Introduction
When my Mom died I took Dad's uniform and the duffel bag with it to our house. Dad saved his letters in a jumbled mess in his duffel bag. I knew he had saved them and I knew that someday I would read them and do exactly this with them. Until this year, they have traveled with us and lived in the duffel bag. This Covid-19 in house for our safety gave me the incentive to finally get them out and organize them. When I talk about the number of letters he received remember that it is the ones I found in the duffel bag. More could have arrived and were not put in the duffel bag. I suspect that letters from before the Southerland were mostly not included.
I found Dad's letters to be difficult to organize and to decide what to type in. I decided to organize by year and type in some letters and skip others. The ones I am skipping contain almost exclusively who is doing what regarding folks Dad must have know. I will include those that have any fun stuff or relevant history items. Most of the letters do not have a year on them and were not in an envelope, so sometimes I'm guessing the date. Other times it is clear he is in the Pacific dating the year as 1945.
Family Tree Stuff so you can at least kinda follow.
My Dad's Mom Ruth Gunderman, died when he was two years old. He was raised by his Grandmother Gunderman at Blawnox, Pa. She had three girls that lived to adulthood, Ruth, Naomi, and Alice. Alice married Finny Norum and lived in Detroit and later Chicago. Naomi married Chick Eichenlaub. They had two sons, Don and Bob. Dad spent a lot of his youth with Omie and his cousins.
From Grandma Gunderman
1944 letters
1945 letters
From his Fraternity Brothers: I did not include any individual letters. Many just discussed what they knew about whom. But they did write about some harrowing experiences.
1943-1944 8 letters
1945-20 letters
From Women he knew:
None were from our Mom.
22 total letters. Many from Nell Glass. I didn't really read them. They were letters that seemed between them. Someone else might read them someday.....but I decided I'm not.
Omie was my Dad's Mom's (Ruth Gunderman) sister Naomi Gunderman Eichenlaub (Omie). She had two sons Don and Bob. Don served in a Field Hospital in India and Bob wasn't in the war but was drafted when he graduated from high school. Omie sent letters to my Dad.
1944 letters
1945 letters
From his Dad Thomas Reitz
From Step-Mother Hilda Reitz
From Don Eichenlaub (cousin) I think Don Eichenlaub's letters might be interesting but I can't read them. My eyes just blur it all together and it doesn't matter how I try, its a no go.
From Ruth Gunderman Reitz sister -- Alice Gunderman Norum
From Bob Eichenlaub
From Helen Reitz (half-sister)
1 from Charles Croft (cousin)
1 Valentine Card from Omie
3 from Pat Croft (cousin)
6 Birthday Cards From
The Reitz half brothers and sisters
His Dad and Hilda
His Aunt Omie
Cousin Pat Croft
Aunt Jessie and Chuck
Margaret McCamra
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