Somewhere in Italy:
14 December, 1944

Bryant Service Club:

Dear Gang:

I received your lovely Christmas package and I was very much pleased with it and wish to thank you all for your kindness. One of the first things I will do when I get home is to go and see Bryant and possibly meet some of my old friends. I received a letter from the Service Club sometime ago and I have been meaning to answer it but something always seems to come up, but I mad up my mind that this would be the time to write. I will enclose my correct address at the bottom of this letter.

I wish you would pass on my best wishes to all the gang, and especially to the class of 36. I have recently been promoted. As for myself I am fine and have done considerably traveling since I entered the service. One of my most enjoyable trips was to Rome, where I had the opportunity and good fortune of seeing the Vatican and the Pope. I was wondering if you were still publishing the Bulletin which I used to receive once in a while when I was in Africa. If you are I would appreciate it, if you would put me on the distribution list. I enjoyed reading it very much and would like to get it again. The weather gets pretty miserable around here at times, but I guess we can take for a little while longer. I sure hope to get home one of these days and have now over 2 years on foreign soil.

Well its chow time now so I will have to close and do hope I shall hear from you soon and I will try and answer your letters promptly in the future. Wishing you all the best of luck and again thanks for the gift.

My Correct Address is:

S/Sgt. G. W. Congdon, 31059556
Hq. Hq. Sq., 316^th Serv. Grp.
APO #650, c/o Postmaster
New York City, New York

[Transcription ends]

Sgt. G. W. Congdon, 31059536
Hq. Hq. Sq. 316th Serv. Gp.
A.P.O. # 628 c/o Postmaster
New York City, New York
North Africa Tuesday
July 6, 1943

Bryant Service Club,
1 Young Orchard Avenue,
Providence, Rhode Island.
U.S.A.

Dear Sirs:

I received your most welcome letter of May 31, a few days ago and was very much pleased to hear that everything is going on good at my old Alma Mater.

Since the last time I wrote I have been promoted to the rank of Sgt.. Also my A.P.O. # has changed to plain A.P.O. as you can see by the address on my letter. I have not received a copy of the Bryant Bulletin in a long time and would appreciate your cooperation in sending it to me. I used to look forward to getting to see how my old pals at school are doing and also how my classmates of ’36 are and what they are now doing. I suppose most of the fellows are in the services.

The fellows which you mentioned in your letter I did not know but I was very glad to hear about them, you see they were 4 and 5 years behind me and I didn’t have much chance to get back to the doings at school after I left. It has been very nice weather here and once in a while we get some hot days but on the whole it has been very nice. I have had some wonderful experiences and have learned things that I would not have learned had I not traveled to far off lands.

I hope it won’t be long until all the boys can return home and start life anew in a new and peaceful country. There is not much a fellow can write about here and therefore I hope you will excuse the short letter. I have been meaning to write you before but there is work to be done first and write letters afterwards.

I hope I will hear from you again soon and would like some information on the boys of the class of ’36. I know that quite a few of them are in the Army but I could not say as to their whereabouts at present. I would appreciate your sending me any information you could gather about my school chums.

Well so long for now and the best of luck to you in what you are doing for the boys in the service. Write again soon and please send me the Bulletin. I will write again when I get the chance. Best of luck to all.

Sincerely yours,

Gardiner W. Congdon,
Class of ’36. [Transcription ends]

Sgt. C.W. Congdon, 31059536
Hq. Hq. Sq., 316th Serv. Grp.
New York City, New York
No. Africa
November 25, 1943

Bryant Service Club
2 Young Orchard Avenue
Providence, Rhode Island.
U. S. A.

Dear Friends,

I want to thank you for your nice letter of Nov. 8th, and I really enjoyed reading about Bryant. I did not know but a very few of the people you mentioned in your letter because I was in the class of ’36 and did not have the opportunity to get back to Bryant and meet the new people that came in. I hope that I will soon be home and when I do, you can bet I will be up to Bryant to see the gang. I would appreciate it, if you could find out what some of my pals in the class of ’36 are now doing, and write and tell me. Could you do that?

Well so much for that: I am fine and doing my work in the best way I know how and feel sure the war will be over shortly. I have been overseas a year now and have seen some very interesting sights here. The cold weather and rainy season is just about to begin and if anyone had ever told me before I came overhere [sic] that it got cold in Africa, I would have said “your crazy[”]. But believe it, it does get cold here. I did not know that Miss Krupa had got married but I was very glad to find out. I don not have much time to write these days and so I think you will all forgive [me] for not writing any oftener than I do. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas too and hope next year I will be home.

