Here we have a wonderful, two-page, ink letter with an excellent war date of September 16th, 1918. The letter is on very nice YMCA "On Active Service with the American Expeditionary Force" letterhead. The cover is almost completely separated but is "all there". Very heavy censor stamp in lower left with censor's bold signature.

 

The letter is addressed to Miss Mayme Warner of Portsmouth, Ohio and is from her brother, Carl. What's really cool is that I also have a letter for sale from Mayme's OTHER brother, Jesse! Take a look in the WW 1 category. I listed that one awhile ago and am just now getting around to listing this. It has fantastic content about German subs and not being able to leave the docks in France for the time being.

 

This letter has very touching, tender content from an older brother to his kid sister. It sounds like she just started college or perhaps they referred to their high school teachers as "profs" back then. Carl is serving in France and is not quite -- but almost -- begging his little sister to write more often. The doughboys felt terrifically isolated. It was, for the most part, the first time American soldiers had been sent to war in a foreign country since the 1840's and the war with Mexico. They did, of course, fight in Cuba in 1898...but that was so close to Florida. And the Philippines were an American colony at the time. But this was an entirely different experience...fighting in France alongside, not just Frenchmen, but Brits, Aussies, Belgians and even some Portuguese! Carl Warner was one lonely soldier.

 

The coolest thing about this letter is that Warner is from the 14th Balloon Corps; Balloon Division; Air Service. That's how he lists his return address on the cover. I wish he had talked in the letter about his work but he was obviously aware censors were quite strict about such things. This may be one of a very few Balloon Corps member letters ever to come on the market!