The letters presented below comprise of a one-sided correspondence from Cadet-Midshipman John Samuel Hamacher and Reba Amanda Badger – a nursing student at Dartmouth College. John was born in 1920, was raised by his widowed mother, and had gone to the prestigious McKinley High School in Washington D.C. from which he graduated in 1938. He recounts his life story in the course of a few early letters – we learn he tried his hand at working lumber and was also enlisted in the U.S. Marines. The letters span from June 1, 1945 to February 13, 1946. The last letter communicates John’s desire to get together with Reba in Boston in February 1946. Reba passed away on November 20, 1946. John passed away in 1981.
