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"‘I also remember the 27 days from Grosetto to Pisa in which there was no rain or a single cloud. Now that I'm in Italy, all I can think about is Nice.'"
Last Letter Home
Johnny's last letter home, written from France while on R&R, was typical of his love of life, country and family - and his skill at writing:
"Thank you for the birthday card. I can't even begin to realize how time has passed. I don't know if it has been a long time or a short time since January. Home seems neither near nor far away.
"It's all something like a dream in which time is lost before it is even noticed to be passing. I said, ‘Why, yesterday was my birthday; and I didn't even know it.'
"The war news sounds encouraging, but one must not expect too much. War situations can change overnight - for better or worse.
"As for me, I do not regret being here, nor regret being in the infantry. The infantry is hard, it doesn't make one any younger - 24 years and [I am] not yet settled.
"One must live some sort of life, and I could never be at ease if I hadn't gone to take my share of this fighting.
"Everyone's personal life is valuable to himself. He wants to be allowed to enjoy it. A man who hangs back and does not share Army service -- if he is fitted for it and needed -- actually is saying: ‘My life is more valuable to me. You can waste yours, but I shall keep mine.' That is wrong.
"You must not worry if I don't settle down even after the war is over. I've learned much even being in the army. I'd stay in France two years before coming home if I could find a way of doing it - study French and literature and other things that interest me.
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