“If worse came to worse, however, I am now convinced that I could grow a fairly presentable goatee …”

Background information and commentary by Andrew Carroll: Last week we featured a letter from World War II by a pilot who could barely conceal his disdain for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration and explained why he planned to vote for FDR's opponent, the Republican candidate Thomas Dewey. The young man, it turned out, would run for the presidency himself decades later. His name? George McGovern, who was the Democrat's nominee in 1972 and was pilloried during his campaign against Richard Nixon for being a peacenik liberal. Close to the same time that McGovern wrote his pro-Dewey letter in 1944, another young pilot, who had just been shot down and was rescued by the USS Finback , wrote a letter home to his parents. He, too, would run for the presidency decades after the war, but his World War II letter was considerably less political in nature than McGovern's. He hammered out the following letter on a typewriter aboard the Finback just two weeks after he had been rescued. (This letter was published, in its entirety, for the first time in WAR LETTERS.)

Dear Mum and Dad,

Several days have slipped by since I last sat down before this machine -- days not without excitement…

Gradually I am becoming more used to this life. At first I missed my daily bath but now I am used to my weekly one. I will say that I certainly do look forward to the day when my bath is due. Today was the big day. Water is precious, but soap is plentiful, so I soap and soap and finally rinse. It is amazing how much better I feel after this weekly pleasure. With my bath comes a clean set of clothes. I hate to have to borrow other people's things, but unfortunately I came equipped only with pants, drawers and flying jacket. They have laundryman aboard which helps some.

I have been on the mid watch for the last few days. That puts me on watch from 12-2 at night and from 12-3 during the day. This way I get a little sun once in awhile. If we are submerged I don't stand watch for obvious reasons….

The food continues to be excellent. I have not been sleeping as well lately, and I am sure it is because I never get any exercise. I could take calisthenics I suppose. I better start soon because I really do feel sluggish and rotten without at least a trot down the old flight deck.

I am certainly eager to get back to the squadron now. It seems like ages since I have been back. I can just picture the letters on my desk and I long to be able to tear into them.

Did I tell you about my goatee? It started off beautifully, but gradually developed into a joke-sort of like Gruff's moustache, so today off it came. If worse came to worse, however, I am now convinced that I could grow a fairly presentable goatee, given plenty of time. Most of the enlisted men aboard here have big full-faced beards. It is indeed quite a sight.

I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately. Retreat From Rostov; and Dos Passo's "Number One" plus "Captain from Connecticut" and now "The Robe”. The latter appeals to me a great deal. So far I have only read a hundred pages or so but it has been deeply absorbing….

My eye has completely heeled now-there is no scar and the only visible sign of the accident is a big bare spot where eyebrow should be growing. They were all kidding me because I have no scar or evidence of my wound now by which I can claim the PURPLE Heart.

I still think about the accident a good deal. So many thing that I could have done come to my mind and bother me. It was a terrible thing all right.

Getting on to another subject. Did you ever see that Oakes girl with the funny nickname, I can't remember it for the life of me. She was my downfall…

Well, I have rambled on long enough, and shall secure for now. The steaks are on the table. Much much love to all the family and to yourselves…

NEXT WEEK: The identity of the pilot who wrote the aforementioned letter, and a pre-Civil War letter by one of John Brown's co-conspirators…