Dec. 25, 1944
Dear honey;
How are my honeys today? It sure seemed good to talk to you this morning. It seemed good to talk to ma and dad too. I just went over to the Western Union office and got my money order that dad sent. Tell him I said thanks. I’ll send it back as soon as I start getting paid over there.
I couldn’t say much over the phone honey and besides there was a bunch of guys hanging around there waiting for phone calls and they can hear every word you say. I’m pretty sure that we will pull out sometime tomorrow. We eat out of our mess kits tonight and in the morning and we have a sack lunch for dinner.
I probably won’t be able to write for a couple of days, honey, but I’ll write as soon as I can. Your mail will follow me up and you will get an address card that the post office here will send out with my new A.P.O number on it. We made them all out except for the Post Office and A.P.O. number a week or so ago. All they do is stamp that in and send them out.
It’s nice and warm here today. We are running around in our shirt sleeves.
We had a nice dinner today. We had turkey with all of the trimmings.
I suppose Chuckie is having a lot of fun with his toys. I’ll bet he had a grin from ear to ear when he saw his toys.
Well honey, if I’m not back as soon as we hope don’t worry about it too much. I’ll be back as soon as it’s over with and I’ll do all I can to make that as soon as possible.
When you get my Post Master name, you’ll know which way we went. If it’s New York it’ll be Europe and if it’s San Francisco it’ll probably be the South Pacific or Alaska. I think it will be New York.
I want to go to a show tonight. That’s all there is to do here on the post tonight, and we can’t go off of it.
I guess I’d better close for now honey and clean up a little for chow. We eat at six tonight in another outfit’s mess hall. The Service Club is closed or I’d go up there and eat. I’ll write again as soon as I can.
Take it easy honey and don’t worry. Lots of love for my honeys.
Your loving husband
Clarence
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Note: My dad left for Camp Shanks, New York the following day on the first leg of his journey to the ETO (European Theatre of Operations).
One of the pictures he carried with him is this photo of his mother,
Nora McIlrath.
Clarence's dad, James McIlrath, and Chuckie.