The Letter Shoe Box

We've been going through our cedar chests (we have 3 of them that Alan built when we were first married) and I ran across this shoe box that my paternal grandmother had sent me years and years ago. It contains letters that my dad wrote to her during and after WWII. I've been reading a few every evening and put them in chronological order by the post mark dates. They run from 1941 to 1949.

Knowing my dad so well, his words just brought me closer to him. In the war years, he couldn't say where he was stationed and every letter from that period had a passed censor stamp on it. Later he was stationed at Tsingtao, China. He does speak alot about the Chinese people, their culture and what he experienced after the war. He became very fluent in Chinese also. I haven't finished reading all the letters but they're fascinating.  I also inherited a large photo album and hope to coordinate the photos to the letters if I am able to. In some of the letters, he asks for a camera and he evidently got one as there are a ton of war time photos. 

With Memorial day coming up, we will be flying our flag in memory of all those that endured much and serviced with honor.
So thankful to my grandmother for saving these precious bits of history.!