Lieut. Gilbert
Steingart
U.S.S. Ocelot, F.P.O.
San Francisco
Sunday 22 July 1945,
10:50 PM
Dearest Eleanor,
Sunday, a day
of rest at home. So just to make things
more like home beginning today no appointments except emergencies.
Nothing to do
all morning except read. I also wrote a
letter to Uncle Bill. I'm way behind in
my correspondence again so soon I'll just have to take a day off to catch up.
I failed to
mention that we had a new officer report aboard to replace Jim Lyons. His name is Brossears. He is married; his
wife lives in Oakland. He and I went
ashore today. I told Simmie when I saw
him on Friday that I'd be over this morning.
Well we didn't get there until 3:00 PM and he had gone down to the
beach. I left him a note and may see him
Wednesday night. Anyway we went back to
the club and had a few drinks. At five
o'clock our boat picked us up and we returned to the ship. I had just enough time to shower and freshen
up before dinner after which we played our regular game of cribbage until movie
time. We had a real oldie today but
everyone enjoyed it. "Mutiny on the
Bounty" was the cinema.
I got three
letters today and since I've already received later mail, most of the stuff you
write about has already been hashed over by me.
In spite of
what Leon told you, orders come from the Bureau. Even he said in his letter
that he wouldn't be surprised to get orders to ship out.
I've written
to Libby about my mother and should be hearing from her soon. Anyway it won't do any good worrying about
it. We'll just have to wait and see.
Sorry you
didn't enjoy the Fleisher party. I still
think you would have been more miserable had you stayed at home. Every chance you get to go out, do so.
Sweet I never
was chaplain. I'm welfare officer which
is the chaplain's job. Being chaplain is
a full time job. I'm still a dentist,
remember? Yes I'm still librarian. But
now that everything is squared away, the enlisted man who runs it for me does
all the work and I retain the title.
I guess the
mess treasurer's job is mine until I leave.
When I was first appointed we only fed eighteen officers. Now we have seventy regular members and have
better than two hundred guests each month.
The captain insists there is no one else for the job so I'm stuck.
About the
linens you mention; all I've seen are bridge table size. As I've mentioned before, the Japs took
everything they could and destroyed what they left behind. Where we are now there is no industry or
agriculture so fancy linens are not obtainable.
Our strange
honeymoon sounds intriguing. All night
long with my big girl and all day with all of my girls should keep me quite
busy. I will love it!
Well Darling,
I'm getting sleepy and I've run out of things to say so goodnight until
tomorrow.
Yours always,
Gil
The Eighteen Officers
The Movie
The Letter
Ashore
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