May 16, 1944

Dear Mom: Ever since I left Texas I've come a long way. When I arrived at our other camp I sent a letter. I don't think they sent them out. Right now I'm riding on a wave on one of the oceans. I know which one I'm on but you're not supposed to. If I told you it would only be censored anyhow. We have music during the day and entertainment at night. It was made up of anybody that would play or sing or anything else, just to entertain the troops ____BLACKED OUT BY THE CENSOR______________________________ ______ BLACKED OUT BY THE CENSOR _______ but we do. We eat twice a day. Once at 6:30 and at 4:30. Some of the guys lay on their bunks all day long. Not because they want to but because they are seasick. I didn't get seasick yet though. When the spray comes up on deck you can sure taste the salt. By the time you get this letter I'll be where I'm going. Your Son, Pvt. Art

A Note From Rose With V-Mail, correspondents were to write within a frame drawn on a standard 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of stationary in which space they wrote the desired message. Somewhere along the way, the letter was microfilmed to a much smaller dimension. We suppose the reason for this type letter was to save space? Postage? Was the country trying to get people to wrote shorter letters? Whatever the reason, they were highly censored coming from the war zones - names of towns and any other identifying clues to the GI's whereabouts carefully blacked out. Due to this rigorous process, the contents some found difficult to read.