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Show Letter from First Lieut. Elmer S. Pickett Gives Thoughts On His 1943 Christmas In Italy "May God have a seat at the next peace conference so that Christmas 1943 will not be a useless use-less donation from us all", is the stirring thought expressed by First Lieut. Elmer S. Pickett in a letter written Dec. 25, 1943, from somewhere in Italy, where he is fighting with the U. S. Fifth Army, to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Pickett of this city. Back On Duty Back on duty after four months hospitalization from battle injuries, in-juries, Lieutenant Pickett took time off Christmas day to record his thoughts which he assumes are those of most of the soldiers over there. It seems he awoke Christmas morning with little spirit for the occasion, but the division News Sheet, a vividly-colored vividly-colored cartoon by a soldier named Maldin, reminded him of the feasting, giving of gifts and general merriment he had been used to at home and of the extreme ex-treme contrast with this Christ- j mas in Italy. j He recalled how his parents always al-ways insisted the children must j eat breakfast before entering "Santa's Haven"; of how unpalatable unpal-atable the food seemed with the gifts waiting to lx? opened; of the rejoicing when the breakfast was finally gulped down and old and young joined in the excit-ment; excit-ment; and of the evident satisfaction satisfac-tion of the parents, who sometimes some-times felt they had stretched the purse strings beyond their income to provide the many gifts; but even in this realized it is "more blessed to give than to receive," j and he says, "how true that is 1 over here." Continuing he writes, "as I thought of all the gaiety back J (Continued on page eight) Christmas In Italy (Continued from first page) l.m. of the Christmas holidays 1 u ,'d to know them, another irdlization came to me; the realization realiz-ation of just why why I'm spending spend-ing my Christ mas '43 in a foreign land, living and fighting under vrt'y miserable conditions. I'm lure to see that no American will over again have to spend another an-other Christmas like my Christmas '13. I'm here to insure succeding American generations (my children child-ren I that hurriedly swallowed breakfast and the supreme joy and excitment of discovering what Santa has left. In the final analysis, anal-ysis, I am donating my Christmas 1913 so that 'our way of life' may be preserved. May God have a seat at the next peace conference con-ference so that Christmas '43 will not be a useless donation from us all." Gifts Late Arriving His birthday gifts due in September Sep-tember reached him Dec. 24, and his Christmas packages had still not caught up with him when he wrotef but letters were beginning to arrive in bundles along With delayed copies of the home paper, so he is hopeful he'll get letters and packages in time. Letters received Sunday reported re-ported he and his cousin, Capt. Evan S. Pickett had finally located lo-cated each other and had a reunion re-union beyond words to explain. And he hopes Christmas 1944 will "find us all back home and together to-gether again". |