Will I Ever Find Lieutenant JGJ? Probably Not

I have some WWII postcards that I call the "too tough pile." Try as I might, I can't find the soldiers who wrote the cards or their families. But being persistent (a polite word for "stubborn") I pull them out now and then and give them another try in the hope that maybe some new information will have popped up on the Internet.

Perhaps the most frustrating postcard in the "too tough pile" is one that only has the sender's rank and initials, not his name. 

See the images of the card below. Not only is the message intriguing, so is the card itself. Take a look at how it describes "stewardesses" as "Jills-of-all-trades." 

From the message on the card I know the sender was a Lieutenant, and his initials were JGJ. He was in the Army, not in the Navy, so I've ruled out the possibility that he was a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, abbreviated Lt. j.g.

The card was postmarked Nov. 22, 1942. Lt. JGJ wrote the card while on a flight from Washington, DC to Nashville, where he mailed it. The card is addressed to a woman named Barbara in West Haven, Connecticut (I'm not using her full name). The salutation is "Dearest Barb" and the card is signed, "My Love, John," so I know his first name. One can surmise that he and Barbara were more than just friends.

I found Barbara in the 1940 census, living at the same address as on the postcard. The census information included her age and middle initial, which made it possible for me to determine that Barbara married a man named Charles in 1955. Barbara died in 2006 and Charles in 2011. They had one son, whom I tried unsuccessfully to contact to see if he knew the identity of the mysterious JGJ.

I also searched the National Archives database of World War II enlistments, looking for men named, John, middle initial G, last name starting with the letter J, who were from Connecticut. I found several possibilities, and eventually weeded out all but one. The one remaining looked promising -- he was of about the right age, came from a town near West Haven, and was an officer. However, he died in 1970 and all attempts to locate his children failed.

So, what was the relationship between Lt. JGJ and Barbara. Did their romance die out? Was he killled in the war? One intriguing fact is that Barbara's husband, Charles, was in the Air Corps during the war. Did Charles and Lt. JGJ know each other?  I suppose we'll never know.

One final note -- I'm writing this on the morning of Nov. 22, 2013, the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination. I was 13 at the time and remember it vividly. By coincidence, Lt. JGJ's postcard is postmarked Nov. 22, 1942.

Norbert Kuchman -- Combat Medic

Sometimes the journey of a postcard is almost as interesting as the journey of the soldier who wrote it. Such is the story of a postcard Norbert Kuchman wrote to his girlfriend, Fawn, back home in Rochester, New York during World War II.

Norbert entered service in 1943. He went on to be a combat medic in the European Theater of Operations and saw combat during the Battle of the Bulge. He apparently wrote quite a few postcards to Fawn, and I found one of them postmarked Nov. 6, 1943 for sale on eBay earlier this year.

The postcard had been through quite an odyssey. In the course of 70 years it appears to have gone from Norbert at Camp Upton in New York; to Fawn in Rochester; to an estate sale; to a flea market; to an eBay seller in Kentucky; and finally to Norbert’s son, Dave.

When I spotted the card on eBay it was easy to track down Norbert’s family because Dave had posted his dad’s obituary on the web site Find A Grave, along with photos. From the obituary it was clear that Norbert didn’t marry Fawn; he married a girl named Jane in 1950 and Fawn married someone else. Norbert passed away in 2006 and Fawn in 2011.

Knowing that Jane was still living, I was hesitant to contact the family concerning Norbert’s postcard to an old flame. I decided to take a chance and contacted Dave via email. I told him I was concerned about “opening a can of worms.” He replied, “No can of worms. This is great!!” Dave confirmed that the card was from his dad. He said his mother knew about Norbert’s earlier romance with Fawn and it was not a sore subject. As Dave explained, “My Dad met Fawn and my mother thru his sister Agnes. The girls went to school together and knew each other.”

This was one of the few cases where I returned a postcard to a family without first buying it myself. Instead, I told Dave where to find it on e-Bay and he bought it. The seller has several other cards written by Norbert, and Dave continues to buy them as they’re put up for auction. His most recent email to me said, “I was able to acquire thru eBay auctions on Friday four more of my Dad's postcards. Three more to go.”

