Sketch

Lt. (j.g.) Gilbert Steingart

U.S.S. Ocelot, F.P.O. San Francisco
Wednesday 29 November 1944, 9:45 PM

My Dearest,
     Got twelve more letters today. Guess I'm all caught up now. Notes from your mother and mine, Libby, the round robin written at Manny's and the rest from you.
     This morning I finally finished up the dental work of the other ship's crew that I mentioned previously. Am I glad! For the past week I haven't had a moment to myself because of them. Now I can take it easy until I get another crew to take care of. At least our men are in good shape now so I'll take it easy.
     All afternoon I messed around with those slides. Now that I have the right lead I'm striving for perfection and I do hope to have some good ones in a day or two.
     This evening the skipper invited me up for dinner. Knowing how much I like seafood, he had shrimp and tuna in separate salads made up just for me. I really enjoyed salads for a change and made a wee little pig of myself. The Captain wouldn't be outdone so we were both stuffed by dessert time. Then we visited around for a while and finished up with some gin rummy. At 7:45, we went to the movie. We saw "Cobra Woman" with Maria Montez and Jon Hall and enjoyed it a great deal.
     Now here I am. One of the men with an artistic flair drew up the enclosed sketch and we mimeographed it. This greeting is only suitable to be sent to men in service but I've just enclosed it so you can laugh also. He promised to color one up for me but I did this one myself with red crayola and pencil. If he does color one up I'll send it on as well.
     And now to the mail. Those pictures of our girls are wonderful. They both look so sweet and beautiful as well.
     Spitzer was only aboard for a short time. Now he has joined his ship. I may not see him again for some time. Wally's guess was pretty close, let him try again. I am 6,000 miles from home and it does seem like a hell of a long ways to be. I can't say where I made that liberty except that it was at an Officer's Club. As a matter of fact there are no other places to get stinko except there.
     Well my darling, that's all for today. Do you remember two college kids sitting in an Essex coach on Santa Monica Boulevard, holding hands? Said the young lady, "My ideal man, the one I'll marry will be tall, dark and handsome." Said he (with his tongue in his cheek), "Oh yeah! Because all the time he knew that he didn't measure up to specifications."
     Bye my Sweet but lacking a book of poetry I just say I love you.

Your wolfy husband

Gil

Could this be the sketch?