5/26/44 V-Mail, Italy
Hi Toots:
What a life. I am gradually getting back into the old groove, accumulating a lot of blank forms to do my work on, and this morning put out a report for all of the little squadrons to fill out and submit each month. I hope they appreciate the fact that it is a simpler report than the old one (which was put out in the confusion that was Africa) as well as the fact that it is not due on the first of the month when all of the other reports are coming in.
Speaking of that delovely continent, I saw a show last night that you should see. It was “Three Jills and a Jeep,” [sic “Four Jills in a Jeep”] with Martha Raye, Kaye Francis etc. Boy, that is sad. Those people have come overseas, entertained, made a movie, and the movie gotten back over here since I came overseas. That is too damn long, but there isn’t a hell of a lot I can do about it. I made some notes while looking at it so I wouldn’t forget what I want to say. I need a steno to follow me around—would you like the job? The camels they were riding are not the kind found in this part of the world, and I never heard of anyone in his right mind riding one of the damn things. One scene which was damn true to life was the one where all of the G.I.’s turned on their flashlight to illuminate the stage when the lights went out. I have seen that happen countless times. The fact that no one was wearing their tin hats with the chinstraps fastened was also good. Until we learned better, there were a lot of necks broken and heads yanked off by the blast effect of the bombs. Sound effects were overdone. You might glance through my letters of over a year ago and get the reaction I had to Mitzi and Kay, as I met them going through Brazil, and believe I wrote some rather vivid comments.
Well, Toots, time to go baby my G.I.’s (and I don’t mean soldiers).
Love Cy