TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ROGERS DEMOCRAT JANUARY 9, 1919 P. 1
Dec. 1, 1918:
Dear Homefolks:
I'll try and write a few lines to the dear ones at home this most beautiful Sunday afternoon. It seems funny that we are not out scrapping subs. We have been going so much in the last year that it was hard on the boys to stop all at once. We have been as nervous and fidgety as a bunch of old women but guess we will get used to the change in time.
We have the honor of getting the last sub that was sunk before the armistice was signed. We were in the Mediterranean when we got orders to come in. I don't think I really knew what real living was or felt like I was doing anything worth while until we got in here, and if another war breaks out I would not stay out of it for the world.
Have been in 19 different ports since we came over and wherever we have gone the people have met us with open arms and tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible.
Princess Mary, only daughter of the king and queen, has been entertaining some of the boys to tea but I haven't been one of the lucky ones yet. The little princess is very much thot of and has been very busy during the war nursing, encouraging and helping. She is sometimes spoken of as the second Queen Victoria.
Ireland is a fine and very beautiful country, altho I can't approve of the stand they took in the war. The old city of Cork, with its very quaint and old fashioned ways, is a very nice little place. I didn't see any pigs in the parlor but I saw them very near the houses and the pens or stiles as they call them are cleaner than lots of houses.
When we first landed in France and the good old people understood that we had come to help rid the world of the greatest curse God ever let live, their delight was pitiful as the tears ran down their honest faces and they told us how they had been mistreated by Fritz. It made us want to get out and fight like h----.
Must stop for this time. You son and brother,
F.R. HEMPHILL.
NOTES: Francis Raymond Hemphill, of War Eagle, Arkansas, was writing to his parents from Plymouth, England. He was born on March 10, 1887 in Iowa and died on July 11, 1967. He is buried in the Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His military headstone identifies him as a Oklahoma WT US Navy serving in World War 1.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD
Dec. 1, 1918:
Dear Homefolks:
I'll try and write a few lines to the dear ones at home this most beautiful Sunday afternoon. It seems funny that we are not out scrapping subs. We have been going so much in the last year that it was hard on the boys to stop all at once. We have been as nervous and fidgety as a bunch of old women but guess we will get used to the change in time.
We have the honor of getting the last sub that was sunk before the armistice was signed. We were in the Mediterranean when we got orders to come in. I don't think I really knew what real living was or felt like I was doing anything worth while until we got in here, and if another war breaks out I would not stay out of it for the world.
Have been in 19 different ports since we came over and wherever we have gone the people have met us with open arms and tried to make our stay as pleasant as possible.
Princess Mary, only daughter of the king and queen, has been entertaining some of the boys to tea but I haven't been one of the lucky ones yet. The little princess is very much thot of and has been very busy during the war nursing, encouraging and helping. She is sometimes spoken of as the second Queen Victoria.
Ireland is a fine and very beautiful country, altho I can't approve of the stand they took in the war. The old city of Cork, with its very quaint and old fashioned ways, is a very nice little place. I didn't see any pigs in the parlor but I saw them very near the houses and the pens or stiles as they call them are cleaner than lots of houses.
When we first landed in France and the good old people understood that we had come to help rid the world of the greatest curse God ever let live, their delight was pitiful as the tears ran down their honest faces and they told us how they had been mistreated by Fritz. It made us want to get out and fight like h----.
Must stop for this time. You son and brother,
F.R. HEMPHILL.
NOTES: Francis Raymond Hemphill, of War Eagle, Arkansas, was writing to his parents from Plymouth, England. He was born on March 10, 1887 in Iowa and died on July 11, 1967. He is buried in the Rose Hill Memorial Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His military headstone identifies him as a Oklahoma WT US Navy serving in World War 1.
TRANSCRIBED BY LAEL HARROD