This letter was written from

Lieutenant James Olin Chiles to his wife, Dorothy,

while he was serving as a fighter pilot

on the Navy Carrier, the U.S.S. Midway.

Jim died of Polio on July 28, 1949.

(The actual letter follows this excerpt.)

Let me paint for us a few cozy pictures of our future.

Us on a Sunday afternoon drive in our Cadillac in 1957

with Charlene (age 10), a boy 8, a girl 6, and a little boy 4.

A family reunion in 1987 with our children

and ten grandchildren.

The year of 2000, both of us looking back

on a life well done in the eyes of God

with our descendants in all four corners of the earth,

us ready to answer the final call and happy to go.

Now how’s that? I hope you like it.

One last word on this subject.

Do not despair for the uncertainty of the future.

It has looked black before.

Someone has always come through,

and if trouble develops, why can’t it be us.

If the end of the world itself comes,

and judgment day, then so much the better,

for you & I, and our children

will have gone to a better place anyhow.

The insurance I have in which I place my stock

is the assurance that I’ll go to heaven

come what may, war with Russia or what-not.

With faith in God and this assurance, how can we lose?

We can’t.

I love you darling, and I’m looking forward to the night

when you and I kneel down beside the bed together

and pray together that God’s will be done

as we go to work for Charlene’s little brother or sister.

I love you,

Jim

Note: There are two times that my father documented that he prayed for me:

1. At my conception

2. On his death bed.

Click on the above picture to read the Article:

"Love That is Tender Leaves a

Strong Message in Room 844"

Peabody Hotel, Memphis, Tennessee

This article was printed in the Memphis Press-Scimitar,

on December 22, 1950,

on what would have been

Jim and Dorothy Chiles' Fifth Wedding Anniversary.