82 Letters to Geraldine Andersen mostly from her husband, K. F. Andersen, who went by Andy. The bulk of the letters are from World War II, but there are a few from friends in 1948 after the untimely death of Andy. All but seven of the letters are correspondence between Kristian Frederick Andersen and his wife Geraldine M. (Worrell) Andersen when they are separated because of his Coast Guard assignments in the United States during World War II. The correspondence begins when Andy arrives at the Coast Guard Air Station in Biloxi, Mississippi, in August 1942. He is an Aviation Machinist Mate. Geraldine, whom he addresses as Jerry or Chick, is with her parents in Tulsa, Oklahoma, awaiting the birth of their first child, Ronald Lee. Jerry and Ronnie join Andy in December 1942, after he has been assigned to Salem, Massachusetts.

The correspondence resumes, at intervals, when Andy is away on assignments in various locations, including New York, Maine, Florida, and Texas. During much of this later correspondence, Jerry and Ronnie are either at their home in Marblehead, Massachusetts, or staying with her aunt and uncle in Portland, Maine. The last letter between them is in July 1945, presumably shortly before he is reassigned to San Diego, California, which is where they had lived before the Biloxi posting.

The letters are full of professions of love, loyalty, encouragement, and desires to be reunited. Andy writes of his duties involving airplane maintenance, flying time on the amphibious aircraft that is his particular responsibility, training, weather, his health, living conditions, searching for appropriate housing for them, and hopes for promotions and better assignments. Jerry writes about her pregnancy and recovery, the birth and development of Ronnie, medical expenses, and relatives. They discuss finances, bills, loans, rations, and purchases for Ronnie and each other.

Other correspondents include Jerry’s mother writing to Andy about Ronnie’s birth, a Coast Guard buddy writing congratulations to Jerry on the birth, Jerry’s doctor in Tulsa sending congratulations on the birth of their second son in 1946, Grandma and Grandpa writing an undated note to the two grandsons, and three friends or relatives sending sympathy notes to Jerry in January 1948 after Andy’s death in an air crash.