here as plain ‘have liked’.

Page ends here; the continuation sheet is not on this album page.