From Sergeant J.R. Willer, 1942 - 1945

File — Box: 01, Folder: 8

Identifier: MSA 394, Series 1, File 8

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Sergeant J.R. Willer, also referred to as “Jack” in his letters, also attended Proviso High School, the same school that Elmer attended. Jack graduated in 1941 and attended Northwestern University. He served in the Marine Corp at the same time that Elmer served. In his letters to Elmer, a close friendship is evident between the two at this time. Jack told Elmer about his days and shared some tidbits of information such as that he was working in the Ordinance Plant at his placement, taking identification photographs and fingerprints in his letter dated November 8, 1942. He also shared that he was at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station located in El Centro, California when Elmer was at Camp Beale, which was in San Francisco which was not far from El Centro in his letter dated February 24, 1944. In the August 27, 1944 envelope, he tells him that he is finally off the shores of the United States, and that he thought it was strange that his mail will now be censored. This letter also has the heading of “American Red Cross”, which is indicative of the several types of stationery that Jack used. This folder includes seven envelopes of seventeen letters dating from November 8, 1942 to January 5, 1945, one undated telegram, and one holiday card in the enveloped postmarked December 15, 1944.

Dates

1942 - 1945

Access Information

The collection is open for research.

Biographical

Found in his obituary, Sergeart Jack R Willer served five years and survived the war. He got married, had children, and a career. They moved to Des Moines, Iowa. Jack R. Willer died at the age of 82 on January 8, 2007 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.