Inspected Hospital Portion of Ship

Wednesday 9 August 1944, At Sea

Dearest,

     Another quiet day.  The weather is balmy and the sea is smooth.  I'm thankful for the clouds in the sky else it would be plenty warm.

     Not much activity for me.  I worked for a couple of hours this morning.  After a light breakfast and after making a routine inspection of the hospital portion of the ship, I found I had the rest of the day to myself.  So I walked down passageway, up a ladder and down to another passageway several times around the ship just for the exercise.  I visited with the watch officers on the bridge for awhile and then retired to my bunk and read a magazine short story.

     Are you keeping busy?  Do my girls ask about their Daddy? Tell them I miss you all so much and that we'll spend all the time I have together when I get back.

          So sweetheart, I'll sign off till tomorrow.

As ever

Your loving husband,

Gil

Lt (j.g.) G. Steingart

USS Ocelot

"A" Ration Coupons

The letter is misdated. It should be 2 March, 1944.

Thursday, 3 February 1944

1520 o'clock (3:20 P.M.)

Dearest ,

    I haven't heard from you since you left.  I hope it's only a delay in the mail and nothing else.  How do you feel?  If you haven't sent me the "A" book on the Plymouth please do so right away.

    This has been a busy day for me.  Not because we are particularly busy now but because I felt like working.  I only saw six patients but I put in twenty fillings.  I could just as well have made twenty sittings out of the six, but one gets tired of loafing all the time.

    One of Dr. Taylor's patients, a cook, brought in four large steak sandwiches for lunch.  I had one plus a bottle of milk and feel quite full still.

    Last night three of us went downtown.  Stopped in a bar for drinks.  Turned in.  Tonight I may go to a movie.  They are showing "Lifeboat."  Maybe I'll leave it for tomorrow night when I stand watch.  It all depends on how I feel.

    Everybody enjoyed the gingerbread cake (the icing was not sour).  I ate the apple for breakfast plus a couple of cookies.

    Excuse my rambling, but everything goes down as it comes up (I mean my thoughts).

    It's just been a couple of days since you left and I can hardly wait for Saturday night.

Love,

Gil

  

Envelope from the Bureau of Price Administration which issued ration books

 "A" Ration Coupons 

The Radio

The letter is misdated.  The correct date is Tuesday 25 January 1944. 

Tuesday 24 January 1944

1530 o'clock (3:30 P.M.) 

Dearest,

     The flurry of business we had yesterday was short-lived.  Today things are slow and easy again.

     The "watch" schedule was taken down last night and a new one hasn't been posted yet. The Captain is not here, so there is no way of telling what my schedule is going to be until the last minute.  However I am planning for Saturday and Sunday at home until I hear otherwise.

     Last night I was "dead" tired.  I phoned the president of the B'nai B'rith.  He told me they were having an open meeting with Dr. Nussbaum as the guest speaker.  I was so tired and with the uncertainty of my "watch" night, I decided not to go to the meeting. Instead I talked to him. Although he was not very encouraging, he promised to try and help out.  He gave me the name of a member who is in the realty business.  I'll try to reach him tonight.  I took a shower and turned in at 8:00 P.M.

Wednesday, 26 January 1944

1615 o'clock (4:15 P.M.)

      Dr. Thompson, in whose office I worked till this morning, returned.  Now I'm in another office.  The last man here cleaned out all the supplies when he left, so I've got to re-supply all the necessary items, but not from my pocket.

     Regarding hand pieces.  I have two straight hand pieces, one S.S. White and one Terry.  Sell the Terry. $20 is a fair price.  All the hand pieces are stowed in the full barrel. What a job finding them. Miss Earnest will have to do the best she can.

     The radio works well at my quarters.  I can't decide whether I want it there or here at my office.  If I were rich, I'd have two of them, one at each place.  But as a Lt. (j.g.), one will suffice.

     One of the doctors who has been married only a couple months came to me all excited.  His wife is "pregling" and what'll he do about it? Neither of them wants a baby right away and they are really desperate.  Of course there wasn't much I could advise except that if he had anything done to be sure to get a good man to do it.

          The wind howled and it poured "cats and dogs" last night. Today is sunny and quiet.

           Hope "Stinky's" nose is better, and tell Linda I'll be home soon.  I'll write to Deb about the chances of a hitch for the weekend.  As far as your coming here, we'd best wait and see what develops.  Impatiently till this weekend and with "lotenis" of love.

Gil

OXX   Here is a bigger kiss back to you and

oxx   Two little ones for Linda and Norma

Gil

On Watch

Tuesday 18 January 1944

1900 o'clock (7:00 P.M.)

Dear Eleanor,

    Good news--will be home Friday night.  I'm on "watch" tonight.  When you're on watch on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday night you get 72 hours leave.  Watch means that you're on duty all night but probably nothing will happen.  We have a nice bed and the corpsmen take care of it.

    Bob Hope and his troop are on the base tonight, and I can hear the broadcast over the public speaker system.

    I finally got all my papers taken care of and began work this afternoon.  I started with what we call the "carriage trade," a commander.  Today, I visited with the men at the auxiliary clinic on the other side of the base.  Things are very quiet now because there aren't many ships here.  They come and go all the time.  When they're here, patients must be taken care of and in a hurry.

    Everyone here says I'll have a hell of a time getting back to the base by train or bus on Sunday night.  Men begin to line up at 4:00 P.M. and all they talk about is getting back.  I'll probably have to pick up a "junk heap" soon.

    Note my address on the envelope.

Love to all,

Gil

Clipping from the Evening Outlook 

  

Reverse side of clipping