Robert P. Ebersole Second World War correspondence

This collection contains one letter from Lt. Robert P. "Ebby" Ebersole, USA to Agnes Heil née Wright during the Second World War. The letter was written in condolence of her son 1st Lt. Robert J. "Bob" Heil, USA of Ohio who served as a liaison pilot in the Pacific Theater and was killed in a car crash. The letter was evidently copied for family after the fact, as he mentions writing it illegibly while sitting up in bed.

The letter was dated May 21, written by hand in his hospital bed at Fort McKinley in Manila, Philippines only hours after the death of Robert Heil. It explains that Heil had come to visit Ebersole in the hospital, whose plane had crashed in the water just the day before. Heil visited and then honked as he drove off, soon after being thrown from the jeep from a possible collision with an amphibious vehicle; though Ebersole admits nobody was sure what happened.

Heil was given a bed next to Ebersole and apart from some head trauma and being knocked unconcious, appeared largely unhurt. He later awoke and explained that he was not in pain, but the doctors understood he had at least a concussion and perhaps other complications and wanted him to lie still where he talked a little with Ebersole. He passed away later that night after his pulse dropped in his sleep, apparently painlessly.

The letter details the day's events and how Heil sought religious comfort from his Catholic rosary and a priest, giving confession and being given last rites in the night before he passed after midnight, in the early hours of May 21. Ebersole consoles his mother in the letter by extolling the virtures of Robert Heil and explaining his lack of pain or suffering.