Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Source Description
This file contains correspondence from President George H.W. Bush at the time of his service in the United States Navy during World War II.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
400240253
label
Correspondence - Family of Ted White
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
400240253
contentType
document
title
Correspondence - Family of Ted White
description
This file contains correspondence from President George H.W. Bush at the time of his service in the United States Navy during World War II.
citationUrl
identifierLocal
25833-009
collections
George H. W. Bush Papers
World War II Correspondence
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
400240253
levelOfDescription
fileUnit
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
document
mediaId
5c7af519824e6bb7
ocrText
Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
2011-2184-F
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
Donated Historical Materials
Collection/Office of Origin:
Bush, George H.W., Collection
Series:
Personal Papers
Subseries:
World War II Correspondence
OA/ID Number:
25833
Folder ID Number:
25833-009
Folder Title:
Correspondence - Family of Ted White
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
35
1
1
2
R.R.10 WHITE BEAR LAKE
MINNESOTA
Drar Prescott.
Please be
interely assured that no
Due will all Peorgis litter
but Tra and me. I know
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
Exactly how you
ful- and you
share il wilt
are So good D
us. Thank you
for your trust
and help.
alwayssiverely
arme White
Oct: 18-1944.
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
October 13, 1944.
Dear Ann:
I have delayed in writing you for a few days because I wanted to get
as much information as possible regarding your son, whom my boy refers to as
Ted in his letters. Incidentally, my boy, whose name is George, but whom we
call Poppy, has mentioned Ted in several letters during the past six months..
I think the two boys became very good friends on the "San Jacinto."
Donald K. Walker, who wrote the attached letters, is one of my business
associates who went into the Navy and, being in the Personnel Department down
there, I asked him to check up on the White case. The attached letter indicates
that the Mavy's file does notedisclose any details.
However, we received this week a letter from Pop in which he describes
the flight which ended 80 unhappily. Ted went on that flight. He was, as
you know, gunnery officer on the ship but be was anxious to make a flight, so
Pop invited him to go with him. Perhaps he had been on other missions. I don't
know. At any rate, they went out and apparently were attacking when the ship
was struck by anti-aircraft fire from a ground battery on an island. Pop knew
that the ship was hit hard. He saw that both of his wings were on fire and his
cabin suddenly filled with smoke. He gave the order to abandon ship immediately
over the inter-com. He spoke to Com. Melville, squadron leader, over his redio
and told him that he was going to abandon ship, then veered over to the left
to give White and Delaney a chance to bail out; Delaney being the tail gunner
who had been on every mission with Pop for months. As I understand it, the
pilot's cabin is walled off 30 be can! see the two men in back of him - one
in the middle and the other at the tail of the plane. Then he swung right
and bailed out himself. He was hit on the head by the tail of the plane, which
gave him quite a gash but he came to in time to pull his chute open and landed
in the water with terrific force,down very deeply. He remembered his instructions
to get out of his chute, which he did under water
When he came to the surface he could not see anybody. de looked for his
men and looked for the plane. Shortly, however, Com. Melville came back and
circled around over him, and while circling pointed but Pop! chute which had
drifted on - away over the water. Pop swam to his chute and unfastened the
emergency raft attached thereto, pressed the button and the raft inflated itself.
He scrambled in. Melville evidently saw that Pop was bleeding badly, so he
dropped a first-aid kit, which floated and Pop picked it up, and gave himself
apparently & quick first-aid. In the meantime he could see no trace of his
plane or the other men. Fearful that the Japs would come out to get him from
the shore he then paddled out to sea with his little paddle just as hard as he
could. Two hours later an American submarine surfaced near him and picked him up.
Pop's letter says that Com. Melville saw only one chute open. Evidently,
he was watching, because Pop had told him he had ordered "abandon ship".
It, therefore, must be that Melville reported White and Delaney as
-2-
missing when he got back to the "San Jacinto". Pop was on the submarine for
nearly a month and we finally got a cable from him which we presume must have
come from Pearl Harbor.
by telephone
I have not actually seen Pop's letters which were written on the
submarine, describing this whole affair, but when I do I will make excerpts
from them and send them to you. Dottie has only sketched them to me to give
the high points which I have put into this letter. The fact is, however, that
Pop 1s very much afraid the other two boys are lost and he does not actually
know what happened to them. His first letter written on the submerine is
the most pathetic thing because it was almost entirely devoted to his regret
about White and Delaney. They were both such wonderful fellows, he said, end
be just couldn't bear to think about them being lost.
