Read a transcription of this letter.

Neither Franklin Littell nor his brother, Wallace, fought in World War II (though both would later participate in the rebuilding of Germany, during the American Occupation). Instead, Franklin completed his education at Yale, and Wallace registered as a conscientious objector.
As a CO, Wallace—“Pickle,” for short—considered many options for service. While awaiting acceptance into the Civilian Public Service, he explored working abroad with the American Friends Service Committee as well as programs at Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges. He spent time in Philadelphia working at the Friends Neighborhood Guild, while also looking for work as an ambulance driver. Leaving Philadelphia, he hitchhiked across the US, making many stops, including several National Parks and to work as a farm hand in Montana. He eventually made his way to a Civilian Public Service camp in South Dakota. Moving between CPS camps out west, he worked as a “smoke jumper,” parachuting out of airplanes to extinguish forest fires.
There are many letters from Wallace in the collection, chronicling his experiences as a CO as well as his later work in the Foreign Service. The letter pictured here was written in April 1943, before he was accepted to the Civilian Public Service. In it, he discusses some of his options for government sanctioned alternative service work during the war.

–Courtney Smerz, Project Archivist