Sarah Z. was cleaning up our basement and ran across a photo album we had forgotten about. Inside was an envelope with several letters my dad sent to his mom while he was in the navy and some other memorabilia. The letters and evelopes have been mixed up overtime; the images below are how they came to me.

As has become customary for me, larger versions of the images are available by prepending "big_" to the filename: ....big_discharge-front.jpg rather than .../discharge-front.jpg. If you'd just like a copy, here is a PDF of the images (~5.8MB).

The portrait doesn't have a date but says Glen Mills Studios Tuscaloosa Alabama.

His discharge was there as well.

Sept. 2, 1945

Dear Mother and the rest of the family,

I arrived at Great Lakes at about 6:30 Saturday afternoon. I had chow and them I was issued bedding - 1 mattress, 2 blankets and 1 pillow. I was assigned to a receiving Co. with about 60 other boys, all R.T.s. We won't be issued uniforms until we have a full company. Then we will move to boot camp, which is about 500 yards from my present barracks. The food is better than I expected. The only trouble is we have to stand in line about an hour. That's about all I kow now. Don't write until I send you my permanent address.

Love,
Loren

16 May 1947

Dear Mother,

We're just off the coast of Australia tonite — we're scheduled to pull into Sydney at about 0800 in the morning.

It's a little cooler than it was when we left Hawaii — we're wearing blues now and sleeping under blankets again. We crossed the equator on the 7th with a great deal of ceremony.

Early on the morning of the seventh all of the pollywags were herded into a pen on the flight deck. One by one we ran through a line of shellbacks who were busily swinging canvas belts that had been dipped in salt water.

The grand finale was a visit to the Royal Barber. Under ordinary circumstances our heads would have been shaved — but I guess the admirals figured that the Australians wouldn't be properly impressed by a bunch of bald-headed sailors — so no hair was cut. Anyhow after sitting in the barber's chair long enough to get smeared up with grease — we were dumped into a tank of salt water — then crawled through a tunnel filled with the interiors of turkeys and other such stuff. After that we were all shellbacks.

We've been pretty busy in the shop most of the way down. Flight operations have been held about every other day. I'm what you might call the shop foreman now. About all that means is that if anything gets fouled up in the shop I get blamed first.

I hope you got your radiogram on your day. I arranged to have it sent before I left Hawaii.

The only land we came in sight of on the way down was Rotuma Island — between the Fiji and Ellice Islands. It looked like an inactive volcano to me.

$10.00 of the money order goes to Leland. I'll send some more after I leave Austrilia.

I've been listenting to an Australian radio station — they speak English — not American.

I hope I get a lot of mail tomorrow.

Love,
Loren

[The cut off portion of the notice says "The Royal Court of the Royal Domain of NEPTUNAS REX and the Golden Dragon".]

25 May 1947

Dear Mother,

Sydney is really quite a place. I don't believe there's another place in the world that could have given us such an enthusiastic reception. There's been so much going on — dances — sightseeing — etc. that it will take two weeks at sea before everyone recuperates.

All the people — unofficially, that is — are extremely pro-U.S.A. and anti-England. I haven't heard a kind word spoken for England since I've been down here.

We're tied up at some pylons across the harbor from the center of Sydney. Commercial ferry boats and our launches run back and forth between the ship and Sydney proper.

Food prices are very cheap — however just about everything else is higher than in the States. Clothing is still rationed. Wages, too, are much lower than those in the States.

I was out with a couple of the fellows from the R.A.A.F. the other night — they were home on leave from Japan. They told me that saccharine was the most valuable trading item in that area — so if you could get your hands on half a dozen bottles — they might come in handy.

Nothing official on visiting Japan yet though — the latest word is this — After leaving Australia we'll go up through the Solomon Islands and stop at Truk for a couple of days. Then on to Guam and after that — China.

We're getting three out of four days liberty — and that fourth day on board is welcome — believe me. I'm about ready to catch up on some sleep now.

Love,
Loren

Guam
22 June 1947
Sunday

Dear Mother,

The information about crossing the line was sent back by the ship. All who wanted to put the required information on a sheet of paper and the ship took care of it from there.

How did Dad like his trip to Oklahoma? I guess it was kind of hot.

The ship goes to Saipan on Tuesday. All of our aircraft and most of the air group personell flew up there just before we pulled into Guam. We'll be there until the second of July when we shove off for Manila.

We've finally got around to fixing a good short wave reciever for personal use in the shop. Los Angles is coming in very clearly now.

One of the chief warrants from the shop has been transferred to the Coral Sea — a carrier now at Newport News, Va. He was a very nice person to work for and he really knew electronics.

That's about all the news
Love,
Loren

P.S. $30 enclosed