Letter from Felton Saunders

This letter is correspondence from Felton Saunders to his father Samuel Saunders.

This letter appears courtesy of Lynn Groves .

Felton Saunders wrote this letter to his father Samuel Saunders in 1945. In this letter he mentions Uncle George who was George Spoon, and Pete Saunders, who was his brother, my grandfather. Felton Saunders was a native of Bradley County.

Felton was serving in the Navy, WWII. He was on the U. S. S. California at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked and sunk by the Japanese. Uncle Felton talked about swimming to land after his ship went down and the "Japs" were flying over spraying bullets in the water all around him. He said he'd almost give up from exhaustion then here came more planes, spraying more bullets, and he'd start swimming again.

I remember Uncle Felton showing up at a family reunion in the 80's wearing a cap with the name of a Japanese made automobile and the comment "brought to you by the same friendly people that brought you Pearl Harbor."

Uncle Felton, went on to serve in Korea, in the Navy before he retired. He returned to Arkansas, and lived in Bearden until his death.

      U.S.S. P.C. 1549
Fri. Sept 7, 1945
Dear Dad,
      Just a few lines to let you know that I'm O.K. and hope you are the same.
      I haven't heard from you in a quite a while. But mail is pretty slow out here
      I guess you are pretty busy down there now. I sure would like to have gone
down on eagle lake with you. How long did you stay down there? I haven't been
fishing in about three years. I went up on the Shagit river in Washington just
after I got back off leave in 1943, but didn't catch any thing but a sore throat.
      Has uncle George got a boat? I'm going to try my luck at making one as
soon as I get out of the navy.
      I guess Pete is still working at the same job. I haven't decided what I want
to do when I get out. I can start working in Seattle any time I want to after my
enlistment is up at $45 a week. The only thing wrong is it's to far from home.
       Well I can't think of any more to write so I will close.
Felton