Letters From The Prairie

1943

Click on the dates/headings to open the actual letters.
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Bud becomes a sailor

Letter from boarding school

Another Letter from boarding school

"Col. Daub has lost another son ... talks as if Craig were coming back tomorrow. He still has hopes for him."

Application & rejection for Navy V12
Includes reference letters recommending him for college program

Order to report for induction
Aug. 11, 1943

Navy induction letter to Bud's mother
From the U.S. Naval Training Station in Great Lakes, Ill.

Bud writes home

September 2
"Well - blimey, if I ain't an old salt now ... as I was standing in line, a familiar voice remarked - "Anybody from Lakewood, Ohio?" It was Don Geiger and it wasn't ten seconds before he, Doug and I were happily reunited talking over old days."

Bud and twins Don and Doug Geiger as The Three Trumpeteers in 1940. Read the newspaper article here.

September 5
Addressed to sister Mary at Indiana University
"I'll give you a bird's eye view of what's been happening to me in the Navy ... they change their minds about 20 times a day here and everybody takes it and likes it. We're always changing clothes."

September 29
"Tidi's wedding is out, I guess. A fellow can go home for a funeral, but not a wedding ... DON'T attempt to write my commanding officer for me - I'll surely catch h--- if you do."

September 30
"I certainly made a fool of myself when I attempted to demonstrate the rowing technique. The Navy has a way all its own. Mine was civilian plus."

October 1
Addressed to sister Harriet Ann ("Tidi")
"Oh, what a thrill-relief it must be to know that you've got a man bound and hooked ... The possibilities of my attending the wedding are very small..."

October 5

"Being bugler isn't so bad - I get in chow line a  half a dozen times a day. My bugle is pass - so why not take advantage of it?"

October 11
"I've been elected to post bugler - and beginning Wednesday, I'll begin duties as regimental bugler - highest a boot can get."

October 20
"Last Saturday I went to Evanston to the football game ... Women! Oh man, all the coeds came and talked to us ... I now know what makes a sailor so hot with the ladies - in one short hour I talked the fastest line in my life. I amazed myself."

November 10
"Radio school is 16-20 weeks, after which a short furlough and zowie! then to meet the Japs. I have a feeling I'll be fighting Japs, because that's all they pound into our heads."

November 14
Elaborate cartoon accompanies letter
"...your son had a terribly long trip of forty-five miles and is now stationed at the University of Chicago ... I have the top bunk of a three-layer bed. Wow! What a view."

November 16
A short story dedicated to his father
"May God keep him always and make Nov. 16th now and evermore his happiest of birthdays."

November 19
"School is pretty tough ... each day I have four hours of code. That is, listening to all the letters, numbers, etc., of international Morse until I'm pretty sure my brain will collapse."