USS Quincy Letter

A little non-Able Company business (for Able Company business, check out the new live link to the In Camp section and the brand new Glossary page!) Andrew Rakowski won a letter for me on eBay some time ago, and I just came across it tonight while sorting out some other material.

It is addressed to Miss Barbara Austin, 123 Rutherglen Ave. Providence, Rhode Island; over the three-cent stamp is a postal marking with USS Quincy, October 9, 930 AM, 1940.

At Sea
USS Quincy
October 7, 1940

Dear Barbara,

Well, here I am. A real sailor with a regulation hair cut and all. We were at sea all last week and put into Norfolk, Va. Friday night for the week-end. All last week we had battle practice along with two other cruisers and battleships. It was great fun until they started firing the guns which is quite a sensation for the first time but after awhile you don't even notice it. Most of the fellows on the ship are from the South and it won't be long before I will be talking like them. The first thing I did when I got ashore was to have a good meal. The food on the ship is probably wholesome but it isn't tasty.

I expect to be back in Providence the week-end of October 26 and then I will have to start packing my things because we are going to move to New York on the same week-end. My father and mother are going to live at the Hotel Governor Clinton on 7th Ave at 31 St. until the spring and then they are going to move to some apartment house in Bayville, N.J. which is the town where my father's plant is going to be. It is a suburban N.J. town and should be pretty nice. WE will be able to enjoy the country and still be within a half hour's ride from N.Y. City.

When I will go to school for my 90 day training I'm not sure. I have applied for the N.Y. school which starts on Nov. 22. Whether I will get it or not is up to the good-will of the gods. If I'm not accepted for the further training period I have hopes of going to work for my father.

How is dear old [emphasis in original is double underlined] Walter these days. You ought to tell him not to be afraid of me as I have no intentions of hurting him. After all, my powers over women don't seem to be very great. Not as great as his anyway. I haven't even got a convertibile.

Last Thursday night I took Jane for dinner down to the Narragansett Hotel. We had a good time and didn't leave until about 12 o'clock. There were four other couples. One of the fellows, Bob Brokaw, was leaving the next week for the Army Air School, and Frank Burrows' brother Tom was leaving on the Sunday night for were her where he is going to work for the Aetna Life Ins. Co. They tell me Charlie Palmer has received a sizable promotion from the company that he works for.

That is about all I have to say right now so remember me to everyone and keep your shin up because better days are coming.

Joe

P.S. My address:
Mr Joseph Mason USNR
USS Quincy
c/o Postmaster
N.Y., N.Y
Division R


(The USS Quincy, CA-39, was sunk during the battle of Savo Island off Guadalcanal in August, 1942. My great-uncle, Lieutenant Commander Edmund Billings, was among the 370 men lost with her. I don't know any more about Joseph Mason; he likely left the Quincy after completing his reserve course, but was probably recalled to the service when World War Two began.)