April 9, 2018

April 9, 2018

Dear Listener,

Well you haven’t heard from Corporal Dip in while because he has been enjoying a hard-earned furlough. It is still a bit frosty in Minneapolis but seems to have warmed up enough to play a few rounds of golf. He took a few photos during this period but we are mostly left to piece the week together on our own.

One thing I know for sure is that his sister Dorothy had a baby this week in 1942! Happy Birthday Nancy! I know you’re following along and must have been expecting this announcement. Dorance was keen on becoming an uncle but you’ll see that he is quite taken with his new niece. It seems he was just able to meet Nancy at the hospital before leaving to head back to Fort Bragg.

Dorance has had an exciting spring in love. This situation may need some explanation. Before his number was called for the Army, Dip worked for Title Insurance Co. in Minneapolis. There he met and began dating a Marian S. I’m not sure when they started dating, but as you heard by now they stopped dating earlier this winter on Dip’s birthday (see letter from March 1st). Apparently she was engaged to her new suitor the next week! He is now corresponding with another Marion S., Marion Sneen, and seems to have set up a date with her for this furlough. To confuse things further, Marion Sneen mentions a third Marian (Marian Lueck) in her letter from March 2nd. Dorance still has many friends back at Title Insurance Co., and he’ll receive letters from them eventually, but he does not look forward to going back to work with the 1st Marian.

We will hear more later this year from some of Dip’s hometown pals. Rolie, Sykes, Art, Lee, Bob Coll and others did a decent job keeping in touch, though most of those letters are long gone. I’ll share the ones I do have to give a view into some of the other soldier’s experiences. They called themselves the Kins Club or the Kinsmen and seem to have been a very tight group. Dorance, as you may have guessed, was quite outgoing and had no shortage of friends. If you are related to or know any of the Kinsmen please let me know! I would love to hear from their families.

Currently Corporal Dorance Alquist is stationed at the Headquarters Battery at the Field Artillery Replacement Training Center (F.A.R.C. for short) of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He stayed at Bragg after basic training and took a position doing clerical work at the headquarters. He has risen in rank from Private to Corporal and is contemplating his next move. Soon he will have to decide whether or not he wants to apply to Officer Candidate School like some of his friends have. For now, though, Dip seems pretty content with a weekend pass and a few buddies to explore the dance halls of the nearby towns.

If you have more questions about the Alquist family in general or about Dorance in particular feel free to send them in on the Contact page of the website airmailfromdip.com or just reply to the emailed letter. I’ll try to answer questions the next time there is a lull in the letters. The most common question I get so far is which one of these women is my grandma? I’m going to dodge that question for now and let it play out through the letters.

Thanks again for listening in and following along! If you would like to help me in this endeavor please tell your friends and family, and maybe share a post online! And if you could help me offset costs by donating on the website I would appreciate that too. I would like to thank Fritz and Jody Fredeen and all the others for their past contributions! I’m really enjoying this project and look forward to sharing more of my grandpa’s story with you. He was certainly one-of-a-kind and his reporting on his personal experiences in the war is fascinating. Expect another letter home soon.

Your Soldier Boy’s Grandson,

Christian