Collections : [University of Michigan William L. Clements Library]

This collection is made up of 15 letters that Sergeant Carl Thomas wrote to his wife Ruth while serving with the 4024th Quartermaster Truck Company in India and Burma during World War II. Also included are 3 letters that Carl and Ruth received from acquaintances and an unidentified photograph.

This collection is made up of 15 letters that Sergeant Carl Thomas wrote to his wife Ruth while serving with the 4024th Quartermaster Truck Company in India and Burma during World War II. Also included are 3 letters that Carl and Ruth received from acquaintances and an unidentified photograph.

The first two items are letters that Carl Thomas received from friends while stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky, in mid-1943. Lieutenant Louis Zanine and Private Roosevelt Thomas discussed mutual acquaintances and their military assignments. Ruth Thomas also received a V-mail letter from Corporal Walter Washington, who was then serving in Europe with the 386th Engineer Battalion, Company B.

Carl Thomas wrote the remaining 15 letters to his wife Ruth between September 7, 1944, and February 14, 1945. He often wrote on United States Armed Forces stationery, and one of his letters (on United States Service of Supply stationery) includes a printed illustration of a snake charmer. In his brief letters, Carl discussed the weather, homesickness, boredom, and abstention from alcohol. He sent Ruth and others pillowcases from India or Burma, where he served throughout the final years of the war. The collection includes a photograph of an unidentified landscape.