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Book design and layout by Alice Seybert Montemurro
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024916074
International Standard Book Number: 979-8-218-45311-4
Printed in the United States of America by Valley Print Logistics, Valley Center KS 67147
Introduction
This is not your typical love story, but a love story, nonetheless.
Roy Seybert and Vashti Painter, my parents, were both born in 1921. Their childhoods spanned the “dust bowl days” and the Great Depression of western Kansas of the 1930’s, when their parents struggled to raise their children and make a living. They fell in love, married in 1942, and Roy went into the Army a month later. During World War II they corresponded with each other and with their families.
Some thirty years ago, quite by accident, I encountered bundles of letters tied with pink ribbons and hidden away in my parents’ bedroom closet. Some were from other family members, addressed to Vashti or to Roy. Most were ones they had written to each other. Altogether, the nearly 300 letters chronical my father’s and mother’s courtship and the early years of their marriage amid World War II.
These are the letters. I have described historical occurrences in italics, to add context and detail to the overall narrative. The more personal accounts connected with Roy’s friends and army unit, also in italics, are taken per his own memories as he dictated them to me.
Over the last twenty years of their lives, my mother and father each wrote about their childhoods and other recollections. Those first-person accounts are included.
ASM 2024
whole pattern down for Dee, shoulders too wide & sleeves too long. They look like they would wear forever so heavy. I got their best quality. Got gingham for me four house dresses. Have made one since Christmas. The gingham was only 19c and print was 22c. (Prints are raised) (Sears).
Grace is a little wildcat when housed up in bad weather. Teases someone all the time.
Love Edith
In February 1942, President Roosevelt signs an Executive Order which leads to the forced transfer of all Americans of Japanese descent, including men, women, and children, to internment camps for fear that some of them might be spies for the Japanese government. This is not the US Government’s finest hour. These people are forced to give up their livelihoods, homes, all possessions except what they can carry, simply because of their race. Many of the young men volunteer for military service and honorably serve the USA. But there are those leaders who feel this action is vindicated when a Japanese submarine fires at an oil refinery off the California coast.
Towards the end of March, Hitler transports French Jews from Paris to Auschwitz, a Poland concentration camp. The Nazis target handicapped and disabled as well as Jews in their desire to eliminate anyone whom they consider “inferior.” They are particularly vicious against anyone who tries to oppose them in any way.
News reports keep Americans aware of Hitler’s activities in Europe as the country is also at war with Japan. In April, US bombing raids commence over Japan in retaliation for Pearl Harbor.
Sunday April 19, 1942 from Tom Painter Manhattan Kansas Dear Mom,
I received a letter from the Chief Signal Corp Officer requesting that I fill out the enclosed application blank for 1st Lieutenant commission in the signal corps immediately and send it back Air Mail which I am doing. This probably means that I am practically in the army already, don’t know whether they will let me graduate or not and probably won’t for a while yet.
Will you find out Kennon Lockhart’s address and send it to me, soon if possible.
Coming back, we rattled that model from there to here at a speed of about thirty miles per hour, but it got us here (at about eleven o’clock)
We’ve been having fine spring weather here which with the sun still shinning until eight makes it very difficult to study after supper until 8 o’clock Sometimes we go across to the park and play golf in the two holes we made there until eight then I have to study until 2 o’clock. Tests again next week and a lot of reports to write up so am still busy Well, its bedtime good night (1 AM Sunday)
Sincerely Yours
Tom Painter Snow melt and rains in Colorado and unusually heavy rains in Western Kansas cause flooding of the Arkansas River, first in Pueblo, Colorado, then on down the river into Kansas. Garden City has high water and by Thursday, April 23, there is flooding in Dodge. The Arkansas River runs through the south part of town and due to the large area of lowland surrounding it, by Tuesday water reaches numerous homes
Roy’s parents’ home is on Cottonwood St. near the riverbank. People’s basements are filling up. Stores and other businesses along 2nd Ave. are filling with floodwaters. As is Wright Park. The Santa Fe trains have to be rerouted.
By Thursday April 30, almost all residents of South Dodge have been forced to move, 429 families in all. They have left their homes quickly as the water has exceeded its banks leaving furniture and other belongings piled on tables and higher locations. A few local citizens with motorboats have spent considerable effort helping people evacuate. And when residents can return and reclaim their household items, they find it covered with a thick layer of silt, muddy, smelly, and difficult to remove. Many, with thoughts of cleaning up and returning, encounter buckled floors, soaked walls and sopping wet and filthy remains, which must be discarded or completely cleaned and dried before re-habitation, so as to prevent diseases. In fact, the Red Cross has been urging all people to get immunized against typhoid fever.
