WW2 Letters Home From The South Pacific
By Angelo Buccino
“Met there’s dam little I can write about from this end.
But I’m okay & still kicking that’s the main thing.”
WW2
Letters Home from the South Pacific
by Angelo Buccino is one GI’s view of the war amid the heat, bugs, carnage and
noise in an artillery battalion supporting First Marine Division at Guadalcanal
and other islands that never get mentioned.
Buccino wrote these long-lost letters to his best friend back in the states asking about the old gang.
They turned up nearly sixty years after they were mailed, censored, read by his buddy and then found again in a forgotten footlocker in his old friend’s attic.
Along with a stack of Angelo’s photos from training and across the ocean, we’ve put together this collection in time for his 100th birthday.
The war aged him, and he passed in his sixth decade. Here is a way to remember him, his sense of duty, his sense of humor, and the years he spent on hot bug-infested islands defending all he left at home.
Buccino entered the U.S. Army on February 7, 1941. He served with Americal division with the First Marine Division, Reinforced, on Guadalcanal the Fiji Islands and unnamed places in the South Pacific, he was honorably discharged on September 22, 1945.
“April 25, 1942 – … In spite of the heat, I’m feeling all right. And when I listen to an American broadcast, I feel even better, man my heart skips a few beats. From what I’ve seen, if I ever get back to America, I’ll be like that guy hopping the Chattanooga Choo Choo. I’ll never roam any more. There’s nothing like the States. Met, take it from me. I can’t understand why people spent money to go to Europe when there was so much to see in the States. Yeah man it’s beyond me.
Your probably wondering when I’ll be home. Well I can’t say but with a prayer, and a little luck, I hope to be home Christmas. This is my opinion and I may be well be here for over a year. (Pardon me I just knocked on wood.)…”
“Dec. 19, 1942 – I received a bushel of mail a few weeks ago, cards, packages & letters. I’ve been trying to answer them as soon as possible but I still have four to answer. Stationery is scarce as hell here, I borrow some from this guy & some from that guy, so I’m getting by until I receive some through the mail.
The heat of 120 degrees isn’t bad but these large mosquitoes are a real pain in the neck. They are the largest I’ve seen & when they bite they draw plenty of blood, then leave a welt the size of a quarter. You kill one & fifty take its place. Aside from that & losing some weight, I’m alright, I guess. Oh, yes, a few heat rashes too….”
New From Cherry Blossom Press:
WW2 Letters Home From The South Pacific
By Angelo Buccino
Nutley Author Publishes Military Dad's Letters From Overseas
"Discovering my dad's letters helped me know him a lot better," local historian and author Anthony Buccino says.
By Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff | Nov 16, 2018
Local Man Publishes Book
of WWII Letters His Dad Wrote
By Kevin Canessa, The Observer, Nov. 21, 2018
ANTHONY'S WORLD
Anthony Buccino
Essays, photography, military history, more
New Jersey author Anthony Buccino's stories of the 1960s, transit coverage and other writings earned four Society of Professional Journalists Excellence in Journalism awards.
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