Dog Tags & Paper Hearts
Letters sent from my grandfather to my grandmother during his time in the service (1944-1945), with cultural and historical context.
Dog Tags & Paper Hearts
Memorial
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Johnnie eagerly anticipates his furlough. Personal ads in 1945. A WWII Memorial.
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The milkweed industry Kutowski represented where the parachutes were made.
SPEAKER_00Welcome to Dog Tags and Paper Hearts, a chronicle of my grandfather's letters home during his time in the service. I'm your host, Don Friedman, and in each episode, we'll travel back to a time when swing bands ruled the airwaves, ration books shaped the dinner table, and handwritten letters carried love across oceans. Join me as we uncover the stories, sounds, and surprises of an era defined by courage, change, and a touch of romance. From the battlefront to the home front. On today's episode, Personal Ads, Buying the Dream, and a World War II Memorial. So pull up a chair, put down that Lonely Hearts column, and let's rewind the clock together. Because the 1940s weren't just about war and worry, they were about hope, humor, and heart. This is Dog Tags and Paper Hearts. A couple of news items from the front on the day this letter was written, February 2nd, 1945. In military news, across Europe and the Pacific, the fighting grows more desperate by the day, while Americans on the home front follow every newspaper headline, hoping for signs that the war might finally be entering its final chapter. The biggest story is the relentless advance of the Soviet Army. The Red Army is now driving deep into Germany itself. Soviet forces continue to push west after the spectacular January offensive, capturing town after town in East Prussia and Silesia. Reports from the front suggest that German resistance remains fierce, but it's becoming increasingly disorganized. Refugees clog the roads in bitter winter weather as civilians flee the advancing Soviet troops. Military observers believe the road to Berlin is beginning to open. Although no one can yet say exactly when Germany's capital will fall, the war has clearly entered a new phase. For the first time, many Americans reading their morning papers can realistically imagine the end of Hitler's Reich within months instead of years. Meanwhile, on the Western Front, Allied armies continue their slow but determined march toward the Rhine River. After surviving the Battle of the Bulge just weeks earlier, American, British, and Canadian forces are regrouping and pushing back into German territory. Progress is measured in villages rather than miles, with every crossroads and wooded ridge fiercely defended. Winter mud, snow, and demolished bridges bring their own challenges. For thousands of American soldiers, victory still means freezing foxholes, endless patrols, and artillery fire that never seems to stop. Across the Mediterranean, another important meeting is quietly taking shape. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin are preparing to gather for what will become the historic Yalta Conference. Although the conference has not officially opened, diplomats and military planners are already arriving. The leaders will discuss not only how to finish the war, but also how Europe will be rebuilt afterwards. Questions about Germany's occupation, the future of Poland, and the creation of a new international organization to preserve peace all await them. Few people realize it yet, but decisions made over the next week will shape world politics for decades to come. In the Pacific, American forces continue their campaign to isolate Japan. On the Philippine island of Luzon, troops under General Douglas MacArthur continue driving towards Manila. Japanese defenders are resisting stubbornly, turning towns and mountain passages into deadly battlegrounds. Engineers struggle to repair roads and bridges, while infantry units push forward under constant fire. Elsewhere, American bombers continue striking the Japanese homeland from newly captured bases in the Mariana Islands. These long-range raids are becoming more frequent, signaling that Japan itself is now firmly within reach of Allied air power. Back home, the War Production Board reports that American factories remain at astonishing levels of output. Tanks, aircraft, ships, trucks, and ammunition continue rolling off assembly lines in numbers unmatched anywhere in the world. While many Americans hope the war's ending is drawing near, factory workers know their jobs remain essential. Every rifle, every jeep, every artillery shell may soon find its way to a soldier overseas. The winter of 1945 also remains one of sacrifice on the home front. Gasoline and food rationing continue. Housewives still save cooking fat for explosive production, collect scrap materials, and stretch ration coupons as far as possible. Families eagerly await the mail, knowing that a single V mail letter from overseas can brighten an entire week. As February begins, there is a cautious sense of optimism in the air. Germany is being squeezed from east and west. Japan is steadily losing ground across the Pacific, yet no one can predict how much fighting still lies ahead. Every family with a loved one overseas understands that the war remains dangerous until the very last shot is fired. For the soldiers writing letters home and for the families waiting anxiously by their mailboxes, February 2nd, 1945 was another day balanced between hope and uncertainty. And another news? A scan of Johnny's local newspaper on this date uncovered the following statement in a section titled Personals. Miss Jane Brandt, 2009 Northwood Boulevard, will leave tonight to spend a few days with friends in Pittsburgh. That's it. That's the message. You can imagine my intrigue. I've no clue who Miss Jane Brandt is, but why would there be a couple lines in a daily