No theme runs stronger through letters to Aunt Ruth than memories of Ann Arbor. Recollections of campus life, from the mundane to the majestic, clearly sustained students and alumni throughout their military training and service.

John Sterling Chase, U.S. Army

Jan. 25, 1942

California

“We are on seven-day week basis here, with a skeleton crew on Sunday afternoons. This is my Sunday on the skeleton crew and since work is pretty well caught up, I’m typing a few letters here at the office. My work is similar to the work done in the File Room at University Hospital of which Miss Batchelder has charge. We are kept busy most of the time. Now that war has started, the training program has been intensified and takes up the time left after our hours of duty in the hospital.

“While sitting here writing this letter, many Ann Arbor memories return to mind. While there, I lived on the corner of State and Catherine. It wasn’t a bad walk to school while I was attending the University but sometimes it seemed a long way to the hospital on a cold, stormy morning.”

Margaret “Peg” (Ross) Emery, USNR WAVES

Wife of Richard Emery, who was stationed in Norfolk, Va.

Date unknown, most likely 1943

“I want to start this letter because I also am enjoying the Dailies more than you’ll ever know. When my parents and sorority sisters get a little bit negligent about writing I still can get some word of Ann Arbor. So you see you are keeping up the morale of the boys in a second, indirect way. By keeping their wives happy and un-homesick (is there such a word?), the wives are more able to keep their husbands happy. And something from home certainly keeps me happy since Ann Arbor is also my home as well as the place I go to school.”

Philip F. Wicklund, U.S. Coast Guard

May 24, 1943

“Overseas”

“I received my degree (A.B.) from the hand of Alexander (Ruthven) in June 1938 in Ann Arbor, and so of course I have a certain interest in the University and the town. I have many pleasant memories of the place.”

“Little did I dream when I left the stately portals of Angell Hall that in four years I would be running around in bell-bottom pants. But so it goes.”

Philip F. Wicklund, U.S. Coast Guard

July 26, 1943

“Too bad the girls have to take over the job of beautifying the campus. … I myself, in my humble way, spent many an hour washing the windows in Angell Hall. Later I got a more refined job in the Middle English Dictionary office. Today I know more about window washing than I do about the Middle English Dictionary. All I recall about it is a man named Price who spoke perfect English (probably Middle), but whose son, for some unknown reason, had a strong German accent.

“Sorry to see the dances at the League have been discontinued. I had some fine times there trucking around. But everything changes.”

Philip F. Wicklund, U.S. Coast Guard

Oct. 29, 1943

At sea

“The other Saturday I heard a snatch of the Michigan game over the radio, but it didn’t last long enough to learn the score. However, it took me back to the old days and, in fact, made me rather homesick.

“I am sort of behind the times as far as the University is concerned, and don’t quite understand the set-up now, with the new semester starting Nov. 1, etc. I remember the first week I ever spent in Ann Arbor—it rained every day and my opinion of the place was none too high.”

Alvin C. Clark, U.S. Army

April 5, 1944

Camp McCoy, Wis.

“This is a lovely camp but I had much rather be back in Ann Arbor. I did so want to be there when the trees started leafing out again.”

George F. Ceithaml, U.S. Navy

April 9, 1944

“The weather over here is becoming more and more like Ann Arbor spring. Golly I sure think of A2 a lot and can’t wait till I see it and its citizens again. I never thought I would become such an enthusiastic supporter of any organization. I always felt that I just wasn’t built that way. But just have someone say, “boo” about good ole Mich and I’m down his throat in a hurry. I’ve got the “Joe College Spirit,” I guess. I’ve been meeting quite a few Michigan men in this area and boy do we talk over good times.”

Stanley G. Waltz, U.S. Army

June 8, 1944

“Somewhere in England”

“Suspect you may have thought I would go into France with the first invasion—can just imagine how (wife) Catherine must have worried. Please assure all my friends I am well and happy and not concerned about the future. I wanted to get foreign duty and won’t complain, come what may. This is the biggest show the world has ever seen, and I am proud to play a small part in it.”

Donzel Betts, U.S. Army

June 24, 1944

Camp McCoy, Wis.

“Now it seems that I have forgotten many of the things I learned in school there, but I have not forgotten the good times we had together. It is too bad we didn’t learn to know each other sooner.

“Are there many Army fellows left on the campus?”

Alvin C. Clark, U.S. Army

Aug. 24, 1944

Germany

“I dreamed last night or this morning that I came back to Ann Arbor for a visit. I could see the Tower and Hill Auditorium as plainly as if I had actually been there. Shows I really want to come back there. Somehow I never got any further than the museum door. I was afraid of those panthers. Silly dream, wasn’t it?”

Hildie A. Johnson, U.S. Navy WAVES

Dec. 6, 1944

U.S. Naval Training School (Women’s Reserve), Bronx, N.Y.

“I got your name through a friend of mine—a Lt. Bob Barrie of the Naval Air Corps. Bob and I have been great friends since our sophomore year… way back there in 1941… and we both regard Ann Arbor and its doings in sort of an ethereal light… since we’ve been away, it has also taken on the aura of a mecca.”

Hildie A. Johnson, U.S. Navy WAVES

Jan. 2, 1945

Written after visiting campus while on leave

“Leave in Ann Arbor was just grand! I got to Ship’s Ball… and I felt almost like a co-ed again. That college atmosphere is perpetual, I guess. Although faces were different, still the kids do the same things and think and talk about the same things as when I was in school. It does me a lot of good to realize that—I’d hate to have to come back to a totally different campus.”

James A. Baird, U.S. Navy

Feb. 21, 1945

“Somewhere on the Pacific”

“I can still remember the day that I was walking through the museum and you asked me to sign my name and birthday. The service still seemed far away, but looked like a lot of fun. It so happened that it was very close and not as much fun as I expected. Although I’ll have to admit I have had a lot of fun and have seen places I probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

“I imagine the University has changed a great deal since I left. More women and less men. I would certainly like to be back right now.”

James A. Baird, U.S. Navy

April 8, 1945

“Somewhere in the Pac.”

“I wish I could be back at school right now. The spring at Ann Arbor is the highlight of the season to me. It’s so hot here that you could fry an egg on the deck. However, the islands around here are very beautiful. The colored coral also add a great deal.

“I imagine that the campus is now loaded with girls. It certainly is different than it was in peacetime. I wonder what it would be like if the war wasn’t going? I think there would be just as many girls as there is now.”

Wallace K. Klager, U.S. Army

May 10, 1945

Goppingen, Germany, with the 7th Army

“Yesterday I heard re-broadcasts of the V-Day speeches of both the President and the Prime Minister, also some of the celebrating in London. I would have liked to have seen there again, or better still to have been at home or in Ann Arbor. One of these days not too distant all the fellows will be back there again and things will seem normal again, at least to me.”

George F. Ceithaml, U.S. Navy

Aug. 21, 1945

Stateside

“The Navy has its point system for discharge out and I don’t come close to it. It bothers me, for while I was more than willing to give up my personal safety and desires to share the burden of war—I am now of the opinion, that the share I contributed, no matter how small, is all I expected to do and how I want to return to Ann Arbor and a life I do desire. There are many more like me and I also feel they are right.”

Arlie D. Reagan, U.S. Navy

Aug. 24, 1945

U.S. Naval Hospital, Corona, Calif.

“I bet, already, many of your boys are coming back to Ann Arbor to see you. You, young lady, are going to have many callers from now on. WOO! WOO! Sure wish I could get back there sooner.”

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