This is the first letter where Chuck starts talking about his ship assignment. He talks about loading up supplies, the upcoming shakedown and starts wondering what his mission will be. (There is a word I couldn’t discern from the handwriting. If you can tell what it says, please comment.)

A shakedown is a new ship’s initiation, prior to setting into the open sea. A ship is put through stress tests and drills to make sure it is seaworthy. The tests are both for the integrity of the ship itself and its crew, who is often being freshly introduced to the ship and its capabilities.

Also interesting in this letter is Chuck’s “code”. He has come up with a system of passing messages to his family to bypass the censors. I haven’t gotten into the latter letters yet, to see if he ended up using it or not. We’ll see!

The reply at the end of the letter is Frank O. Paul, signed “FO.” I’m not sure when he would have written on the letter, or why, as I am sure he wouldn’t have been mailing the letter itself back to Chuck. Also regarding his note, I think I’ve read it correctly despite the sentence being incoherent. If you are able to read it as something that is more logical, please let me know.

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