So far I haven’t run into any of myclass [sic] mates overhere [sic] but perhaps before it is over, I will. I do however hear from Laura Simmonds quite often and she keeps me posted pretty well on what is going on at Bryant and Little Rhodey. most of the people overhere [sic] treat the American Soldiers very well, but like anyplace in the world there are a few who don’t.

So long for now and write again when you can. I sure enjoy reading about the old Alma Mater. Again a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. You are doing a swell job at home and keep it up. Youre’s [sic] in victory.

Sincerely,
Sgt. Gardiner W. Congdon [Transcription ends]

168 Arnold Ave.
Edgewood, R. I.
Feb. 24, 1943

Bryant Service Club
Bryant College
Providence, R. I.

Gentlemen:

I received a letter from my husband, Gardiner W. Congdon yesterday, telling me he had received two tins of flat fifties Camels from you. I previously wrote that he had not received this gift and thought probably you had been tracing it.

He will probably write and thank you for your kindness, but if not I am saying it for him.

Yours sincerely
Margaret M. Congdon [Transcription ends]

Feb. 3, 1943

Bryant Service Club
Bryant College
Providence, R. I.

Gentlemen:

I am now writing this short note to thank [you] for the cigarettes which I received a few days ago, & for the Bryant Bulletin which I also received.

I read the Bulletin with great interest & I would like to get every issue of it as I am very much interested in the College events & of the friends I had a [sic] school & what they are now doing. Also I would like to inform you that I am no longer at Will Rogers Field, but overseas & my address is now:

Cpl. Gardiner W. Congdon
Hq. Hq. Sqdn., 316th Service Group
A P O #528-1
c/o Postmaster
New York City, New York

I see where a lot of my friends are now in the service a few of them like myself are overseas.

I would appreciate your cooperation in sending me the Bulletin and also to change my address.

Thanking you for your help & hoping to hear from you soon. I am.

Yours Sincerely,
Cpl. Gardiner W. Congdon
[Transcription ends]

Providence
R. I.

Jan. 30, 1943

Dear Sir:-

Received your letter concerning packages sent [to] Gardiner W. Congdon. On July 16, 1942 he was home on furlough + as I was in Oklahoma following that I know he never received any package. Now he is out of the country so the Dec. 4th package may still be in Oklahoma. I hear from him regularly + he has never made any mention of receiving it. If I had known you had sent them I certainly would have written to you sooner.

I hope you are able to trace these + I know Gardiner would be very pleased to know you remembered him. His address now is:

Cpl. G.W. Congdon 31059556
Hq. + Hq. Sq. 316th Ser. Gp.
APO #528-1
c/o Postmaster
New York City, N.Y.

Yours sincerely
Margaret Congdon

[Transcription ends]

Will Rogers Field,
Oklahoma

June 29, 1942

Bryant College
Editor of College Paper
Providence, Rhode Island

Dear Editor:

Well it has been quite some time since I have received a copy of the Bryant College Bulletin. And being so far away from home I have lost contact with my fellow classmates. If I could be sent a copy of the paper I could see just what my former classmates are now doing. I would like very much to know what they are now doing.

I believe it would be possible for you to send me a copy of the paper, and I would appreciate receiving it very much. I am now the Company Clerk for the 772nd Quartermaster Company at Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma. It should be to your advantage to know that my Bryant Training is coming in handy in Uncle Sam’s Army. I have been in the service but a few short months and Bryant Training has helped me to get some promotions.

I should welcome a copy of the Bryant College paper and feel certain you will send it to me. Hoping to receive an answer from you soon, I remain,

Yours sincerely,

Cpl. Gardiner W. Congdon
Class of ‘36 [Transcription ends]

772nd QUARTERMASTER COMPANY
WILL ROGERS FIELD, OKLAHOMA

July 10, 1942

Bryant Service Club
Bryant College
Providence, Rhode Island

Dear Sirs:

I received the copy of the Bryant Alumni Bulletin the other day and I was very much interested to read about some of my former classmates, and also the splendid work that the Service Club is doing for the men in the Service.

I never received a questionnaire but from what I gathered from reading it I should have received one. I sincerely hope that this organization will continue to do the fine job which it has started to cheer up the men in the service.

I hope you will send me a copy of the Bulletin every time it comes out as I like very much to read about my friends with whom I have no contact now. Also I would like to say that I personally would prefer cigarettes.

Knowing that Bryant will continue to send out men who will be qualified for any position or situation which might arrive. In closing let me say I wish to thank you very much for you[r] generosity and know that it will be continued.

Sincerely

Cpl. Gardiner W. Congdon [Handwritten signature]

Cpl. Gardiner W. Congdon
772d Q.M.Co. (TRK)
Army Air Base
Will Rogers Field, Okla. [Transcription ends]