Letters Home:  Lloyd Staley to Mary Gray

July 19, 1918

My Dearest Mary,

 I have had two more letters from you since I wrote last. Ones I should have had a week or so before I got them. One of May 26 and the other of June 2. These letters had been down to K Co. and then back to me. That is why they were slow in getting around. The mail eventually finds you even if the letters do not come in chronological order. These were both dandy letters just like I want to get from you. They did me a world of good and I can read them over and over again and still there is some new inspiration I can get. I only hope my letters to you are half as good. I also got two letters from Mother, one from Clarence18 and one from Louise D.,19 making six all in one day. That is pretty good for one time, don't you think? But I guess they had been saving up so as to shower on me.

 I am glad that you had such great success in your Red Cross campaign. I know there is no joy like that you feel when you do some useful work for such a wonderful cause. I, too, am doing my little bit in this big task for you. For you are my America and embody all the ideals that our great country stands for. Maybe if America had let her task slide by undone it would not have affected me or you materially, but we would not have upheld the ideals that our country was founded on and sooner or later the effect would have been tremendous and America a mere puppet to some gross power built upon false ideas. So what am I that I should not go and fight against the evils before us. If I should fall, there certainly could not be anything nobler in my short lifetime to fall for. So, there you are, and I think that most everyone in our Army has some of the same sort of an idea. Oh, this is a fine bunch of boys over here and anyone should be proud to be with such an outfit of real red-blooded Americans. That last word is a wonderful word. You can't just realize how much it really is until you come to an occasion like this. Don't you know I believe I have some of the same feeling as the old crusaders had when they left to conquer the holy land. We are here to preserve a holy land and make it indestructible forevermore.

Well, I just came in from seeing them shoot at a Boche20 plane. Some fireworks. They make things lively, I can tell you. When anything like that starts, they blow a bugle for everyone to get under cover but usually we all run out to see the fun.

 I sent you a little Kodak picture in the letter preceding this one.

I will tell you again so maybe it will get by alright. Well, there isn't much more than that I can write about now. Everything is moving along fine for me. We had quite a bit of mail from USA yesterday and I expect there will be more today. We like to have it come even if we do have more work to do, for a few days work is the spice of life over here.

Well, goodbye until next time, little girl. With all sorts of love to the truest blue American in USA.

Your own (even if a million miles away) Lloyd

From: Letters Home From the War