I remember doing the sketch. Mother, Phil and I were spending Spring break in one of my grandfather's rental units at Ocean City. Off season, empty cottages abounded (hence we could go there for free). To pass the dreary hours, Phil read aloud to us, and I sketched to make use of my idle hands....
- Gretchen Wood Williams, Phil's younger sister, 2009
The discovery of Phil Wood's letters are the single driving force behind the years of research into the history of Able Company.
When a missive from their boy in the Marines arrived, the Dear Girls - mother Margretta and sister Gretchen - would stop everything to read the sheets of notepaper or V-Mail with Phil's distinctive scrawl. Letters would be saved, bundled, and transported to family events, where the extended clan would gather around and hear a family member's views on the War. And when the awful Western Union telegram arrived, it brought with it a hurt that would never be mended.
It all began with a short letter written home on December 7, 1941....
December 7, 1941: This may well be the end of much of the world that we know....
July 1942: Don't even recognize myself....
August 10, 1942: They turned the screws on this last week....
September, 1942: Your son and brother is an officer now....
December, 1942: We have a bunch of rookies, I think...
February, 1943: If busy-ness is the criterion of happy living, I'm certainly happy....
March, 1943: Really, for the first time I realized what it means to be an American....
July, 1943: Finally made me First Looey yesterday....
September 27, 1943: Yesterday, the 24th formally came of age....
November 2, 1943: I've been having a series of headaches with my platoon....
December 30, 1943: And there is so little time to do so much remembering in....
January 28, 1944: At sea at last!
February 13, 1944: Namur has been touched by war....
February 27, 1944: I wish I could describe this place to you....
March 3, 1944: Things are quiet and actually restful....
March 9, 1944: All the beauties and riotous vegetation without any of the discomforts.
March 14, 1944: Our lots and natures and futures are so very much the same....
March 16, 1944: As I said, I’m confident about it all....
March 31, 1944: God, but I get homesick easily these days....
April 2, 1944: ...cut away another inhibition – lay bare a few more nerves....
April 6, 1944: Why do I rave so about this island?
April 28, 1944: It’s the kind of foresight that pays dividends.
May 6, 1944: ...we’re known in the Company for the “gung – ho!” spirit...
June 8, 1944: ...it is possible at last that I might be home by a year from now...
June 11, 1944: It was the moon that did it....
June 15, 1944: I hope it won’t be too long before I see it all again.
Late 1944: ...our hearts yearn most strongly for the days and the laughter of the past.
Phil Wood conducts a mail call in the field. Camp Pendleton, 1943.