# Brian Keith, American WWII veteran: his letter to Dave **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 16, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813 "2015-04-16T04:14:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YawningDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/848f3c/32.png) [@YawningDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YawningDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/1 "2015-04-16T04:14:46Z")
> **[Sleep well my love](https://lettersofnote.com/2013/02/27/sleep-well-my-love/)** > > The following heart-rending love letter was written by American World War II veteran Brian Keith to Dave, a fellow soldier he met and fell in love with in 1943 while stationed in Nor… There are lots of other links to this letter I could include, but I’ve read through many of them and followed their links to more links and more links… and still no verification or resolution to the story. I was going to ask Cecil and then saw that I should try posting here first. I did search this site – and why “Brian Keith” gave results like dyslexia in Chinese, and someting about snot, I’ll never know. If you guys have no clue either, I’ll ask Cecil. Thanks. :)[URL=“[http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/](http://boards.straightdope.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/)”] ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/2 "2015-04-16T15:31:11Z")
What is your question? Are you asking if it was authentic? ---
**Author:** ![YawningDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/848f3c/32.png) [@YawningDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YawningDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/3 "2015-04-16T15:39:10Z")
I’m sorry, I guess I really wasn’t that clear. I’m trying to find out if this is real, and what happened to either or both of them after this. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/4 "2015-04-16T16:50:08Z")
I’m thinking it wasn’t [Brian Keith the actor.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Keith) Although he was in the service from 1942 to 1945. Would have been an out of character career killer at the time. ---
**Author:** ![YawningDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/848f3c/32.png) [@YawningDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YawningDog)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/5 "2015-04-16T17:04:18Z")
Right, I should have said I doubt it’s him either. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/6 "2015-04-16T17:24:59Z")
First of all I’d say the even if it was real the names where most likely changed since at the time coming out of the closet was pretty much out of the question for just about everyone. Second, the letter reads like some teenage boy sending a letter to Penthouse bragging about his exploits. Penned by the magazine itself to peek interest would be my guess. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/7 "2015-04-16T18:13:13Z")
If it’s authentic . . . “Dave” seemed to have been killed in action. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/8 "2015-04-16T18:33:17Z")
It appears “authentic” in the sense that it really did appear in [One](http://www.tyleralpern.com/one.html) magazine, a pro-gay publication, in its September, 1961, issue. > [@](#): > > September 1961 issue of ONE: The Homosexual Viewpoint (Vol. 9 #9). The title page states “ONE Magazine.” 32 pages. > > Features include Editorial by Robert Gregory (Managing Editor); article “The Homosexual Stereotype” by Marcel Martin; poetry “Stranger in a New Pale Green” by J. Lorna Strayer; curious, lonely Gertrude-Steinish philosophical musings entitled “Philosophia” by Thomas L. Waugh (“Hollywood U.S.A. Is stark at night and dark at night. Stark dark Hollywood U.S.A. And being gay here is a problem here a problem that it is no where else although it may also be stark and dark. Stark dark gaiety and being gay and living gay and gay…”); news column “Tangents: News & Views” (this month’s column by Harry Otis); short story “Prelude to…” by Jacqueline Lawson; poetry “Love Song” by Victor J. Banis; **“Letter to a G.I.” (from “Brian Keith” who writes, “Dear Dave, This is in memory of an anniversary - the anniversary of October 27, 1943, when I first heard you singing in North Africa…”)**; short story “In the Darkness a Strange Angel” by Manxman Andrews; book reviews; letters to the editor. As to whether it is a truly authentic letter from WWII, I can’t tell. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/9 "2015-04-16T19:09:26Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > If it’s authentic . . . “Dave” seemed to have been killed in action. Or maybe Dave turned out to be a slut and joined the French Foreign Legion, romantic that he was. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/10 "2015-04-17T16:27:41Z")
How was Dave killed in action in North Africa in October 1943 when the [Axis surrendered six months earlier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia_Campaign#Axis_surrender)? Also, who got to go home in the middle of the war? I’m thinking these guys were probably Air Force officers who had, unlike Yossarian, finished their tours of duty. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/11 "2015-04-17T18:07:15Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How was Dave killed in action in North Africa in October 1943 when the [Axis surrendered six months earlier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia_Campaign#Axis_surrender)? Also, who got to go home in the middle of the war? I’m thinking these guys were probably Air Force officers who had, unlike Yossarian, finished their tours of duty. “I stood atop the sea-wall and watched your convoy disappear over the horizon.” Doesn’t that imply Dave was sent to another combat zone, while Brian was allowed to return home? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/12 "2015-04-17T18:25:55Z")
> [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > “I stood atop the sea-wall and watched your convoy disappear over the horizon.” > > Doesn’t that imply Dave was sent to another combat zone, while Brian was allowed to return home? It says they were both going home though. I missed the ‘watching your convoy’ part though. It’s possible Dave’s ship was sunk in the Atlantic on the trip home. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/13 "2015-04-17T20:44:53Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > … Penned by the magazine itself to peek interest would be my guess. … to pique interest would be my spelling. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/14 "2015-04-17T23:26:51Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > It appears “authentic” in the sense that it really did appear in [One](http://www.tyleralpern.com/one.html) magazine, a pro-gay publication, in its September, 1961, issue, The only thing I find more incredible than there being a “pro-gay” periodical in 1961 is that it was founded in _1953_! (Had to look that up, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/15 "2015-04-18T11:34:01Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The only thing I find more incredible than there being a “pro-gay” periodical in 1961 is that it was founded in _1953_! (Had to look that up, of course.) When I came out, in 1963, I had never heard of anyone being “pro-gay.” It would have been like being “pro-chainsaw-murderer.” In fact, I was only dimly aware of the term “gay” in that context. And also in fact, though I was officially out, I was a long way from being completely “pro-gay” myself. That publication was WAY ahead of its time. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2015, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brian-keith-american-wwii-veteran-his-letter-to-dave/717813/16 "2015-04-19T01:25:03Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > How was Dave killed in action in North Africa in October 1943 when the [Axis surrendered six months earlier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia_Campaign#Axis_surrender)? Also, who got to go home in the middle of the war? I’m thinking these guys were probably Air Force officers who had, unlike Yossarian, finished their tours of duty. The October, 1943 date is the date they met. There is no indication regarding _which_ anniversary it was. It could have been as late as October, 1960. Given the predilection of current society to regard decades as significant, it might have been written in 1953. Given that timeline, Dave could have been killed in Sicily, Italy, or Southern France at any time during the rest of the war. The “going home” line does appear to be problematic. However, while it was rare for troops to be let go in the middle of the war, it was certainly the case that a number of fliers were rotated back after a certain number of missions so that they could provide “real life” training to the upcoming replacements. Officers in the artillery and a few other specialized fields were also rotated back as instructors. I have no idea whether the letter is real, but I have not seen any clear reason to doubt it.