Wallace, Wayne F. Papers

Seaman, U.S. Navy, 1950-1954.

The papers of Wayne F. Wallace consist of several hundred letters Wallace wrote to his wife Elva during the Korean War, and other items.

Size: 0.8 linear feet (about 1,600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: No donation of copyright was received with this collection. Documents created by U.S. Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of the documents, or to their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2026).

Wayne Fred Wallace was born in Garden City, Kansas on December 31, 1929. As a young man, he lived in Boulder, Colorado and in the state of Washington. Wallace served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War, aboard the USS Grasp and later aboard the USS Laertes. Both vessels were rescue salvage ships. Wallace’s experiences during the war included service in Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. He was also stationed at San Diego and at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Wallace married Elva McGhan on February 13, 1952 and they had two sons. After leaving the Navy in 1954, he worked as a metal handler and chemical technician in the Hanford area. Wallace died in Kennewick, Washington on February 20, 2017.

The papers of Wayne F. Wallace contain several hundred letters he wrote to his fiancée and wife, Elva McGhan Wallace, while he was serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. The papers also include a few letters from other persons, printed materials, and memorabilia. Except for one letter to Wayne and Elva from Wayne’s mother, which was written in December 1973, all the materials in this collection date from 1950-54. There are no letters from March-April 1953.

In his letters, Wallace described his experiences as a seaman aboard rescue salvage ships stationed at Pearl Harbor and other naval bases in the Pacific.. Most of the letters included information about his family and personal life, and descriptions of life aboard ship and in ports the vessels visited. In letters dating from late 1952, he provided firsthand accounts of combat activity near Wonsan in Korea. Wallace sent the letters to Elva at her home in Richland, Washington.

Photographs that were included with the letters have been transferred to the Truman Library’s audiovisual collection. Related materials at the Library include the Korean War Collection, the Records of the Korean War National Museum, and the papers of Edward B. LeMaster.