Military family.

• Author: Connell, Daniel
• Position: Letter to the Editor

Dec. 8, 1941, found my career navy man father on board his ship in Manila Bay as the Japanese bombed the Cavite shipyard and ships in the bay ("Home Alone" by Clara Bingham, April). He had been overseas since the summer of 1941. We would not see him until 1943, when he showed up at our Navy quarters in San Diego. Curiously, war's end found him in Subic Bay, less than 100 miles from Manila. Unlike today's military wives and dependents, we seldom knew where my father was or when he might be home. His letters were our only link to him, and sometimes months went by before my mother received any. Like her counterparts in today's military, loneliness was an awful fact of day-to-day life.

Despite many hardships, however, my mother loved being a Navy wife. Married in 1934, she developed close friendships with other Navy...