From:  Lester F Harris F 1/C

USS Gherardi

c/o Postmaster

New York, N.Y.                                                                  Saturday nite  October 31. 1942

Dear Folks,

I received your letters a couple of days ago but the past week has been quite busy for all of us so I haven’t been able to get any letters written.  A couple of weeks ago I was caught up on nearly all of my correspondence but I’m behind again now.  Be sure to use the new address as we are leaving soon.  I think I’ll have a chance to send some letters again in a few days.

We went out to Chesepeak Bay on Thursday and came back Friday afternoon.  The water was smooth and we had a nice trip.  We saw lots of ducks in the river and bay.  Suppose we could have hit any of them with our five inch guns and machine guns?

The weather was clear most of the way and there was some very pretty scenery along the river.  We saw a three-mast sailing boat that was fishing.  It was a novel and pretty sight.

Paul asked what kind of a bed I sleep in.  Well, it is just the width of the mattress I sent home. It is made of steel tubing and the bottom is wires spaced about four inch each way with springs at the ends.  It is pretty comfortable.  Three of them fold up real close together during the day.   At night when we let them down there isn’t room to sit up or draw up our knees.  A few of the boys have awakened during the night and tried to sit up suddenly and they bump their heads.

I can’t find your letter right now and I can’t remember any other questions you asked.  One of the boys is going ashore pretty soon so I’ll send this with him.  He is a young “rebel” from Georgia and you can sure tell that he is from the south.

I think I will send a suit of dress blues home if I have a chance as I want to keep one good suit and I don’t need two suits now.

Wallace, I’ll try to look at the radio equipment and talk to some of the fellows about it.  I was in the radio room the other day but I was checking the ventilation and didn’t notice the radio much.  I do know that you would need to know Morse code for this work.

Is it cold yet?  I haven’t worn my peacoat yet and my Jersey only one  morning.

Do you have much corn to shuck yet?  Tell Frances that I am leaving and I’ll try to send her a letter from my next port.

Love to all.

 

Lester