DIY History | Transcribe | Nile Kinnick Collection | Nile Kinnick diary of service in the U.S. Naval Reserve Air Corps, December 3, 1941-February 25, 1942

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Nile Kinnick diary of service in the U.S. Naval Reserve Air Corps, December 3, 1941-February 25, 1942

Page 124

If we continue to fight delaying actions until there is no doubt of our personal & material superiority, the Japs will be at our very shores before we get going. It will then be at a terrific price which we recover all that we are losing.
A man is frequently lonely who has not become strongly attached to a fine woman by the time he is 23. I am not going into this war with the idea of losing my life, but nonetheless, I could more easily face the obvious risk if I were deeply in love with a clean, wholesome girl in the bloom of young womanhood. This sounds like reverse reasoning, that I should, rather, hesitate to leave someone so dear. However, I should expect the woman of my choosing to send me off to battle with her chin up and reassuring words, fully expecting me one day again to embrace her when it was all over. Were I in this position I would feel that I had tasted pretty deeply of this mortal life in just my 23 years.

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If we continue to fight delaying actions until there is no doubt of our personal & material superiority, the Japs will be at our very shores before we get going. It will then be at a terrific price which we recover all that we are losing. A man is frequently lonely who has not become strongly attached to a fine woman by the time he is 23. I am not going into this war with the idea of losing my life, but nonetheless, I could more easily face the obvious risk if I were deeply in love with a clean, wholesome girl in the bloom of young womanhood. This sounds like reverse reasoning, that I should, rather, hesitate to leave someone so dear. However, I should expect the woman of my choosing to send me off to battle with her chin up and reassuring words, fully expecting me one day again to embrace her when it was all over. Were I in this position I would feel that I had tasted pretty deeply of this mortal life in just my 23 years.