The War

Between June of 1940 and November of 1945, essentially the span of World War II, my parents, Ted and Helen Smith, exchanged nearly 750 letters.

When I was a child, these letters were packed in cardboard boxes in the basement of our house in Hope Valley, RI. Nobody, except a few mice nibbling at the edges, paid much attention to them. When my folks sold this house, the boxes of letters found their way into my attic. My mother stipulated that they could only be opened and read after both she and my dad were dead. My father died in 1997, and my mom in 2004. Shortly after my mom died in the spring of 2004, I had heart surgery. During my recovery from surgery, I got the boxes out of the attic, with the idea of sorting them out.

I spent quite a few afternoons opening envelopes, unfolding multipage letters, and sliding them into plastic sleeves. I recorded the dates of each in a spreadsheet. They now reside in binders at my house. I’ve read many of them and transcribed many over the years.

The letters tell a story of ordinary people who, due to circumstances largely beyond their control, were asked to do extraordinary acts. It’s a chronicle unique to America in the first half of the 20th century. Two people from modest working-class backgrounds fall in love, marry, and join with millions of others to defeat the Great Depression and the Fascist explosions of WWII. Most remarkably, they go on to build a new society that, for the first time in history, allows regular people, such as they, to work, save, and enjoy a long and financially secure retirement.

Much of what follows on this page is taken from those letters, and sections from various letters have been included.

Drafted

Drafted On October 10, 1942, Ted received his “Order to Report for Induction”. He was ordered to report to the courthouse in Westerly, Rhode Island, on October 23, 1942, at 6:45 am. He and the other draftees boarded a bus that took them to Fort Devins in Ayer, MA. At Fort Devins, they were welcomed...

Basic Training Four days after arriving in Miami, Ted wrote the following letter, telling Helen about life in the Army. 11/15/1942Mon PMDearest Helen,Will try to write a letter while waiting for chow. Our routine for today consisted of cleaning up our rooms and preparing for an inspection of our cloths to see that we had...

The Home Front Helen moved in with her friend Eleanor (Ellie) Haigh at 58 Seville Avenue in Warwick RI. She had been teaching at Aldrich High School in Warwick before she and Ted were married and had been offered a chance to go back to Aldrich as a long term substitute, so this arrangement made...

Overseas Ted was assigned to the 348 fighter group. The following history of the 348th fighter group was written by Lt. Col. William M. Banks from his headquarters in IE Shima, Ryurkyu Retto, Japan in August of 1945. By way of introduction he writes: Dear fellow Minutemen,Now that the war has ended and most of...

After the War On November 5th, 1945, Helen received a telegram: “Arrived Seattle. Will call from Devins in a few days. All my love, Ted. A few weeks later, he arrived home, recovered from a bout of malaria, and went back to work at the A&P in Wakefield, RI. My oldest sister, Martha, was born...