Recently I have been reading the letters that my father wrote to my mother during WWII.

I knew some of them but not all in the huge bag of stuff left to me upon my mother's death.

Off the line in Italy as a machine gunner with 168th Infantry, 34th Division my father gets met by the American Red Cross SELLING coffee and donuts. He relates to my mother in the letter that the Salvation Army was there as well and although they were mostly Protestants Brit bastards they would give you anything they had. The "Sal" threw it out for free if they had it. The Red Cross was always looking to make a buck. Most guys had no money, some guys wanted to kill the people involved with the American Red Cross as much as they wanted to kill Germans.

Until the day he died my father wouldn't do anything for the Red Cross but he'd go galloping across anywhere to throw some money into a Salvation Army pot when Christmas came around.

Jesus, my father adored the Salvation Army off the line. He told me that they gave you everything they had.

American Red Cross? Pop swore he wouldn't give them the sweat off his balls and my father was not a foul-mouthed person as is his son.