newspaper announcing her three-day jaunt to Pittsburgh? This made me wonder about the purpose of the personal section in American newspapers circa 1945. What I discovered is that the personal section of an American newspaper at this time was somewhat of a catch-all column that served as a primitive social network. Long before email, long before text messages or dating apps, people used these small classified ads to communicate, reconnect, search for loved ones, and sometimes conduct business discreetly. Some of the common themes behind personals included lonely hearts advertisements. Now these were messages intended to draw in others for the sake of romance. They were fairly tame by today's standards. Some examples might include Army Sergeant, 27, honorable, enjoys music and dancing, seeks correspondence with sincere young lady, photograph appreciated, but not necessary. Or young widow, 31, fond of books and gardening, wishes to meet gentlemen of good character. These personals could also be messages to servicemen. Families sometimes use personals to send these brief public messages when they didn't know a soldier's current address, or believed he might read the hometown newspaper. If the message wasn't received directly by the recipient, there was also the possibility that it would be relayed secondhand by a friend or relative. Some of these examples might include, Jack, Mother Improving, everyone well, right when you can. Or, Happy Birthday, Tommy, we're all thinking of you. Come home soon. Similarly, some ads were placed in search of missing relatives or friends. Because wartime scattered families across the country, people often searched for former neighbors or old friends. Sometimes organizations placed announcements inviting former members to reunions. Such notices helped veterans reconnect years before organized online groups existed. And of course, business and legal notes. Many seemingly personal notices were actually legal requirements. So these could be notices to creditors, announcements of estate settlements, lost stock certificates, partnership disillusions, or name changes. There was lost and found people advertising missing valuables, pets, or important documents. And finally, and most intriguingly, coded messages. These were deliberately vague and oftentimes perfectly innocent. However, during World War II, there was always speculation that these mysterious notices sounded like spy communications, even though genuine espionage almost never relied on public newspaper ads. Examples of this type of message would include, Bluebird arrives Tuesday, everything ready, or the package was received, proceed as planned. With Americans on the move more than ever, these personals took on real significance. More than 16 million Americans served in the armed forces. Millions more relocated for jobs in shipyards, aircraft factories, and munitions plants. So families were separated for months, if not years, and addresses changed frequently as military units moved around the globe. A small classified ad costing only a few cents could sometimes reconnect people who had no other reliable way of finding one another. Taken together, they reveal a country living through extraordinary circumstances while trying to preserve ordinary human connections. And now the letter. Friday, February second, nineteen forty-five. I thought I'd never get a chance to write to you this week. Ever since we got back from Bivwack, we've been going to it without let up. In addition to cramming three weeks training into one week, we have had to spend all our time cleaning equipment, signing papers, going through inspections, and generally just working our fool heads off. I haven't been in bed before twelve thirty at any time this week, and in order to finish our training, we have had to rise and shine at four AM. Everybody is so groggy and nervous from lack of sleep and too much work that trouble is popping up all over the place. Fist fights, arguments, and general brawls all over the place. Lots of fun. For all I know, I may get home before this letter does. I hope so. Our training will be finished at twelve noon today, and all we will be doing is final checking and cleanup. Sign more papers, go through six or seven more inspections, get a final okay, and just wait for our shipping orders. We don't know exactly when we leave, but rumor has it that it'll be this coming Sunday morning. I hope to God that it is. I'm just sitting on pins and needles waiting for the call. I'll be leaving on a troop train and will probably end up in Chicago somewhere. From there I'll have to make my own transportation, but that shouldn't be too hard to do, and that will be the only time I can let you know when I'll be home, so you will have about eight to ten hours to get ready for me. I've got plenty of money to get home with, so there is no need to worry on that score. Even if there wasn't enough, I could still manage somehow. So don't worry about my coming home. I'll be there before you know it. Darling, I'm going to close now. I have quite a bit of work to clean up, and the sooner it's done, the sooner I can be cleared out. So until I see you, darling, here is all my love. I miss you with all my heart and soul, and I'm just dreaming of being with you again. Kiss the kids good night for me, sweetheart, and save a great big one for yourself. All my love, Johnny. Given the brevity of today's letter, this is the perfect opportunity for me to share an interview that I recently had with a fellow Chamber of Commerce member, Michael Gordon, an architect and partner in the firm of Moisive Gordon Associates Inc. How does an architect figure into a podcast about letters from World War II, you might ask? Well, listen up and you'll find out. Alright, I'm here today with Michael Gordon, an architect with Moisive Gordon Associates, Inc. And Mike, why don't you go ahead and tell us why we're here today?
