Photo of the Day

It is November 10, 1943.

The Pearl Harbor attack was twenty-three months ago.

And war is being fought across the globe.

Marines pinned down on Blue Beach at Cape Torokina, Bougainville, November 1, 1943.

At present, US Marines are engaged in heavy fighting on the South Pacific island of Bougainville, after making an amphibious assault there at the beginning of the month.

In three days, FDR will board the USS Iowa at Hampton Roads, Virginia, for a secret voyage across the Atlantic to meet with Allied leaders Churchill and Chiang Kai-Shek in Cairo.

FDR, seated, addresses the officers and crew of the USS Iowa.

And as FDR prepares for his secret voyage, he receives this letter from a twelve-year-old boy in Louisiana:

Dear Mr. President,

I really don’t know how to write a letter to the President of the United States, but I’ll try to do my best.

Poster art by Haddon Sundblom, 1942.

The point is I’d like to be mascot of the Marines.

Idaho schoolboy, 1941.

I’m 12 years old and a little young to get into anything right now, but when I’m a little older well just you wait and see.

Schoolboys in Richwood, West Virginia, September 1942.

A lot of people are going to kid me about this letter but I don’t care.

Washington, D.C., 1935.

And if sometimes you get tired up there in Washington you can come down South and stay with us a little while.

New Iberia, Louisiana, early 1940s.

Of course that’s if you bring your ration book.

War ration book no. 3, valid September 1943, included 8 pages of stamps, four for meat rationing, and four for a clothing rationing program never put into effect. Some clothing stamps were eventually validated for shoe rationing.

Your friend and also a Democrat,

L.J. Weil

New Iberia, Louisiana

Members of the 173rd Airborne Brigade pinned down in a bomb crater near Dak To, South Vietnam, November 1967.

This boy, L.J., will join the Army in 1951 and serve as a Green Beret in Korea and Vietnam.

After a difficult week, it’s good to remember that this country makes some really good people.

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I’ll see you tomorrow.

— Brenda