To the Seybert brothers and all their friends, Cottonwood Street was home. Playing and swimming in the river and riding their pony over the banks and diving into the water on horseback were just some of the memories precious to them. Now their mother refuses to go back there. This has all been too traumatizing for Hazel’s fragile emotions. Ralph must find another house. Hazel is probably right.
9, 10 The Arkansas River that flows through the southern part of Dodge City flooded in late April, 1942, including Ralph and Hazel Seybert's home on Cottonwood Street. Lots of townspeople came out with tractors, trucks, and other equipment to help.
How are you coming with the table Charlie? I can't remember whether I owe you a letter or you owe me one. I guess this moving from one side of the world to the other sorta relapses one's memory. Why don't you write, and we'll get things straightened out now so that I'll be able to answer you at least once a month anyway.
Have you folks heard from Lee lately? I've been looking for a letter for some time, but “no soap,” yet. How's all those fried chickens getting along? Boy what I couldn't do to a whole fried chicken now! I've been driving around in a Jeep all day running errands for the officers, not bad eh?
I hunted Sweed up yesterday. Boy, was he surprised to see me. We were in a PX together when I called. Before I got out of there, I found myself in a Dodge City soldiers reunion. Winamute and Sweed are the only ones I know personally but there were two or three others there from Dodge. Well, I must close now and go to bed so bye bye and thanks for the letter dad, I sure enjoyed it.
Love
Roy
19 Charlie, Hazel, Vashti and Ralph Seybert behind their house in Dodge City.
Vi moves to an apartment near Camp Chaffee, Arkansas. Meanwhile, German U-boats and Allied ship convoys are battling in the Atlantic, taking out equipment on both sides. The Germans have lost 12 boats and Allied forces have lost 120 ships.
March 24, 1943 from Roy Wed. eve.
Dear folks,
It's almost eight o'clock, we just finish the supper dishes, so I'll try to write a few lines while Vi is cleaning up the kitchen. Boy it sure is swell to get some good home cooking again too.
20 PFC Roy Seybert, US Army
21 Camp Chaffee barracks on fire, 1943
Deployment to Europe, November 1944
The 216th Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Company boards the troop ship Queen Elizabeth in New York harbor on November 21, 1944, bound for Grenoich (or Greenock or Gourock) Scotland.
A bit of history: Back in 1939, the RMS Queen Elizabeth was being constructed in Scotland by Cunard for use as a luxury liner, but on September 1 of that year Hitler’s troops captured Poland, putting Great Britain on notice that war was imminent.
Winston Churchill, then the First Lord of the Admiralty helped decide that the Queen Elizabeth would be needed to transport troops. King George VI and Queen Elizabeth secretly made a visit to her in September for a christening ceremony. The concern was that Germany could bomb the ship in Britain and sinking her would not only be a terrible blow to British pride, but a great propaganda boost for the Nazis. Since her engines had already been installed and tested for operation in the factory, the QE left Gourock, Scotland on March 3, 1940, in a well-calculated ruse, supposedly bound for Southampton, England for further work.
Although news reports said she would arrive in Southampton, and hotel reservations had been made there for the 400 crew members, and other arrangements were made for the ship’s stay there, what actually happened was very different.
Even the Queen Elizabeth’s captain John Townley was not aware of the true destination until, once out to sea, he was instructed to open his safe and remove his sealed orders telling him and the crew to head directly at full speed to New York. This deception had been a good decision, because later that day, Nazi bombers did appear over Southampton, presumably intending to attack the ship.
Four days later, on March 7, 1940, the dull gray Queen Elizabeth sporting her two impressive smokestacks arrived in New York harbor. There, technicians installed electric wiring and other internal parts. Then, in Singapore, necessary anti-aircraft guns and other protections were added. On the inside, berths were installed for carrying troops.
In June 1942 the mighty ship began to carry troops with a capacity of 10,000 men from New York harbor to Grenock, Scotland. Unfortunately, no air-conditioning or ventilation facilities had been installed, making for extremely uncomfortable conditions for soldiers. But the ship’s army-gray color helped to conceal her from enemy and its up-to-date engine made it possible for her to out-run German submarines and U-boats in her many transatlantic trips. http://ww2troopships.com/crossingform.htm
The November 1944 trip on the Queen Elizabeth is through rough seas. Many men are seasick and miserable, exacerbated by the fact that below deck their berths are quite narrow and crowded into small spaces. They stand at the railing, looking out over the stormy water and vomit into the waves. It is a seven-day trip. Never having been out-to-sea before, and missing his family so desperately, and unable to tell any family members his exact whereabouts, Roy is greatly relieved when they finally hit dry land in Scotland on November 28.
