Evening star., 1944-07-06
BY GEORGE KENNEDY.

Dy oAOAso1
Bound together by common
hazard, a score of Washington
women who live in suspense dined
together last night at the Hotel
Continental.
They are wives of officers of the
29th Division who used to drill the
local National Guardsmen Tuesday
nights in the old Armory at Sixth
street and the Avenue NV. and
who are now scattered from the out
posts of New Guinea to Normandy.
Most of those around the table
were wives of the leaders of the
l2lst Engineers, first to wade ashore
and attempt to eliminate the
obstacles in the Bay of the Seine at
H on D-the landing hour on inva-
sion day.
Younger Than Years.
The wives were vivacious and
younger than their years-they get
love letters from their husbands in
the V-mail
If I could only take you in my
arms and ask you to marry me
again"-from a veteran of the last
war now in France with the 121st-
personal note unintended for this
reporter was seen in one of the let
ters passed at the table.
These are women who do not turn
off the radio when the war talk
comes on. They know the meaning
of command posts and nebelwerfers
and demolitions.
Two of the members have been
widowed by this war, by the prema-
ture explosion of a bandelore tor-
pedo in the South Pacific. They
were absent last night. One Of them
has not yet resumed her attendance
at the monthly meetings. The other,
Mrs. Sidney Pelletier of Alexandria
attended the last meeting.
Grief Of Finality.
She said: II feel sorrier for these
girls than I do for myself Mine is
the grief of finality; theirs the dread
of uncertainty"
That last meeting was somber
compared to last nights. It was on
June ID plus one) and the Ger
man radio had just identified the
29th as one of the forces preaching
the Atlantic wall.
But none of the members has re-
ceived one of the War Departments
kilograms of regret in the month
intervening so last nights dinner
was a cheerful one.
Perhaps they have been lucky. 81
pity some of the women of the
wives dinner" 1t. Col. Louis Co
sorn wrote his wife at 1918 Janneys
lane, Alexandria, from the beach
"A man hasn't much chance when
he is shot at in a landing boat"
Then he told of seeing cit. Cob
Johnny O'Neill on the beach. Mrs
O'Neill, who lives at Calvert Hills
Md. said last night that her hus-
band had written her that his as
signment had been the elimination
of underwater obstacles.
A writing Man."
Il wish I had a writing man like
you have" she said to Mrs. Gosorn
"Johnny's letters are so short"
Col. Gosorn was private on the
western front in the last war. He
wrote. 1T was q strange feeling to
come to France again in small boats
under fire" The orchards of Nor
mandy, he said later, were like those
of Winchester, Va.
Mrs. Gosorn read to those next
to her at the table the letter he
wrote the next day:
Another day has gone by now and
it is again four in the morning, but
I arose early. 1t was not quiet. Our
large guns boom morning, noon and
night and the shells whine overhead
and cut through the blackness of the
night with an unearthly sound hard
to describe. The machine guns with
their rat-tat-tat-tat. like so many
diversified typewriters, add to the din
and fill in the gap between the
'umph' of the mortars. And yet,
through it all. one must sleep in
order to be able to take our turn
of duty when the time comes. The
ground becomes soft after a few
sleepless nights and a raincoat the
warmest of bed coverings. The soft
earth left in the bottom of a slit
trench is the most luxurious of
feather beds.
Results Strengthen Resolve.
You wonder If it is worth it all
until you see the women, children
and old men returning down the
road carrying their bits and pieces,
coming back to their homes, this
time to be their homes free of the
damnable, arrogant Germans. If
this is the beginning of a lasting
peace then it Is indeed worth it,
otherwise our boys who now sleep in
the newly established cemeteries will
have died in vain.
Thank God I have you to return