Military family.

Dec. 8, 1941, found my career navy man father on board his ship in Manila Bay as the Japanese bombed the Cavite shipyard and ships in the bay ("Home Alone" by Clara Bingham, April). He had been overseas since the summer of 1941. We would not see him until 1943, when he showed up at our Navy quarters in San Diego. Curiously, war's end found him in Subic Bay, less than 100 miles from Manila. Unlike today's military wives and dependents, we seldom knew where my father was or when he might be home. His letters were our only link to him, and sometimes months went by before my mother received any. Like her counterparts in today's military, loneliness was an awful fact of day-to-day life.

Despite many hardships, however, my mother loved being a Navy wife. Married in 1934, she developed close friendships with other Navy wives that lasted until her death in 2003. She never complained about the Navy or the sacrifices she had to make. A few years before my father died in 1993, I asked him to write down his World II experiences. He did so with enthusiasm and determination. I never thought to ask my mother about her experiences except once when, almost as an afterthought, I asked what the war was like for her. She simply replied, "It was one long nightmare." She said no more. For my father, the war was the Great Adventure; for her it was something else. There were millions like her.

Daniel Connell

Murrieta, Calif.