Gablingen Kaserne, 1962. For the here deployed 2nd Reconnaissance Squadron, 9th Cavalry, 24th Infantry Division, going home is close at hand for many GIs. So, one of the GIs sat down at a typewriter and wrote a two-page letter which should announce their return to the far away States. It was to become a letter with typical American, but also tongue-in-cheek soldiers’ humor and impudent phrases. And it was meant to become a letter for quite a lot homecomers, maybe for an entire company? That is why the author left a few blanks so that other soldiers could insert particulars. Remarkable is the mentioning of a certain “Germanitis” by which the soldiers ironically felt infected and of which the relatives at home were to be warned. Had Germany, and especially Bavaria, so rubbed off?
Today it is not clear how the copying of this letter was accomplished at a time when photocopiers were not yet invented. And to type numerous copies of such a long text would have been pretty laboriously. Was it even printed? A veteran of this unit provided us with “his” letter. We would like to make this unusual document accessible for the public. It is a small but not insignificant element in the representation of the life of American troops in Augsburg.
