M-SGT EDWIN VAN GOOR MUCH SURPRISED TO MEET HIS BROTHER
And Discovers That Floyd Rounds Is Also On New Guinea
M/Sgt. Edwin Van Goor, writing from New Guinea, informs a member of The Globe-Post staff that the world isn’t so large at that. His letter contains interesting material and is printed in full. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Van Goor, former LeMars residents, now living at Vermillion. The letter follows:
Dear Jerry:
I’m still waiting for an answer to that last letter I wrote you a few months past but since I haven’t heard from you I will get busy and drop you a few lines to give you my new address or at least the APO number since the rest of the address remains the same.
“Business Opportunity”
I’m having an awful hard time getting the famous “Globe-Post,” as very few seem to come through. Today I received the copy of Dec. 9th and a few days ago the one of August 6th, so you can see that they come in far apart but even at that I pick up a little news that I didn’t know of before or the folks didn’t write about. Since the last time I wrote you, I have been on a 15-day furlough down to Melbourne, Australia, and for the first time in over six months I had all the beer I wanted, as far as that goes it was the first beer I had in all that time as anything stronger than water is seldom seen up here. Of course, they have some Merchant Seaman who handle some through the “Black Market” as it is called over here, but it is just plain bootlegging where I come from and they certainly stick it to you. For a quart of fair whisky it costs about five or six pounds or approximately $18.00 which is just about $15.00 too much as far as I am concerned. I had a very nice rest on my leave and ate all the ice cream and steak that was available. Well’s Dairy could make a fortune in New Guinea on ice cream as well as milk, which is a critical item at present. Anyway I had a very nice time and had a good rest and feel like I can take a few more months up here.
Joe Drops In
I had a very pleasant surprise the 7th of this month, when my young brother Joe Van Goor dropped in to see me for a few days. He is stationed about 200 miles from here and came down by plan after breakfast and was here in time for dinner the same day. Naturally it was very nice to be able to visit with your brother so many thousand miles away from home and we made good use of the short visit and hope to do the same again when either one of us can get away. The real coincidence happed the morning I took him out to the strip to catch a plane. After we parked the jeep, I loved over to a car parked some distance away and who should be sitting in it but Floyd Rounds, formerly of LeMars, who if you recall worked at the dairy as well as the bakery. It was really quite a surprise to see him as I hadn’t heard of his being over here and don’t think he wasn’t surprised to see us, especially when the two of us were together. I found out that he is stationed about five miles down the road so that night I went down and picked him up and we spent the evening together talking about everyone and everything that went on while we were both living at home.
Now Master Sergeant
The same night he was over here I received a copy of the orders promoting me to Master Sergeant which pleased me very much and I am very happy to receive it. Now my only worry is to keep it but I don’t think that will be too hard, at least I hope not.
I am enclosing a copy of our official newspaper called the “Guinea Gold” which comes out every day and does give a pretty good collection of the news. I think everyone looks forward to it coming in and work stops until after every one has read it. I thought you would like to have a copy for a little souvenir of New Guinea, also it will give you an idea of what type of newspaper they print up here.
Well, Jerry, I guess this is about all the current news for this time, but I assure you that I will have to have an answer from you before I will write you again. Give my regards to all the fellows and good luck. Your friend, VAN
Source: LeMars Globe-Post, April 13, 1944
Edwin Francis VanGoor was born Aug. 19, 1918 to Fred and Anna Keller VanGoor. He died Jan. 22, 2002 and is buried in Rock Island National Cemetery, Rock Island, IL.
Source: ancestry.com
