"What the heck, Jeanne" - August 4, 1941

Miss Jeanne Johnson
Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Pvt. L. Winsauer - Co B
45th Med. Bn. Camp Polk, La.

Monday Eve.

Dear Jeanne,

I didn’t get your letter ’till this morning, as I left camp Saturday noon to go to Shreveport (About 120 miles away) and didn’t get back until late last night.

Ten minutes after mailing my last letter to you I began to wonder if I perhaps had misinterpreted your words, and by the next morning I would have given just something to be able to have gotten it back. Perhaps the army does do something to one’s sense of humor — I don’t know. But darling, even now, knowing that you weren’t being serious, as I look at your letter again the words really don’t sound as if you were just kidding, even though you meant them that way. You don’t know how glad I was to get your letter this morning. I’ve been just about going crazy since last Monday wondering whether or not you’d write, and what you’d say if you did.

I your letter you ask me to forgive you — what the heck, Jeanne, it was all a misunderstanding and if anyone should be asking forgiveness it should be I. Will you do me a favor and tear up that letter I wrote and try and forget that I ever said what I did. (—Oh, oh, lights are going out so I’ll have to get back to the barracks) — Goodnight for now darling — I’ll finish this letter tomorrow. P.S — I love you —

Hello again — I only have about twenty minutes to finish this letter before we get the call to go out on a scheduled hike so please excuse the scribbling — You say you are leaving for Florida on the 14th and may be able to get to Leesville for a day or two — so that would probably be about the 20th wouldn’t it? If you can possibly make it I wish you would because heaven only knows how long it will be before we’ll be able to get the chance to see each other again, however I’m trying not to plan too much on you coming for if you have only 10 days vacation it’s going to be a pretty long drive from Florida to Louisiana and then back to Sheboygan—but I’m hoping. 

Where will you be staying while you’re in Florida? I wish you’d send me your address there, so that I’ll be able to get in touch with you if anything should turn up. I’m listed to leave Camp Polk for another camp either this month or next and the order to move may come through tomorrow, a week from now, or a month from now — No one knows. We don’t know where we will be sent or when, so it’s hard to plan on anything in advance. The latest rumor has it that we will be transferred to Fort Knox, Kentucky, but as I said, it’s only a rumor. Personally I don’t care where it will be just so it’s closer to home than Louisiana.

About that letter again Jeanne, I’m awfully sorry that we had the misunderstanding but if I didn’t give such a damn about you it wouldn’t have affected me the way it did — It really threw a scare into me and no fooling. So here’s hoping you’ll forget the whole thing — It’s past now and the fault was probably more mine than yours. I’ll have to close now as I’ve only five minutes to pack for the hike.

Looking forward to seeing you soon — good-bye for now darling.

Love, 

Louis