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ALVIN E. NUNES (1944) |
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Alvin Nunes Newman ’s
only representative in the paratroopers ran into a bit of hard luck
over in Italy and had to spend 41 days in the hospital. Just what
happened Alvin couldn’t
say in his letter written on December 28th but he was getting along
OK and said no one was going to collect on his insurance just yet.
In fact he wrote that he was on his way back to get another dose of
it and expressed the opinion that the radio commentators were a bit
off in their reports that the war was going to be over soon. From
persons! experience Alvin thinks the going is getting tougher each
day — a
statement amply supported by news reports during this last month.
However Alvin was eager to get on with it as Christmas 1944 would be
a nice day to be at home. He hopes that he will continue to be lucky
for he describes paratrooping aptly in six short words: '"Talk about
suicide, this is it.”
Then he goes on to say that he asked for it
— and got it
— and is
willing to keep on getting it. [03 Feb 1944] |
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Alvin Nunes the
paratrooper is doing his jumping on a truck now following the injury
that put him in the hospital for awhile. The truck driving is being
done with his old outfit to which he returned after being released
from the hospital pretty well recovered. At camp he found 78 letters
several Christmas packages some Indexes
— mail that was
awaiting his return to duty. One of the letters told him of his
father’s
recovery from illness —
and that was really good news.[23 Mar 1944] |
Alvin Nunes got out of the hospital over
in Italy after a bit of bad luck while paratrooping, went back to
the front and experienced some more ill fortune which put him back
in the hospital once more. When he wrote on March 7th he said
another week or so would put him in shape to try it again.
"It only takes about an hour,”
Alvin writes, “to
get back there from here. Things are plenty warm around these parts
and how we all wish we could get this all over with so that we could
go home and be where a man won’t
be able to hear these 'big guns going off every two or three
seconds. You hear a shell screaming over your head and you start
praying that the darned thing just keeps on going. It kind of gets a
fellow down after awhile. If a plane is heard overhead you try not
to pay any attention to it but your head snaps up anyway and you
hope it’s
one of ours. If it is you feel relieved. But if it isn’t
there’s
heck to pay and you start digging some more.
"And maybe you see your buddy right along side of you get hit right
between the eyes and you wonder why you didn’t
get it also. One thing I can say for sure and that is that War is
hell! Yes I wish that the people back in the United States could
actually see some of the things we are going through and I’ll
bet they wouldn’t
he grumbling about rationing and sacrifices and all that. To tell
you the truth they are not sacrificing anything compared to what
these hoys out in those foxholes have to sacrifice. They’d
give anything in the world just to get back to the States.
"I hope you’re
not getting me wrong by thinking that I’m
complaining because I’m
not. Just as long as my folks and friends can live safely I’m
willing to take my chances out here. I hope the censor lets this go
through so it can he printed. Maybe it might help to wake up those
people who complain.
"I won’t
be able to write to all my friends again after I go back to the
front until after we return to a safer place. Say hello to all the
good people of Newman and tell them the next Nazi I get will be for
the people at home. In closing I’m
going to ask you to tell everyone to do all they can for Johnnie
Doughboy out in the foxholes for right now he needs all the help he
can get to keep him going and get this war over with. It’s
tough to shoot and club and slit throats but that’s
the way of war. Yours as long as my luck holds out—
Alvin”
[06 Apr 1944] |
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Somewhere in England Is the address
given by Alvin Nunes who had spent several months in Sicily and
Italy before being moved into what he finds to be a delightful
climate, delightful surroundings and delightful living, plus the
delight of knowing that the big excitement is due to begin most any
time across the channel. He figures that not too long afterwards he
and the other boys from here will again be walking along the streets
of' Newman. Alvin read in the Examiner the correct story about the
night the paratroopers jumped into Sicily which was quite a night
what with the extra shooting that was going on. He writes his thanks
for everything and sends best wishes to all at home.
[01 Jun 1944] |
Alvin Nunes serving with the parachute
infantry is still jumping. Letters written the latter part of
September revealed him to be in Holland. They arrived here the same
day as did another letter written on October 19th
— and it was
headed Germany. So it is amply evident that Alvin is traveling right
along with the rest of the boys on the road to Berlin.
He expressed his appreciation to the retreating Nazis for leaving
behind some writing paper otherwise he would have been short of
stationery. In his first letter Alvin said he had seen German soil
for the first time and since it didn’t
look any different from any other soil he had seen he figured the
Yankees would soon have a large chunk of it. The second letter told
of crouching in fox holes for as many as four hours at a stretch the
Germans acting as though they were mad at some one.
But on October 19th “things
are going fine against a country supposed to raise nothing but
supermen It won’t
be long until there’ll
be a celebration. Regards to the folks at home and to the gang all
over the world Alvin”
[02
Nov 1944] |
Another letter from Alvin Nunes
— this one dated
October 18th —
is headed Somewhere in Germany, indicating that Newman’s
paratrooper is still moving ahead. First from here to jump into
Sicily and Italy, Alvin has now added two more firsts to his record
— first to
jump into Holland and then into Germany. It’s
been quite a battle so far and he writes that the
“Screaming Minnies”
and the “hog-callers”
from the Nazi guns sometimes sound as though the entire Garman Army
was after a fellow.
Alvin has learned to be afraid of the dark
— finds it’s
safer that way especially since a tree or a fence post or a weed is
just as apt as not to get up and start walking your way camouflage
being what it is. But he’s
headed for Berlin and hopes he’ll
be among the first to jump in there. [16 Nov
1944] |
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