LOT Vintage WWII Love Letters Diary PURPLE HEART US Army Soldier W ALBRIGHT Iowa

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LOT Vintage WWII Love Letters Diary PURPLE HEART US Army Soldier W ALBRIGHT Iowa:
$76.00

**YOU CAN ZOOM IN ON ALL SCANS INCLUDING THE QUADRANTS TO READ ALL DETAILS***This listing is a diary/story in the form of letters and documents belonging to a WWII hero. There is even a sketch of his injuries he drew for his wife. A pair of nail clippers probably saved his life. I hope you have the time to read all that I researched and wrote because it tells the untold story of many ordinary men and women who left their loved ones to protect our nation. I only mention a few snippets from some of the detailed letters because I didn\'t have time to read all of it but you can read more in the scans I uploaded. His name was:WYATT CRESAP ALBRIGHT
P.V.T./ W.C.A. #37678147DATE OF BIRTH: February 11, 2008 in Danville, Iowa
HIS WIFE WAS GOLDIE MAY ALBRIGHT
DATE OF BIRTH: December 14, 1913 and died January 10, 2008Collection includes:
(10) Small V Mail envelopes
(65) Letters from Wyatt to Goldie
(1) Post war ID when he was a chauffeur
(1) Notebook with lots of names of war buddies and addresses
(2) Church bulletins from Papua New Guinea
(1) Photo of Goldie and another woman who could be his mother
(6) Receipts from the Danville State Savi gs Bank in Iowa
(1) Receipt from John H. Witte & Son\'s made out to Albright Service Station
Lots of these letters having Army stationary and there is a coin stuck to the letter, looks BritishCome with me on a journey, a journey of a young American of our greatest generation...
Because his letters were so lengthy and he was such an introspective person, I really got a good sense of who this man and his wife were. Wyatt Albright was a typical hard-working man of mid-western stock. He was already 35 and was running a Conoco gas station with his wife Goldie when he left her to enter the service. Not a young man, he battled through basic training with high distinction.This is a love story between a Midwestern couple who were faithful to their work and the people in their lives. They kept each other strong through their constant correspondence. Once Wyatt mentions receiving 72 letters in one day from her, his parents, friends at home and on the front. He writes about buddies he lost along the way. A notebook survived with the names and addresses of these people and comes with this collection. After he got shot he tells his folks he won\'t send Goldie any more telegrams because they scare her. A true romantic, in one early letter he writes \"it is peculiar and wonderful how two people can be so far apart and yet be so close\". \"...I would be nice to you and scold you and love you and kiss you, well hell I just wish you were here. Don\'t worry I\'m not crazy yet, just desperately, definitely and thoroughly in love with you my Golden even if it took a war to make me know how much\".He was a lover AND a fighter. He wrote loyally to his wife from the time he entered basic training until he returned wounded from sniper fire in 1945. He was deeply in love with Goldie and I have scanned copies of a few letters where he talks in depth about what she means to him. He loves to surprise her with good news and would put little notes in his parents letters just for her and would use one of his many nicknames he had for her.We pick up his story in early 1943 from Boot camp and he gives his wife a daily schedule that she can follow:
4:30 Clean barracks / 5:30 Inspection / 6:00 Breakfast / 7:00 March to rifle range / 9:30 Two hours of lecture / 11:30 - Lunch / 12:15 - Drill, practice and physical training / 5:-5:45 Entire platoon dresses in uniform for class parade to HQ. / 6:00 Supper / 7:00 last lecture and drillThen in October of 1943 he is at O.R.J.C., The 1st Ordinance Training Regiment at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Company A in Maryland. His days are very full with not much time to write. He describes camp as 82,000 acres full of men and activities. The discipline is rigorous and the weak are falling by the wayside. He is very grateful for his good health, good brains and guts. Wyatt is a very introspective person and tells his wife everything he feels about his current situation, the war and the people around him. While in Maryland he notes how grateful he is for the knowledge he has gained at the camp and he values the deeper insight he has into how the men interact with each other and the situation.March 1944 finds our man at O.P.C.S Rosaford, Company A in Toledo, Ohio - This was Ordinance Parts Clerical School. He was here for training for a short while. There is letterhead with this information on one of his letters.May, 1944 He does very well at O.R.J.C. and moves to Camp Beal, California Company a, 4th B.N. While here he writes a beautiful Anniversary letter to Goldie (see scan) He didn\'t want to send a telegram because he knows those scare her.From what I could glean, it looks like our man entered active service sometime near August of 1944. It was now time for our soon to be hero to take what he has learned across the Pacific with men who had never been on a ship before. He notes in one letter that it took twice as long to get to their destination and many of the boys got seasick. Along the way they saw whales, sharks and flying fish. He describes his surroundings with lots of detail, even noting that when they got to the equator there was no twilight, just darkness or light. Their first stop was the Philippines where I find a date of September 18, 1944. \"We weathered our first tropical storm last night. The sunrise comes up from the sea over the jungles. Just behind us the mountains are covered with all shades of purple mist and it is a beautiful thing to witness\".August 17, 1944 - Finds him in Papua New Guinea. Still fresh in the tropics, Wyatt tells Goldie he has become a G-string expert as that is all the natives wear there. He describes the beautiful beaches littered with remnants of battles