It may be that you have already heard from somebody with more details
about this incident. I hope SC. I have hesitated to write myself for fear
my letter might dispel the hope which I know must be lingering still in your
heart. Perhaps information which Pop gives is not conclusive and we will
still hope and pray that such is the case. However, after several days of thinking
it over, I have concluded that I had best write you, for had the tables been re-
versed I would have wanted you to write me.
I feel very sad indeed, Ann, to write such a letter for I know
what the feelings of yourself and your husband must be. Your son was such a
wonderful lad and I sm so glad that my boy knew him. His letters spoke 80
highly of him. previous to this disaster; and also, of course, his letters
written on the submarine, are just heart-breaking. Our boy is a very sensitive,
gentle fellow, and I am fearful that this incident will have hurt him very
deeply.
This is the third plane that Pop lost. In June he was picked up
off the Ocean by an American destroyer. I wish they would send him home now.
If be does come home I will let you know because perhaps you or your husband
would want to see him. I know he would want to see you.
I will write you later on enclosing exact excerpts from his letters.
I can't possibly tell you how unhappy Dorothy and I are about Ted
and how deeply we feel for you and your husband.
Sincerely yours,
Mrs. Edwin White,
767 Goodridge Ave.,
St. Paul, Minn.
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
Dror Prescott
We were QD glad to
receive your letter We have hesitated
D write you as we did not want
D alorw you WE ward oce
Depetruber 12 the that Larduer
got we had a letter from
was the m very and ou September
Forest Dauch gury us very
little hope. Garduer often speke
of George and said that he
was a fine 604. where he couses
howe he sure D lit us know
and Ttd (my husband) and I
will Coure East Dau him
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
George n a tend pilot and
did were they he could DJ
awp his weee bat the odds
were of aust him.
2eu it strange that our
tuo boy should meet ou a
Carrier w this Paci fee and
he w this tragedy together
I WP don't have D tell you that
are broken hearted, but are
doing our best D carry ou
as Larduer would Expect us
Do do
Thank you So much for telling
us the truth- I know it was
hard for you and I eau't
PHOTOCOPY
GB HANDWRITING
WD you how deeply I food for
George I hope he realizes as
trus goes ou that I was
Parduer choice and it was
like hive D make such a
choice Whatever he did he
went the whole way and a
little more besides
always Seel early
are White
October 18- 1944
UNITED
STATES
POSTAGE
USE
25:PM
3 rents 3
1944
MINN
Mr Princolf S Bush
59 Wall Street
new Yorks
new York
GB PHOTOCOPY HANDWRITING
EDWIN WHITE
ENDICOTT BUILDING
ST.PAUL,MINN.
Zone 1
October 20, 1944
Dear Pres:
In view of your long acquaintance with Anne, the friendship of
our sons, and our connection with New Haven, I know you will excuse the
informality, though I have met you only once and then for just a few min-
utes.
I want to say with great emphasis that Anne and I are deeply
grateful to you and your wife and to Pop. The letters you have sent us
are a tremendous help to us. They are frank and clear, sympathetic and
understanding, and we will always be grateful for them. We appreciate
more than we can express your feelings and your son's feelings. It is
clear beyond question from letters from Forrest Daniels, a young flier
from St. Paul named Grant, and from the Squadron Commander Melvin that
Pop did everything in his power to take care of the two men who were lost.
Our hearts ache for Pop but he should have no regrets except for the loss
of two friends and fellow heroes and I am sure that you have reassured him
in every possible way. Needless to say, I will write to him and will tell
him how grateful we are for his efforts in behalf of these two boys, un-
questionably at the risk of his own life. It seems to me that it would
improve the morale if all naval fliers knew that when three, or even two,
of their 'planes had been shot down, they would be granted leave or assigned
to other duties. We hope and pray that your boy will be returned safe and
sound before too long. In the meantime, we understand the load you are all
carrying.
It would indeed be ungrateful of us to fail to treat Pop's intimate,
beautiful letter in the strictest confidence. We appreciate your sending it
to us and the least we can do will be to keep it to ourselves. No one but
Anne and I will see it. We feel, as you state you would under similar circum-
stances, that we must know all the facts and the letters you have sent us,
while very sad, contain the information which, if it had to be, we were so
anxious to receive.
Our letter from Forrest Daniels, dated September 6, received September
27, states, "I know you will agree with me that in no way was the pilot to blame
for what happened, and that he, himself, got out is something to be really grate-
ful for in this tragedy."
We will be most anxious to see you and Mrs. Bush and Pop and I can
only repeat, we can never thank you enough for the information you have given
us and for your sympathetic understanding.
With best regards,
Sincerely,
white.
EW:HA
Mr. Prescott S. Bush
59 Wall Street
New York, N. Y.