--- audio_path: --- # Letter — 7 June 1943, to Anna *(⭐ Cryptography Course begins)* **Sender**: Pfc. Arthur M. Yena — Sub Air Base No. 1, Bks. 12, **School Sqdn. No. 1** (new unit designation), Salt Lake City, Utah **Recipient**: Miss Anna L. Yena, Quaker Lane, West Warwick, Rhode Island **Date written**: 7 June 1943 **Postmark**: Salt Lake City, Utah, 10 June 1943 *(3-day lag — Pops wrote, held, then mailed)* **Type**: Handwritten cursive **Scan location**: `scans/processed/1943-06-07_to-anna/` **Transcription source**: ChatGPT vision pass 2026-05-26 (~95% confidence) **Confidence**: clean **Note**: ⭐ **THIS IS THE MORNING THE CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE STARTS.** *"This morning I started this Cryptography Course."* The single most narratively-significant moment of the entire May-July 1943 batch. --- ## Transcript (ChatGPT clean) > Sub Air Base No. 1, Bks 12 > School Sqdn. No. 1 > Salt Lake City, Utah > June 7, 1943 > > Dear Anna, > > I got your letter today and I guess you hadn't gotten my letter before you wrote. I wrote last week and sent the money orders down with the letter. My mail is again in the process of being fouled up. I didn't get any mail in 4 days so I didn't know whether you got my letters or not and didn't know whether to write again or not. It takes so darned long to get a letter here you don't know whether your mail is getting balled up or not. So if you don't hear from me right away, be patient it'll get to you sometime. > > In regards to Wittey I'm glad to hear it got to him all right. The only thing is he won't have too much time to do things as I've got about 2 weeks here and you know how long mail takes and the red-tape connected with it also. As soon as I hear about anything I'll be sure to let you know. > > That shift you get there is tough, and certainly isn't going to give you more resistance. If I were you and it bothered me anymore, I would explain to them that it's impairing your health and that although you like your work a lot, and they have proof of it by your efficiency rating, if you can't get a shift more suitable you certainly won't be able to do as well. Try and get what you want. Is that shift alternating with all the girls or do you have it all the time? Boy it isn't fun to work all day or night on a couple of hours of sleep. > > Finished my Clerical Course last Saturday with an average of 96% as far as I went, but still can't be classified one because I was in the hospital during one exam and in quarters because of my feet during the other exam. It really doesn't make much difference I guess, because it was more of a fill in course while waiting for the one I'm supposed to take. I finished in typing with 31 words a minute without errors and altogether I had about 10 days of it. **This morning I started this Cryptography Course and that's all I can tell you about it. As a matter of fact by right I guess I shouldn't even have told you I was going to this school, but didn't know it at the time. I guess it don't make their much difference though if you don't tell anybody.** If you already have done so, then merely tell them the next time they ask about me that I'm doing Clerical work. **I won't be able to tell you anything at all about what, how, when, and where I'm doing hereafter.** It wouldn't make much sense to you anyway. > > Sent the money orders to you as I said before, and also the letters I said I'd send. I was going to sort a few for you to read, but it takes so darned long and I have so little time I decided to keep you guessing until Duration. I am almost sure that, that includes every letter I ever received since I got in the Army. I think it's something like 56 different people who wrote me. Let me know if they get there all right. I took some pictures in the city last Saturday, one I got by a miracle, and am having it developed. As soon as I can get in to town to get them I'll send em down. I got my watch back, and certainly am glad to have it on my wrist again. > > Connie wrote me that Ted was home on furlough and is back again already. Karl also wrote. So far including you and them are the only letters I've gotten in 4 days so I don't know what's up elsewhere. > > So Marie is "going West" eh? I'm pretty sure she'll find it pretty nice in Denver, because all I hear about this city from fellows who have been there, is that it is quite a nice spot. > > Glad to hear Johnny and family are O.K. and doing the same. Glad to hear Al hasn't forgotten the place. I hope he keeps up that way. I'm just