Crafting the perfect love letter can be difficult under any circumstance, but for normally stoic GIs, the muse could be especially uncooperative. Newly married William Waldeck, a machinist’s mate who served on the USS Baldwin, found this to be the case when he struggled to write an affectionate missive to his wife Mary after leaving for naval training in the spring of 1943. Waldeck ultimately relied on his somewhat mischievous—and gently bawdy—sense of humor to get him out of the pinch. The letter is undated but believed to have been written in March 1943.
Date of Love
City of Riches,
Nineteen Hugs
And Forty-three Kisses
9:55 A.M.
Greetings, O Heart of My Heart;
I have an hour to kill before inspection (today is Saturday) so in answer to your request for romantic letters I now indict this epistle in expression of my love and longing for you.
After a night of dreaming that I held you again in my arms my heart is heavy with sorrow to awaken and find my arms empty. In my thoughts however, I can still go back over the days and nights of heavenly blissful love and joy that I knew before being drawn into the holocaust of war, and I can only pray that the fire of mans hatred for his fellow men will not consume me so that I may once more experience the delightful pleasure of married life with you.
With your picture before me it seems that I can feel the pressure of your kissable lips on mine and in my hand the softness of your gently rounded breasts, the yielding of your tender body to my animal desire. That reminds me of the barkers chant about Nellie the dancing girl, “Come in and see her, folks, Nellie the dancing girl. First she dances on one leg and then she dances on the other; between the two she makes her living.”
In my minds eye I roam hand in hand with you through elysian fields and your starry eyes, soft as dew wet roses, look not at natures beauty but gaze at my noble features with love and tenderness. (Picking the place on my head where you’ll put the next lump.)
I give up honey, that kind of slush might appeal to feminine hearts but it’s out of my line and anyway I’d hate to have my mates catch me writing it. Sailors like to think that they are too hard boiled to have anything to do with that kind of drivel.
I started this letter Saturday morning but was interrupted before I could finish it and here it is Monday morning and I’m just finishing it.
I sure am leading a lazy life since I’ve been here in O.G.U. [outgoing unit]. No watches to stand, no calisthenics, drill, or lectures. In fact, no routine at all except changing the barracks. The section of the barrack that I’m in is supposed to do all the work details but so far I haven’t been called for any. This lazy life isn’t any good though because it takes all the ambition out of me and I don’t even feel like writing.
However, just about when I settle down to do all my writing I’ll either be transferred again or get slapped on a work detail that will take all my time. The navy can’t seem to strike a happy medium about work; there’s either absolutely nothing to do or else there’s too much.
That reminds me of a cartoon I saw which showed a poster outside a navy recruiting office. It said “Join the navy and work like hell.” A man was looking at it and a sailor was saying, quote, “We’ve decided to be frank about it.” You’d have to be in the navy to really appreciate it.
There are a lot of Waves in this camp but none that I’ve seen are really good looking so you don’t have to worry about me cheating on you. I eat in the same chow house they do but somehow I can’t seem to think of anything but food when I’m there.
I’m going to quit writing now so that I will have a little to write in my next letter. Give my regards to everybody and don’t take a job unless it will pay you enough to support me in the style to which I am accustomed.
Some day when I have lots and lots of time I might be able to tell you how much I miss you.
Love,
Bill
After serving in the European theater, including Normandy on D-Day, Waldeck was honorably discharged in the fall of 1945. He died in 1995 at the age of 81.
