Miss Rosalie Nash
235 Phillips Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, Michigan
7 August
Hi Sweetheart
Guess what? Uncle Sam has decided he doesn’t need your guy anymore and he’s going to send him home the ninth. It’s too wonderful to believe, that pretty soon we’ll be together again.
I’m so excited I can hardly talk.
I should be home about the first
of September.
So don’t write anymore cuz I won’t be around long enough to get it. All we’re doing is going back to the company tomorrow
get our stuff, and leave the next day, for YongDungPo again.
Goodnight sweetheart.
I love ya!
Ken
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Zill
1713 Maryfield
Ann Arbor, Michigan
7 August
Dear Mom and Dad
This is the second letter I’ve wrote you in about half an hour, but I found out some Good News. Just checked at the personnel office to see when I rotated… guess what. Getting ROTATED the 9th. So don’t write
anymore as I won’t be around to get any mail.
Seems too good to be true, but I seen it on black and white, so I guess it’s true.
So I’ll be home in anywhere from 22-30 days form now.
Forget about that money order too.
Love
Ken
*******NOTE TO READER*******
The next letter is the only letter that I have from Ken’s parents to Ken. It was mailed to Ken and then returned since it probably had been sent before they knew he was coming home.
Cpl. Kenneth Zill
Co E 180th Inf. APO #86
c/o PM San Francisco, Cali
Aug 9, 1952
10 PM
Dear Kenneth:
Dad and Rich have gone to bed. I watched TV for a while and then de-frosted the Ice Box.
We received your letter of the 3rd yesterday in which
you said that you were in Japan. I just looked up Kokura on the map. Now you were on the most southern and most northern islands of Japan. We were glad that you had a chance to get off for a few days and very happy that you also had a chance
to go to church.
I talked to Mrs. Hein to-night. She didn’t feel too good for a few days but is OK again. She sure has a full house. Vickie
and Jack are living in the 3 front rooms. Grandma Hein has the large back bedroom and Mrs. Hein has the basement. At least the sister and brother in law have moved out. I sure hope that we will never get that crowded. I suppose Gus
told you all about this too.
Last week Walter Koehler whom you met at camp a few weeks ago was reported missing as far as I know there has been no other news.
Tomorrow Dad and I may drive to Monroe to the Festival at the Old Folks Home. We always call on Ina Schmidt at that time then too. I think that we will
go for the morning service – perhaps stay there for dinner and then come on back home.
We had a nice rain today, it just drizzled for several hours.
It was been very dry this summer. This was the first rain that amounted to anything that we had since 6 or 8 weeks ago. We haven’t had but one thunder storm all summer.
I talked with Rosalie last night, and today we had a nice letter from her. Well I must close and get to bed pretty soon. May God keep you safe.
Yours
with love,
Mother and Dad
NOTE TO READER: Walter
Koehler was mentioned by Ken in letter dated 6/12/52. Walter was KIA (Killed in Action) on 7/28/52. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star. Please click here to learn more about Walter.
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Zill
1713 Maryfield
Ann Arbor, Michigan
10 July (August)
Dear Mom and Dad
We’re down in YongDongPo now and we’ll be here a couple of days then go to Inchon. From there we go to Japan. We’re going to be pretty busy from now on, so I won’t be able to write very often.
It’s still awful hot over here, but the nights are starting to be cooler, so it’s real nice sleeping now.
This is about the fourth time I’ve
gone thru this camp down here. When we leave Inchon the day after tomorrow we go to Sasebo, that’s near Kokura, that’s where we catch the boat for the States.
There isn’t much more news so I’ll close for now.
Love
Ken
Miss Rosalie Nash
218 W Grand River
East Lansing, Michigan
11 August
My Dearest Rosalie
We’re
on our way home now. Tomorrow morning we head down for Inchon and from there we go to Sasebo and then latch on to a shop and head for those good old States. Don’t know how long we’ll be at each place, it all depends if there’s
a ship or not.
About all we do all day long is stand in lines, waiting to be processed. They got lines for about every darn thing you can think of.
Seems like all we do is wait down there. I think I can put up with it for a while to get home.
There isn’t much more news, I’ll try to write
as often as I can, but I don’t know how much time I’ll get, but I’ll do the best I can.
Goodbye for now, I’ll be seeing you soon.
All my Love
Ken
Miss Rosalie Nash
RR # 3
Howell, Michigan
15 August
Hi Sweetheart
I’m down at Inchon now
waiting for the boat for Sasebo. Then we get the boat for the States there. Been here for four days now, so it’s about time I was moving on.
Bell Steptoe is down here with me, Gus also. About all the eligible guys from our regiment are down here waiting on the boat.
It’s still terrifically
hot down here, don’t seem to ever cool off. Once we get out on the ocean, it’ll be pretty cool tho.
As far as work goes, we ain’t doing
any at all. All we do is stand in line for some foolish reason. They’ve got more lines than you can imagine.
