Cover: red and blue stripes around perimeter
Stationery: plain 6 X 10
From: Lt(jg) CR Cummins
USS LST 661
FPO San Fran Cal
To: The Cummins’
6109 Greenwood Ave.
Chicago, 37, Illinois
Postmark: U.S. NAVY 30 NOV 1945
Stamp: 6¢ red airmail
29 Nov
2200
Greetings and salutations,
Well, much of the missing mail of September and October caught us—that that the typhoons scattered around with the post office.
About your canning: there was a cartoon I was going to send but I can’t find the magazine now. This harassed couple, in a kitchen that looks as if an atomic bomb had hit it, wondered if the “Campbell people” had that much trouble in doing their canning.
Pop, your calculations as to the amount of education I am entitled to under the GI Bill is not quite correct. I will be entitled to three (at least) calendar years, that is, thirty-six months which is the equivalent of four school years. I will receive $500 for tuition and books for each of this four school years. For subsistence they will give me $90 a month, if Joan goes to school we will get an additional $60 or $150 in cold cash. Who could ask for anything more? This subsistence will of course not be granted during the summer months. I am sure this is all correct.
Pater, as executive officer I too have a new desk. It has huge shelves and drawers galore. I stayed in my cubbyhole, as there wasn’t much difference in the size of the staterooms—my room is co0ler, quieter, the radio would be difficult to change, etc. (Now (from 2200 to 2300) the only station on the air is one that broadcasts to the Japs in Japanese from Saipan).
This fob of executive officer is just one headache after another. I have had almost no time for reading—at least, not as much as I would like to have to myself. All this blasted paper work!
There is a possibility that I’ll be commanding officer of this tub soon—if so, then I can just sit back, taking life easy, signing my name here and there. to the best of my knowledge I’ll be eligible for discharge Feb. 1. From Saipan they’ll allow you to leave 21 days ahead of time. Eligible men are leaving the island rapidly now. If I were commanding officer it would be more difficult to get an officer to replace me, causing, in all probability, more delay. Consequently I am indifferent towards the prospect.
The ship itself will probably go back in two or three months. They have some insane plan whereby the new ships go home for overhaul and then come back here to relieve the old ships that will be junked. So—we lie at anchor for three or four months—with thousands of other ships.
The time is passing rapidly, strangely enough—and I certainly realize that everything can’t be done at once.
Goodnight, loved ones, with plenty of big hugs and kisses—
Bobbie