Dave told me about other interesting pieces of his dad’s memorabilia: “I have his military scrapbooks and also his Army journal given to him by Fawn which follows the post dates on the postcards. Kind of neat to link the postcards to the journal.”

Like so many from the Greatest Generation, Norbert, who undoubtedly witnessed terrible things as a combat medic, returned home and led a long and productive life. He and Jane had five children. He retired in 1983 after 30 years with Eastman Kodak.

Dave preserves the memory of his dad and other relatives who served by posting their stories on web sites devoted to veterans, such as http://www.wwiimemorial.com. The listing for his dad is here:

http://www.wwiimemorial.com/registry/search/pframe.asp?HonoreeID=2388092&popcount=7&tcount=8.

Dave summarized Norbert’s military service:

“He served with the 385th Infantry Regiment of the 76th Infantry Division as a Combat Medic. He later joined the 308th Medical Battalion, Company D of the 83rd Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge.

“He was Honorably Discharged on January 27, 1946 as a First Sergeant and reenlisted on January 28, 1946 in the Regular Army. In 1947 he was with the 250th General Hospital in Germany where he purchased a new 1947 Volkswagen and toured Europe. He was Honorably Discharged as a Second Lieutenant on April 5, 1950.

“He was awarded Bronze Service Stars for Campaign Ardennes, Campaign Rhineland, and Campaign Central Europe. Also awarded was the Good Conduct Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Medal, Combat Medical Badge, World War II Victory Medal, American Combat Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Occupation Medal, Marksman Shooting Badge (Carbine-Rifle), and the Bronze Star Medal.”

Many WWII postcards featured cartoons poking fun at Army life. The cartoon on Norbert’s postcard to Fawn showed soldiers being issued ill-fitting uniforms. In his message he added, “P.S. My uniform fits me well.”

Here are images of the postcard, a photo of Norbert in uniform, and a photo from the wedding of Norbert and Jane.

Jane Quigley: Army nurse, American hero

We lost another member of the Greatest Generation this month. Jane Quigley was an American hero, serving as an Army nurse in England during World War II. She passed away Nov. 13, 2013, just a few months after her 100^th birthday.

I learned of Jane through a postcard for sale on eBay by a seller in England. The history of the card remains a mystery. Lt. Jane Quigley sent the card from England to a minister friend in New Jersey in 1943. How it got back to England and showed up on eBay 70 years later will never be known.

Since the price for the card (about $25 with shipping) was higher than I usually pay, I tried to find Jane’s family to let them know about it in case they wanted the card. When I did a Google search I found a newspaper article from July 2013 about Jane’s 100^th birthday. I contacted the newspaper and they put me in touch with Jane’s niece, but Jane had passed away by the time I reached her.

The niece said she knew the person the card was addressed to but had no idea how it got back to England. I contacted the eBay seller, and they didn’t know either.

Following is an excerpt from Jane’s obituary:

“Jane volunteered to be in the Women’s Army Nurse Corps during World War II. She went to England on the Queen Mary and served two years of active duty in Braintree, England at the 121st Army Station Hospital. When she returned to America, she went home on the Queen Mary and served a third year in the Army. Jane was an RN Graduate of Newark City Hospital. She was a member of the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Manville and the George Taylor Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in Easton, PA.”

The news article published on her 100^th birthday said Jane told her niece that she sat in the same seat on the ocean liner Queen Mary when going to England and when returning two years later.

Here are links to the news article and Jane’s obituary:

http://fucilloandwarrenfuneralhome.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2323613&fh_id=13161

http://www.manvillenews.com/story.cgi?section=news&story=doc51f98fd007904632632853&s=1+page_0

Jane was one of about 59,000 nurses who served in the Army Nurse Corps during the war. If you’re interested in the Nurse Corp, here’s a good history.