waiting for a chance to go home. There is a chance, I might be able to get a furlough after I graduate, but of course I wouldn't bank on it. > > This course looks pretty tough and [unclear at page break] it's going to take up a lot of time for these 2 weeks and I might slip up one letter or so. I'll try like the devil to write as often as I can, but don't worry if you don't hear right away. > > This is just a silly thought that just passed through my mind, but I was just thinking that usually when you see a soldier or sailor out on a pass he goes for the gals, but with me it's different. I don't just seem to care. Maybe I'm a "little tetched in the head" eh? > > Glad to hear Ma is still doing good in the shop. Oh yes Harold said she runs the machines for Pop in the Evening some time. > > You know Anna, this War actually changes Peoples lives doesn't it? About 5 months ago we were going out having a good time and Ma was always alone, now although Ma certainly isn't having a good time, we are all alone and getting a taste of what it feels like. Don't mind my rambling, but a few minutes that you do get off in the Army you have plenty of things to think about. > > Well I guess I've said plenty for a change so I'll close again and let you read some of this scribbling. > > Take good care of yourself and also tell Ma and Pop and everybody else at home to do the same. > > Love to everybody, > Arthur > > P.S. note the change in address again. --- ## Major content / narrative significance - ⭐ **THE CRYPTOGRAPHY COURSE BEGINS.** *"This morning I started this Cryptography Course and that's all I can tell you about it."* — the founding moment of Pops's role in WW2 history. **Best single pull-quote for the Cryptographer's Bench chapter / Interlude VIII.** - ⭐ **THE OATH OF SILENCE.** *"I won't be able to tell you anything at all about what, how, when, and where I'm doing hereafter."* — Pops articulates the censorship discipline that defines the rest of the corpus. The 2-year silence about cryptography begins June 7 1943 and ends (per letter-17, Sep 4 1945) only after V-J Day. - ⭐ **THE WAR-CHANGES-LIVES PASSAGE.** *"You know Anna, this War actually changes Peoples lives doesn't it? About 5 months ago we were going out having a good time and Ma was always alone, now although Ma certainly isn't having a good time, we are all alone and getting a taste of what it feels like."* — Pops's first explicit framing of the war's domestic upheaval. **Strong Chapter 1 pull-quote candidate** (echoes the May-XX loose page). - **Clerical course: 96% average final.** Hospitalized through one exam, sick-in-quarters (heels) through the other — couldn't be officially "classified" but the work was a "fill in" anyway. - **"56 different people who wrote me"** — Pops returns Anna her stash of every letter he'd received in the Army to date. The correspondence network is enormous. - **The "tetched in the head" passage** — Pops, asked about chasing women on pass, says "I don't just seem to care." Self-aware about how he differs from the other soldiers. Voice in concentrate. - **Ma working "in the shop" / running the machines for Pop in the evening** — confirms Ma is helping at the mill (Pop's mill, presumably). **First explicit detail of Ma's wartime work**: she runs machines for Pop, evening shift. Major Chapter 1 / Chapter 3 (Mom-portrait) detail. **Mom-interview question.** - **Harold** mentioned as informant — fellow soldier or correspondent who told Pops about Ma's work. NEW name. - **Marie going to Denver** — friend / family. NEW. ## Family-tree refresh from this letter - **Wittey = Witty = Mitty** — same person across spellings. - **Marie** — friend of Anna, moving to Denver. NEW. - **Harold** — informs Pops about Ma running machines for Pop. NEW. - **Connie** — wrote Pops about Ted's furlough. Continues confirmation of her in correspondence ring from May 1943 onward. - **Ma running machines for Pop in evenings** — significant biographical detail of Mom's wartime role. - **Anna's job** — has shift work that is "tough" (probably night shifts), "all day or night on a couple of hours of sleep." **Mom-interview**: what was Anna's wartime job? ## Themes CRYPTOGRAPHY-COURSE-BEGINS · oath-of-silence · censorship-discipline-starts · WAR-CHANGES-LIVES-PASSAGE · 96-pct-clerical-final · 56-letters-returned · tetched-in-the-head · MA-RUNS-MACHINES-FOR-POP · ma-evening-shift · anna-night-shift · marie-to-denver · harold-informant · 3-day-postmark-lag · school-sqdn-1 · pull-quote-cryptographer-bench · pull-quote-chapter-1