I was incredibly touched when a woman in Ohio reached out to me in October 2022 to ask if I would like to have a postcard written by my late cousin Owen Douglas Huls, to his maternal grandmother Ann Shriner in our hometown of Logan, Ohio. Yes, please!
Written on a U.S. Navy postcard, it has no stamp just a notation of "Free" in the top-right corner. The postmark appears to read Nov. 1, 1943 from Jacksonville, Florida
Sun.
Dear Grandma,
I received your cookies & candy yesterday and they sure were good. I enjoyed them all eve. You sure can bake good. I also received the candy from Grace (possibly his maternal aunt Grace). Thank her for me will you. Tell everyone I said hello. How are you by now? Has it turned cold there yet. It is cold at nites [sic] here & warm in the day time. I graduate this Thursday. Then I'll move about 15 miles to the Air Base. I'll start to fly then. I'll be in a PBY (a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was used in the 1930s and 1940s). Later I'll be transferred to either B-24 - B25 or B-26. Hope to get in a B-26. That's all for now so I'll sign off.
Love,
Owen
This is the only thing we have left of Owen. Tragically, he was executed on June 6, 1945 while serving in the Pacific and his body was never recovered.
Rest in Peace cousin.
-30-