and bloodshed. He says the natives are friendly but thinks they should be left alone and not contaminated by other cultures as there life is better without that. He notes that the children have stomachs the size of basketballs and their teeth black because of eating beetlenut. He mentions trading items from home with them for food items.An introspective soul, he talks about how differently the men deal with their fear of war. He said he is not afraid as he has made peace with his maker and that the hardest part for him is being away from his beloved. He tells Goldie a young soldier from New York was shot and killed just ten minutes after getting off his landing craft (LCT) On a personal note this made me cry because my own father was a Lt.Jg. on a LCT in the Philippines and this could have been his fate. Wyatt feels the people back home are not taking the war in the Pacific as serious as they should be. He regrets not going in the Navy because they had more decent places to sleep and got good food being on the ships.There is an address he wrote from in February of 1945 which is about the time he was injured but the letter doesn\'t mention that so it had to have been shortly thereafter. It shows it written from the Army\'s Military Police Troop, 1st Cavalry Division APO 201 SFO. Keep reading to find out what happened.We don\'t know what day he was shot or where but he made it to the 13th General Hospital somewhere on Papua New Guinea in March. APO 322-1-13 and he was in bed #13 he notes and he was probably feeling pretty unlucky at this point! He may have been wounded at Leyte Gulf as I found a news clipping from there about a native Phillipine baby who was bayonetted by the Japanese and the American soldiers found her and kept her alive.He only describes what happened to him briefly in one letter (see scan) as he tells Goldie \"You see I went 2-1/2 miles through enemy territory alone while wounded (shot in stomach). I got security for a bridge, help for my companions and brought home two prisoners\" His commanding officer came to get details of his actions while in the hospital. He told Wyatt that he was recommending him for the bronze star. He goes on to say that what happened was all in a day\'s work for a combat M.P. He got down to 140lbs after the incident so being 5\'11\" he must have looked pretty thin!He describes the emotional condition of the men in the hospital with him, the nurses doctors and people in charge. He describes the flight in a C53 airplane around the islands of Papua New Guinea. He says he listens to the radio and news from the front. He likes to hear the Tokyo Rose Broadcast. He has a quirky sense of humor and likes to tell his wife monkey jokes (only one was crude) See scan of a letter he typed as a joke about the Lone Ranger.I can\'t imagine the fear that struck Goldie when she got the dreaded telegram from Washington that her husband had been shot. I could not find that in these letters although I did not read all of them. I did find the letter from the War Department dated April 4, 1945 that reads: \"Dear Mrs. Albright, I am pleased to inform you that the latest report received from the theatre of operations states that your husband was convalescing on 13 March. You will be notified immediately when additional information is received\" It was signed J.A. ULIO Major General / The Adjutant General (see scan)March 20, 1945 - P.N.G. Hospital: Wyatt draws a sketch of his injury and mentions the bullet hit a pair of nail clippers he had in a pocket. The bullet fragments entered just below his right rib cage. The doctors said it was a .25 caliber round from a Japanese rifle that hit him and he overheard them say he only had a 50/50 chance of surviving the surgery. He had refused help when he got to the hospital until he knew there were ambulances being sent back to find the other boys. He was alone and had to walk 2.5 miles with this horrible injury. A Captain from the 1st Cavalry came to see \"the iron Man from the M.P. Troop\". He says he may now receive the SILVER STAR. Remember Wyatt is 35, not 25 when this happened. Inside this letter is a small news clipping photo of General Mudge and Wyatt states that Mudge is a personal friend and one of the most outstanding people he has ever known.April 10, 1945 - Wyatt is bored and reading books and writing letters. He is able to attend the Chapel services (original bulletins come with this listing) with Chaplain D.O. Luginbill . They offered activities for the men who were well enough to attend like suppers on the beach, Bingo and short boat rides. Healks in depth about some of the soldiers who were also wounded. One boy was hit by a bullet in the groin and it pained Wyatt to hear him cry at night. When the coconuts would fall and hit the roof of the hospital it sounded like canons, sending the boys who were shell shocked ducking for cover.The last correspondence we find is our hero telling his wife that he has healed and doesn\'t know where they will send him to fight next. He surmises it may be Leyte Gulf or Hawaii. He tells her his experience at the hospital has been a good one compared to others; that he gets good food and is treated well. His last note he wrote on the back of the envelope \"Well, I couldn\'t get a commission but there is a PURPLE HEART IN THE FAMILY NOW\" He may have put that on the outside on purpose for others to see.He and Goldie discuss what they should do after the war. He says he trusts her judgement on what to do with their business and if she wants to sell it she can. He wants to stay in the gas business as that is what he is familiar with. In this collection is a receipt from 1936 made out to Albright Service Station and indeed in Goldie\'s obituary it mentions that she and her husband ran the Conoco Gas station in Danville for many years so they did stay in that business. Her obituary can be found online. No photos of him were found, just the one of Goldie and his mom sent to him when he was serving. She would have been around 30 and he 35 during his time at war.