In another two or three weeks I
ought to be back in A2 again.
Till then by for now sweetheart.
All my Love
Ken
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Zill
1713 Maryfield
Ann Arbor, Michigan
15 Aug
Dear Mom and Dad
We’re
down at Inchon now waiting for a boat to take us to Sasebo. That’s where we catch the boat for the States. We’ll be there for a few days probably.
It’s still awful hot over here, hope it cools off pretty soon.
We ought to get on the boat either today or tomorrow. We’ve been here for four
days now, so we should be getting out of here pretty soon.
There isn’t too much news so I’ll close for now.
Love
Ken
*******NOTE TO READER******
I found this letter from Rosalie tucked in between letters from Ken!
August 19, 1952
Tuesday Night
My Very Own Precious Ken,
I
bet you think that I’m a silly kid and I guess I am, the same silly kid that fell in love with you – and I’m so happy that my heart is just brimming over with the wonderful, wonderful indescribable happiness that your coming home means
to me. So what does this letter do when it leaves here, oh, it may travel across the Pacific-it may even fly over the very ship you’re on, it will probably get back to A2 before you do but then again it may not. I might even be with you when
you finally read this letter. You know it’s funny I always kinda wanted to be with you when you got one of my letters, to see your face, your reactions. When I used to write things I’d think and think before I’d write it—wondering
if I should or not—I don’t wonder anymore I just write just about everything that I think –guess you know that by now. So this letter sounds crazy to you and I have put some k’s where I should have put g’s and vice versa
–well it is now midnight—I’ve already been to bed but I can’t sleep, all I can think about is you, all I wanna think about is you. My sweetheart I have never missed you more than I have in these last weeks that I know you
are on your way home. Our reunion is so very close, the days seem to go by so slowly. But soon my beloved we will be in each other’s arms again and we can begin to forget about these long, lonely months we’ve been separated.
I think all day about what I would write you in a letter an then I tell myself that it is silly to write now—for our writing days are over really-we are just about to really LIVE but I miss writing and guess I’ll continue to miss writing until
you take up where your dear letters left off. I’m already out of practice—can’t think of all those things that I wanted to say today to you. Then there are so many things that I want to say but knowing that our reunion is so close
know Ii couldn’t do justice in words.
I stand here and put up my hair or whenever I’m in that vicinity of where your pictures are and stand there and “tell” you I love you. People must think I’m crazy—I
have another word for it—I’m very, very, much in love. If I didn’t have an exam tomorrow morning at 8:00 I’d stay up all night. I’m so glad that this term is over and that I’m going home and that you’re
on your way home. I’m at a loss for words now—maybe it’s because the ole sandman is catching up with one sleepy gal—goodnight, my dearest Ken, I love you will all my heart and soul now and always shall and shall always be
Yours lovingly,
Rosalie
Miss Rosalie Nash
121 W. Williams
Ann Arbor, Michigan
23 August 52
Hi Sweetheart
I’m over
in Japan again only this time I’m down at a Navy base. We got thru with all of our processing today, so now all we gotta do is to wait for the ship to take us home. When we land on the coast, we board right on to a troop train, and go to
Fort Custer. That’s where we get our furloughs from. Boy I wish that boat would hurry up and get here, I’m getting kinda anxious to get home, as it’s been a little while since I’ve been home. Too darn long to be exact.
It’s still hotter than a firecracker over here, must be around 250 or 300 degrees.
Got all new clothes last night, they took everything we had away from us and gave us all new. Even got another issue of ribbons to wear.
That’s about
all the news there is, so I’ll close for now
All my love
Ken
Be seeing you soon.
Mr. and Mrs. Otto Zill
1713 Maryfield
Ann Arbor, Michigan
23 August
Dear Mom and Dad
I’m
in Sasebo now, waiting for a ship to go to the States. We’ll probably be leaving in a couple of days.
We’ll land at either Frisco or Seattle
then take a troop train to Fort Custer and get our furlough from there. I probably won’t get a chance to call from the coast cuz we just get off the ship and on to the train.
We finished our processing this afternoon, so there’s nothing now to hold us up except the boat.
We turned in all our clothes and got a whole new issue
of clothes, so everything we got is new.
There isn’t much other news so I’ll close for now.
Will be home pretty soon.
Love
Ken
Miss Rosalie Nash
Box 248 RFD #3
Howell, Michigan
28 Aug
Hi Sweetheart
We’re finally ready
to leave this place. Got our stuff all ready to go. We’ll be leaving either tonight or tomorrow. We’re going to land in Frisco on the Gen Collins.
Don’t know how long it will take us to cross, but it usually takes about 12 or 10 days.
Gus is on the same boat I’m on, so he’ll get home with me.
It’s still awful hot over here in fact it’s too darn hot, I hope Michigan is nice and cool by the time I get home.
That’s about all I can think
of so I’ll close.
All my Love
Ken