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, the reason we're here today, uh, we're a full-service architectural firm and a broad spectrum of projects. The reason we're here today is to talk about the official state of Michigan World War II memorial that my firm designed that's being constructed in the Memorial Park in the city of Royal Oak, Michigan, right off of Woodward, just north of 13th mile. How did this project come to be? Honor Flight Michigan, if you recall, was a group of people that got together when the national World War II Memorial was constructed in Washington, D.C., there was a group of people who thought it would be a good thing is to fly all the local veterans from World War II to the memorial in Washington. So they raised funds and chartered airplanes and loaded up with the World War II veterans and flew them there so they could actually tour the official monument. When all the veterans that were around flew there, the organization looked in the mirror and said, now what do we do? And we've got this great organization, we get the staff, we got the people. So they said, you know what? The state of Michigan does not have its own World War II memorial. So they decided to interview multiple architects and said, we have to create a memorial. And Royal Oak was a logical choice because it's centrally located, and Memorial Park was actually dedicated for that very purpose to allow memorials to be built to the different wars across the world that America participated in. So I came up with a concept design based on a program that they were written. And during the presentation, there was a lot of conversation, and one of the goals was once this memorial is built, you know, what are some of the purposes? There was an educational component. Wanted to get components that represented all the contributions that the state of Michigan made to the war effort, and we wanted to represent land, sea, and air. One of the unfortunate things is in a decade or more from now, there will be no veterans left. And we've got to think about the future and who this memorial and how it's going to represent that generation and how it's going to be used. And at the end of the presentation, going through different slides, I said, and at the very end, it's going to be an ice skating rink in the winter after it's an amphitheater in the summer. And one of the board members said, You can't put an ice skating rink in the middle of a memorial. And I said, Yes, but it's to give it purpose for year-round, and people will come there and children will run and laugh and play and learn something. And one of the older veterans got managed to stand up and he said, No, the architect's absolutely right. This is why we're building the memorial, the freedom for people to have fun and enjoy and possibly learn something out of the way. I love that. So then they said, You win, you are selected, and I got the job.
SPEAKER_00And when was that? What year was that? I want to say 93.
SPEAKER_01So then we started designing it and working through the committee and came up with the present design, which covers almost an acre of land in the middle of the park and has multiple components representing all the branches of the military, and there'll be an interactive kiosk where if you scan the codes, it'll describe what you're looking at, and that's the educational component. And then the amphitheater is for classrooms to be held there, and again, all the way through to having an ice skating week in the winter.
SPEAKER_00Is this still a work in progress?
SPEAKER_01Yes. Okay. What's the projected? Um there is no projected end date. Okay. Um, it's all fundraising. Uh we've re raised about a third of the money that's probably going to be required to complete it. Um, probably about 30% of the memorial is there. We've uh we're just given a generous amount of money. The next sculptural component is under uh contract right now. It's going to be a child picking milkweed because the milkweed industry, Potaski, represented where the parachutes were made. Oh I'm sorry, not parachutes, uh, life preserves. Okay. Because silk wasn't available from Japan. So milkweed turned out to be a good substitute. So it was harvested and in Potaski, Michigan, the plant brought all here, and the little kids were employed in the fields to pick the milkweed. So that child's going to represent that that service to the war from the state of Michigan.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's some history worth preserving. Yeah. When I think of Michigan's contributions to the war effort, mid-1940s, I think of manufacturing. Right.
SPEAKER_01I think of the auto tanks and the auto industry, the tank the Rosie the Rivers of the world who took over the jobs when the servicemen left. So yeah, that's what number one pops in the head. But the other contribution was this milkweed industry making life jackets.
SPEAKER_00That's really cool.