They stare through murkiness so dense they cannot see whether or not they have actually reached port; they only hear the blasts of fog horns and ship horns of other transports, who like The Elizabeth II are waiting their turn to dispose of arriving troops. The fog presses in, enveloping each person and each object in its own cocoon. When they do step onto “terra firma” it too is wet and slippery.
As the troops travel throughout Germany, Switzerland, France and Holland, they see vehicles powered by wood. There is an acetylene-type tank inserted into a cut-out in the side of the hood, behind the housing for the front wheel. They carry wood in the trunk and put it in a firebox underneath this tank, and the fumes from the burning wood create gases that go up into the carburetor. Maybe a makeshift carburetor, they aren’t sure
Civilians cannot get gas, so this is an alternative power source for transportation. Surprisingly, they don’t put out too much smoke. Apparently, these vehicles are pretty efficient, because the GI’s see a lot of them. All the service men are curious about them, but none of the Americans speak the languages, so they can’t ask the locals about them.
After being in Herongen, Germany, the maintenance detail spends a couple of weeks in Borsheim, and then moves through various small towns, jumping north and south and gradually working their way north and east. Villagers are pretty friendly. It had not been their decision for their leader to invade other countries and kill people, and they seem pleasantly surprised that American soldiers generally treat them with respect.
14 March 1945 from Roy O. Seybert Germany
Dearest Wife & son,
It's 8:00 PM and I'm about ready to hit the hay after only four hours sleep last night. I'm so tired and nervous tonight that I can't even get along with myself.
We just had mail call and Stew and I got sore feet and no mail. I'm wondering if you quit writing because you didn't hear from me for about two weeks. At anytime you don't hear from me like that, keep on writing to my old address it always gets to me sometime.
I don't mean two bawl you out honey. I know how you feel when you don't get mail. Do the best you can as you have been and I'll be satisfied. Your letters mean a lot to me, more than ever now darling.
Did I tell you that the chaplain came over and held church services in our mess hall last Sunday? I went to the services and they were really good. He held communion services too. That makes three Sundays in a row that I have attended now, pretty good eh?
I'm going to send you a souvenir that will have to take the place of the wooden shoes. I hope you like it. I guess I lost out on the shoes since we left Holland.
Roy:
It is a bright, sunny Sunday. The war is over in Europe. Radio programs and the GI newspaper tell all kinds of stories of things that had occurred, such as atrocities by Hitler’s Army that I, like many US soldiers find hard to imagine
General Eisenhower realizes that people at home would also find it hard to believe; he therefore has ordered that all Unit commanders who can conveniently do so, to dispatch personnel to inspect the nearest site of such atrocities. Eisenhower wants as many American troops as possible to personally see the Nazi concentration camps. It is his fear that future generations might question or even deny the existence of Hitler’s atrocities. American GI’s will serve as witnesses.
On my way from the mess hall, I am approached by my 1st Sgt. with a trip ticket and a list of personnel to accompany me and Sergeant Donald A. Davis to a place I had never heard of until very
51 More downed and destroyed German planes. 1945
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Associated Press. “Flood of April 1942.” Dodge City Daily Globe (Dodge City, Kansas), Vol. 31. Tuesday April 28, 1942, Wednesday April 29, 1942, Thursday April 30, 1942, Friday May 1, 1942.
Black May (1943) The Battle for the Atlantic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_May_(1943)
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National Archives and National Records Administration. World War II, A Day-by-Day History Calendar, 2012. New York, NY: Silver Lining, 2011.
New York Historical Society. Photo. “Crowded ship bringing American troops back to New York Harbor After V-Day, 1945.” https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/crowded-ship-bringing-american-troops-1945/
Ossad, Steve. “The Liberation of Nordhausen Concentration Camp.” World War II History, Volume 18, No. 2. February 2019. https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2019/12/31/theliberation-of-nordhausen-concentration-camp/
Purnell, Sonia. A Woman of No Importance: the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II. New York: Viking, 2019.
Robinson, Forrest J. Speech given to high school groups, written. 1910 Dee, Winfield, KS. C. 2000.
Seybert, Roy. Memories written and recorded. Meade, KS. 1991 to 2015.
Alice Seybert Montemurro graduated from Kansas State University and is a retired Spanish teacher. She lives in Wisconsin where she has a horse, Banjo. She and her husband Tom, a sculptor, have a cat named Arty and two grown daughters, Alicia and Andrea, and a grandson, Alonzo.