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/72-14/72-14.HTM

The listing of the card on eBay is here (the link may expire when the card is sold or removed):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/370615646383

More stories about World War II postcards can be found in my book, "Postcard Memories From World War II.:

http://www.amazon.com/Postcard-Memories-World-War-Keepsakes/dp/1479385980

Honoring Their Dads' Sacrifice

L.D. Suggs, III lives on a golf course in South Carolina. Bob Brough’s home overlooks a lake straddling the Michigan-Indiana line. They’ve never met each other, but they share a common bond.  They are among the approximately 180,000 Americans left fatherless by World War II. I’ve had the privilege of visiting both men at their homes (and losing a golf match to L.D.).

Many people who lost their father in the war were so young they never knew him (that’s true of Bob and L.D.). Most of these people are now in their late sixties or older, and some belong to the American WWII Orphans Network http://www.awon.org.

I met Bob through a postcard written by his father, Joseph E. Brough, in 1942. I bought the postcard on eBay. That was the easy part. Finding Bob was one of my most difficult research projects. It took a year and some help from a local newspaper to finally track him down. (A news article about the postcard is at http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20130528/NEWS07/305289967/-1/NEWS09. There’s a minor mistake in the headline; the card came from eBay, not an antique shop.)

Joseph Brough was an aviator who died when his aircraft went down in the Pacific in 1944. His body was recovered after the war and returned to his hometown of Peru, Indiana for burial in 1950. Bob remembers being a small boy standing with his mother to meet the train carrying his father’s casket. He also remembers marching as a Cub Scout in a parade when a monument to soldiers killed in WWII was dedicated on the courthouse lawn in Peru.

My connection with L.D. is more personal than a postcard. During World War II my late mother was just out of high school and worked at Camp Van Dorn, a training base near her hometown of Centreville, Mississippi. We still have her Army ID card. It was signed by Lt. Lorenzo D. Suggs, Jr., Provost Marshall. Lt. Suggs completed his assignment at Camp Van Dorn and was sent to Europe. A prison commander, he was transferred into combat during the Battle of the Bulge and was killed Jan. 13, 1945, just a few months before the war in Europe ended. His body was returned to the United States after the war and is buried in the family plot at Loris, SC, near Myrtle Beach. My wife Becky and I spent last winter in the Myrtle Beach area and paid our respects at the cemetery.

I connected with L.D. by mail, and then visited him at his home in March 2013. On the wall in his den is a display with a photograph of his father in uniform, framed medals, and other mementoes from his wartime service. Three months later I visited Bob’s home and saw an almost identical display dedicated to his father.

The attached photos show Joseph Brough's postcard and mementos on the wall at his son's home, and photos of my mother's ID card and Lt. Suggs.

Seven decades have passed since L.D. and Bob lost their fathers. They carry their loss with dignity and pride.

Yep, it's a small world

During the time I’ve been researching World War II postcards, my wife Becky often said, “One of these days you’ll find a card written by someone you know.” I always replied, “Not gonna happen.” Well, it happened.

A few months ago I found a postcard on e-Bay that was written in 1942 by a sailor named Gene Puett, addressed to friends in Ten Mile, Tennessee.  (Yes, there really is a town by that name.) Gene Puett was an attorney. He went on to be a long-time legal counsel at my alma mater, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. I knew Gene by reputation but never met him. However, his wife, Sammie Lynn, was on the College of Communications faculty at UT and was a member of my thesis committee when I was a graduate student in 1973.

Gene and Sammie Lynn did not have children, and they have both passed away. I tracked down one of Gene’s nephews, who happens to be the family historian, and returned the card to him. He confirmed something I suspected when I saw the card – Gene Puett liked to joke around. The typewritten card was address to:

Mrs. Ed Odom and Family

Ten Mile

Down in Tennessee

The salutation is, “Dere Foks.” Gene was an educated man and was obviously putting on the hillbilly lingo.

Adding to the “small world” nature of this postcard, the image on the card is an aerial shot in San Francisco looking north over Russian Hill toward Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. Several apartment buildings are visible, including one where I lived for six months in 2002 on a temporary assignment while working for the Bechtel Corporation.