SPEAKER_01I never knew. Yeah, so yeah, that's what we hope is that everyone you know sees the connections and sees the other things that we did and sacrificed. Another component is going to be the sculpture has already been completed. It's Joe reading a letter from home. And the Lancy and Air grouped together, except the land. Joe reading a letter from home, he's sitting alone in a foxhole. And across the memorial, his parents are sitting next to a radio listening to the news coming to them. And that's the only way they could communicate was through the radio or through letters from home. So that's the other component of how we stayed connected.
SPEAKER_00And I talk about that a lot on my podcast. The reliance on the daily news and the radio and calming voices and calming music to keep the home front to keep the home front calm during a very stressful time. I know Michael through the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce. We were chatting one day, and he mentions installing the Rosie the Riveter statue.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00And when did that go in?
SPEAKER_01Uh just last year. Well, we had a second dedication because not only was the Rosie the Riveter statue installed last fall, the piece of the airplane that she was working on, it was an initial piece of sculpture that was just recently installed this spring. Oh, okay. And another dedication was held at the site with several hundred people in attendance. And so now, you know, her rivet gun is now against the section of the of the plane. As as a classic, there's a classic photograph of the Rosie the Riveters, you know, actually riveting sections of the planes together. And that's what we recreated. And the sculpture was based on one of the original Rosies. She posed for it, and then they had pictures of her as Rosie the Riveter. And she's 103 years old, she's alive today. She was there through the whole process. And do you remember her name? It's uh Frances Masters.
SPEAKER_00Frances Masters. Yeah. And she lives in Michigan, if I'm not mistaken.
SPEAKER_01She worked at the Willowrun Airport. She's there, she's she's totally with it. Um, she appreciated being involved in the whole process. And as a matter of fact, when she arrived on site for the dedication, there's a group of Vietnam veterans that ride motorcycles. She rode in on the back of a motorcycle at 103 years old. I love that. And spoke and spoke for a couple minutes at this at the ceremony.
SPEAKER_00That's fantastic. You met Rosie the River. Well, she's not the Rosie the River. I understand.
SPEAKER_01A Rosie the River.
SPEAKER_00So we can say the Rosie the River. She's our Rosie the River. She's our Rosie the River.
SPEAKER_01That's fascinating. So she represents the air. Joe the soldier represents the land, and the child picking the milkweed. They represent the sea portion of it because those were the life preservers that were on the boats. The other sculptures that will surround Rosie the Riveter will be a bomber pilot and member of the Tuskegee Air Force. Because the bomber pilot flew the missions. Tuskegee Airmen protected the bomber pilots. And the connection here is they all were based out of and trained out of Selfridge Air Force Base. So that's the other connection to Michigan. To Michigan.
SPEAKER_00For those outside of Michigan, Selfridge Air Base is in the thumb, near the near the thumb of Michigan. So look at a map, find the thumb, and it's kind of at the base of the thumb.
SPEAKER_01Yes.
SPEAKER_00It's a pretty extensive project. Yes. How many sculptures overall? Nine.
SPEAKER_01Nine. Okay. You know, technically Rosie's two because the wing of the plane is one, and she's, but it's the nine components of the parents sitting at the table are actually three separate sculptures, but they represent the one vignette. So there's nine vignettes.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think this is going to be absolutely fascinating to go and see, um, both while it's in process and once it's completed.
SPEAKER_01One of the interesting things, the the evolution of the project has gone on, as we've discussed for a number of years, the Air Force did not, was not a standalone division of the Army. It was it was part of the Army Air Force. Okay. So the decision had to be made. We wanted to represent the whole military, and we put the flags of all the military up there. Well, we decided to put the Air Force even though they weren't officially uh recognized until after World War II, which then led us to another issue: Space Force. So we had to add the Space Force flag and recom redistribute the flagpoles in order to include them. Because if you include one, you have to include all. Every year we replace the flags because they wear out over the year, and we have another ceremony then, and a lot of you know the people are proud to sponsor the flags, sponsor the flagpoles and show up and put the flags up. So that's that's a fun ceremony too.
SPEAKER_00When does that occur? It's around Memorial Day. Memorial Day, yes, thank you.
SPEAKER_01Yes, the flag, the flag, the when they put the flags up, it's just a guess. Yeah, so you're right.
SPEAKER_00What else don't I know about this project in William Park?
