What’s After the Letters?

On By BarbaraIn letters, scanning, site design1 Comment

Currently, there are 402 pages on this site. The blog itself is one continuous page, and then there are title pages and resource pages, and so on.

Three hundred fifty-nine of those pages are letters from Walt—359!

::deafening applause::

But that’s not the end. I still have those packs of Ruth’s letters to be sorted and scanned and transcribed. They are without their envelopes, so I am hoping each one is dated, and that maybe they were returned in order. I will start by scanning and posting them before I do any transcribing, though.

There are other items that might be of interest, such as Walt’s pilot’s log book, and of course documents from the government following his death.

Stay tuned to the blog for updates about where the site goes from here.

August 1945 Letters Transcribed ✅

On By BarbaraIn letters, transcribingLeave a comment

The letters from August 1945 have been transcribed, and that marks the end of the letters from World War II. August begins with Walt’s squadron moving to the Ryukyu/Okinawa Islands and ends with the Japanese surrender after we dropped the atomic bombs. At the end, Walt is a little lost, probably wondering what he will do now that this 4-year period of service is coming to an end.

July 1945 Letters Transcribed ✅

On By BarbaraIn letters, transcribingLeave a comment

There are only seven letters in July 1945, but they begin with the long waited for news of Walt’s promotion to Captain. He gets a chance to visit the front line with the infantry, but by the end of the month, his squadron is headed out for another location, where he expects to be pretty busy.

May 1945 Letters Transcribed ✅

On By BarbaraIn letters, transcribingLeave a comment

The nine letters of May 1945 have been transcribed. Mostly Walt talks about whether to stay in combat and wait for that elusive promotion to Captain or come home, now that he has over 300 combat hours. It’s an increasingly difficult choice when he sees his friends both getting promotions and going home.