31 August 1945
4:30 P.M.
Darling Evie,
Have a half-hour to kill before quitting time, so I thought I'd avail myself of the opportunity to type this letter to you. The Commanding General talked to us as scheduled this afternoon, but he left us not very much wiser than we were before. The gist of his speech was that the high point men would get home before the low point men (as if we didn't know), and while the bulk of this command would be here a few months yet, we all almost certainly will be home by Xmas. Which, I think, is just about what I had led you to expect - . However, if all goes well, it's just possible that we may all be home sometime in October, or November. As far as yours very lovingly is concerned, there is a good possibility that because my 69 points as of 12 May and soon, I understand, to be increased by 13 more, which will give me a total of 82, and which figure represents the very top bracket (after we get rid of our present 85-pointers, which will be next week, I may get home much sooner than many of the others, but almost certainly not before mid-October. Altogether, then, it means waiting about 8 weeks more. After sweating it out for two years, that shouldn't be too hard to take, but as I pointed out the other day, the time is starting to drag, and 8 weeks seems a very long time indeed. I hope, dearest, that you aren't as impatient for my return as I am, because I'd hate to feel that you are all keyed up over it to the extent that it becomes annoying. The one factor that makes it all bearable is the thought that I'll almost certainly be eligible for discharge from the Army when I hit the States.
Your V-mail of 22 August arrived this afternoon, but aside from one controversial item (what again? Yes again!) it was your usual routine letter. The item I am taking exception to is this: "I'm wondering how I'd work out a 30-day vacation when you are on furlough, but I'm afraid it is almost impossible for me to have the entire thirty days off". That tears it, it really does. Do you for one minute, Chippie, really believe I’d permit you to go to work while I was home on furlough - even if I had to return to camp afterward? Not on your life! The chances are - I'll be a civilian the next time you see me, because I'll probably be separated from the service within 48 hours after I get off the boat, but even if I'm stuck in the Army a few months after I get home, I most certainly expect you to give me all your time when I come in for my furlough - even if it means quitting your job, which I think it's high time you did anyway. But your intention of continuing to work even after I come home is downright preposterous, and you had better make up your mind to do as I ask, 'cause I just won't stand for it any other way. I hope I have made myself sufficiently plain. You can prate all you like about the extra money you could save, that it would be better to continue working until I am earning a "decent income", and all the other arguments you have used on other occasions - the answer is still an unequivocal NO! I'm amazed and disappointed that you put your job before spending my furlough with me. When I said some days ago that your sense of values was all cock-eyed, I knew what I was talking about. But little did I think that you would so quickly offer the proof of my statement! I don't think you'll be foolish enough to persist in your attitude, Sweet, but if you even attempt to, then I must warn you that you needn't count on me for anything at all. If you don't consider that I'm entitled to a wife (in the fullest sense of the word) after more than two years away from her, I do! What's more, I mean to have her or else! I'll leave the "or else" to your own conscience and imagination. Further, I'm not at all flattered that you could even consider the course you have seemed to take for granted, much less advocating it! God, Chippie, will your eagerness for money and material benefits always blind you to the other important things in life? Or is nothing else important without it? Oh, Hell, what's the use, we’ll never feel the same about this and that's all there is to it! I'm too upset about this to write rationally any more, so I'll say what I have always said and meant and what I will say and mean as long as you let me - I love you. My dearest love to Adele. Love to all from
Your Phil
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