SPEAKER_01Well, there's there's it's because it's started as Honor Flight Michigan, uh, opposite the flagpoles and on the far side of the park, there's a series of pillars, each one representing ideals, and there'll be plaques in front of Alphabeth to talk about different aspects and different components of the war, and then there'll be a silver ribbon twisting and connecting all the all these poses together, representing the ribbon represents the flight where these people were flown to Washington. That was a big symbol of where this whole thing started. In all the renders you can see it's very dramatic. It's shimmery. That was another element that we designed into it to tie this all together, literally.
SPEAKER_00What is the distinction for Michigan to have that park? And what a distinction for your company?
SPEAKER_01We are Promoting right now the 250 club for the 250th anniversary. If you donate $250, then you can go online. And you'll be recognized as a member of the 250 club. And how would people do that? If you want to go online, it's www.michiganwwt the numeral two memorial.org. And I will put a link to that in the show notes for everyone. Yeah, please stop by. It's right off Woodward, right between the fire station and the uh dealership. Our one gold, there's a granite wall that's 10 feet tall and 50 feet long. Gonna have the name of the memorial on it, and then a gold star on the backside representing all the fallen Michigan veterans. So the backdrop to Joe would be this wall of gold stars representing the veteran. That'd be fantastic. Yeah. I think it'll be a real statement piece, and we're hoping to get that funded soon.
SPEAKER_00So when you come to visit Detroit, uh make a stop in Royal Oak, Michigan. We're just down the street. And uh the park that Mike is talking about is at the corner of 13 Mile and Woodward. Can't miss it. As you said, there's a fire station um to the south of the park and a car dealership to the north, and the park is right in between that. So come visit. Thank you, Mike, for being here. Really appreciate your insights. And I've learned a little bit more about World War II and those that served, and I think this is just a remarkable dedication. So thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER_01You're welcome. And I look forward to uh future podcasts about the next phases of the uh memorial. And we really look forward to having it done and completed, and I think it'll be a landmark in the state of Michigan when it's done.
SPEAKER_00It sounds like yeah. We'll see if you complete the landmark before I finish the podcast. All right. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thanks. The top song in the U.S. on this date, February 2nd, 1945, remains Don't Fence Me In by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. Since I've shifted to counting down the 100 most popular songs of 1945, we arrive at number 92. I'll Buy That Dream by Hal McIntyre and his orchestra, featuring vocalist Frankie Lester. For listeners in 1945, I'll Buy That Dream was a perfect expression of wartime optimism, a gentle romantic ballad about imagining a happy future when the hardships of war were finally over. With music by Allie Rubel and lyrics by Herb Magginson, the song was composed for the 1945 film Sing Your Way Home. It earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and quickly became a favorite among big bands and vocalists. The version recorded by Hal McIntyre and his orchestra was recorded in May of 1945 and became one of the orchestra's biggest hits later that year. It followed the band's success with Sentimental Journey and reached the American charts in the fall of 1945. The song is a warm, mid-tempo swing ballad featuring Lester's relaxed vocal in lush saxophone harmonies, muted brass, and a gently swaying rhythm section. The arrangement has the polished, optimistic sound that was typical of popular dance orchestras in the closing months of World War II. The singer dreams of moonlit romance, a wedding, a honeymoon, a home, and eventually a family. One particularly charming lyric imagines traveling in a brand new autogyro before settling into married life. The repeated refrain, I'll buy that dream, isn't about purchasing something with money. It's about wholeheartedly believing in a hopeful vision of the future. With millions of American couples separated for years by military service, and with the promise of an end to that separation looming, I'll buy that dream celebrates anticipation. It tells listeners that imagining a better tomorrow isn't foolish. It's easy to understand why the song became so popular. It captured not just romance, but the quiet confidence that after years of sacrifice, those dreams might soon become reality. Thank you for listening to Dog Tags and Paper Hearts. You can find links to information contained within this episode in the show notes. I've also provided a link to my Spotify playlist of number one songs during the course of this correspondence. That playlist is also titled Dog Tags and Paper Hearts. Please keep the feedback coming by emailing me at Dog Tagspaperhearts at gmail.com. And most importantly, if you have a story from World War II that you'd like to share on this podcast, please drop me a line and we can make that happen.
SPEAKER_01Until next time, you can't get a lot of fun.