The mother of William Dallam III tattled on him to Eleanor Roosevelt for his not writing home while serving aboard the USS Moale during World War II, writes Paul Vigna for the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Dallam – who went on to graduate from West Chester University (then called the West Chester State Teachers College) and who now lives with his wife in Mechanicsburg – joined the Navy at 17. His mother, Irene Dallam, was not happy as her older son was already serving.

Dallam served aboard the USS Moale. Meanwhile, his father, along with the rest of his family, had moved to a secret location to work on the first atomic bomb.

Dallam, who was already lax about writing, never received the new address.

After months without a letter, his mother eventually contacted the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, to get her son to write home.

She was successful. Dallam was summoned to the captain’s quarters. There, the irate captain gave him the new address and told him to write to his mother as he “never wanted to receive another message from Eleanor Roosevelt about Bill not writing to his mother again.”

Read more about William Dallam III in the Harrisburg Patriot-News here.

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