Postmarked, Love Bob: A Firsthand Account from a World War II Soldier

These letters recount a North Dakota soldier’s firsthand experiences of WWII. They show day to day life from his perspective, as exampled in one of Bob’s letters from September, 1945 – Dear Mom & Dad; No mail today but that gave me a chance to finish answering the letters I have been putting off. Tomorrow is my day off so the first thing I am going to do is put out a big laundry. All of my suntans are dirty after working on the crane and they are really a mess with grease from one end to the other. Our shack is ready to move into now so just moving my bed and the rest of my stuff will take all day. With all of that lined up for tomorrow it looks like a pretty busy day but just the same the fellows had better not wake me up when they go to work. Our crane is just about ready to go except for putting the muffler and shift rod back on. The clutch was out of the truck motor so Nick and I started to work on it just as soon as we got over to the motor pool this morning. The gas tank, transmission and about everything else but the motor had to come out to get at the clutch. Now if it doesn’t work when we get it back together we are going to take it to the junk pile because the darn thing just can’t be fixed. My monkey {Junior} just raised heck last night with my cigarettes and everything else he could get into last night so he is going to sleep outside tonight. We found him in one if the airplane engines when we were placing demolition charges to blow them up and brought him back to camp. Love--Bob Take a walk in Bob’s footsteps as you read about his adventures of WWII.

Robert Gerald Cook was born March 4, 1925 to Harry and Beatrice (Moulton) Cook. Died May 6, 2007. He graduated from St. Leo's School in 1943-in high school he played football and basketball and became an Eagle Scout in the BSA. He served 3 years and became a sergeant in the army during WWII. After the army he became a master plumber and worked for Harry R. Cook and sons plumbing and heating. In 1947 he married Rose Bohn and they had 10 children. He served on the committee that developed the plans to build Bishop Ryan High School and a Ryan Booster for many years. He served on the Minot Recreation Commission for 20 years. Member of: ND Assoc. of Plumbing and Heating, Knights of Columbus, Rotary Club, Minot Elks Lodge, Loyal Order of Moose, American Legion, Veteran of Foreign Wars. His first wife died in 1981 and in 1983 he married Veronica Callahan in Minot, ND. His loved to hunt and fish.