Ted Fletcher served in the Navy in the southern Pacific Theater on PT-124. This collection includes a manuscript entitled "The Fletcher Family--The War Years : containing copies of Photos, Letters, and Memories from the Big War, Vols. 1- 3," which is composed of letters, images, and articles from Ted Fletcher's time in the Navy. There is V-mail with the letters. The letters run from Fletcher's training for a torpedo boat up through the end of the war. There are numerous images of family, New Guinea, Guadalcanal, and Tulagi. WWII Manuscripts boxes 2 includes articles with pictures on the development and use of PT boats. The articles provide information on the locations of PT boat squadrons and individual boats during WWII, including both the Pacific and European Theaters. There are a very large number of letters to his wife. The letters discuss life in the Pacific, bombing, casualties, Bob Hope, disease, Dengue fever, weather, and numerous other topics. A number of letters, including one dated December 29, 1943, has a forerunner of the �smiley face.� He discusses getting comfort from letters. Ted Fletcher was stationed at Tulagi, near the �Iron Bottom Sound." He was also at Bougainville and New Guinea. boxes 2 has Volumes II and III of the manuscript. Volume II contains Fletcher�s letters to his wife, �Bea', from December 4, 1944 until March 5, 1945. It also contains letters from Bea to him from January 31, 1943 until March 15, 1944. Bea numbered the letters starting when he went overseas in September. After that time, there are 108 letters in this boxes. There are letters from the husband to his wife that discuss Home Front life. Volume III contains letters from his wife dating from March 17, 1944 to May 16, 1945, numbered 109 to 347. There are also a large number of letters from his father and mother. The letters contain a wide variety of information about the Home Front from family information to politics, war bonds, and sports, as well as a number of other topics.
