WOULD SLIT YOUR THROAT FOR A DIME, SOLDIER LEARNS
Sgt. Fred Kindig of Kingsley Yearns For Dear Old U.S.A.
The following letter appeared in the Kingsley News-Times written by Sgt. Fred Kindig, who is now serving in the Army in Sicily:
Dear Aunt Nell:
You’re on the ball, lady. Three letters from you this week. I hope it’s true the little brother is getting a furlough to go home, but wish the little devil had written me that he was going.
Decoration Day has gone by and I’m a year older. Have spent four birthdays in the Army. I’m wondering how many more I will spend here. I hope none. They should send us old guys back home and let new ones in for awhile. Even if I’m not old, I sure feel old some times.
The longer I stay over here the more I think the U.S. is the only place to live and the rest of the world is counterfeit.
These countries are all alike. If you have a dime, they will slit your throat for it.
You asked if we have eggs. Yes, powdered ones, but who wants to eat that stuff. It tastes like the devil, but every once in a while we have fresh eggs when we can find enough for breakfast. As for the price, if we had to buy them ourselves, they would charge all they thought they could get out of us. I have paid 14 cents a piece for them and fried them myself. It might be hard to believe, but now I like my eggs sunny side up instead of broken and spread all over the frying pan and fried to a crisp. See what the Army is doing to me.
Now for the radio programs you asked about. I’ve never heard a broadcast direct from the States, but we have delayed broadcasts from London. One reason that we don’t get them direct is because the Germans jam up the air and cut them out.
~Sgt. Fred Kindig, Q.M. Depot Supply Co., Sicily.
Source: Globe-Post, June 26, 1944
***Further Research:
Fred Earl Kindig was born May 30, 1914 to Albert “Bert” and Anna Marie Trout Kindig. He died May 30, 1991 and is buried in San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery, Santa Nella, CA.
Source: ancestry.com
