October 6, 1943

{Included in the letter was the Army Emergency Relief Booklet. The Army Emergency Relief is still in force.  To see the 2012 annual report, click here.  To see photos of the last living member of the "This is the Army" show that raised funds for the AER, click here.}

September 29, 1943

Card #1

I am writing these cards instead of writing a letter because I have run out of paper and as I shall soon leave here I see no sense in buying a lot of paper which has Beloit College all over it.  This is the chapel on the campus.  It is really a very beautiful place made in Olde English Construction.

Card #2

 As we walk from the chapel under the spreading oak trees that shade all the walks in the campus we come to the library.  I have never been inside because it is never open when we have open post and we are not allowed extra time for such things.  My information about this beautiful place comes from the girls (next card)....

Card #3

I have met at different times and at several different dances.  This is the Art Hall where we get movies once and a while.  This is also the site of the last dance.  It is really a hall for art exhibits but the floors and galleries around inside make it a very interesting place to just sit, if you have the time.

Card #4

As we return along our tour of the grounds we came by the gymnasium and pool.  It is here that I had swimming instruction and our First Aid lectures.  We also had a little gym work but rainy days usually carried the schedule of swim rather than work on the rings and parallel bars or the track.

Card #5

This is a view across the campus but is not too good to illustrate the nature of the grounds.  It is really much prettier in the summer and the hill that seems to be in the picture is not really there.  This picture is rather old and does not give a true picture of what I see each day.

Card #6

Chapin Hall is the girl's dorm.  The ground floor has been taken over by the Army and made into a mess hall.  It has all of the modern installations of Army camp.  The low building on the left is where we really eat and the kitchen is under the building.  The girls in the top of the building are a definite....

Card #7

attraction.  The main building in this picture is what is called Haven Hall.  This is where we sleep and log "bunk time".  I might say that bunk time is a thing of the past.  From now on bunk time is logged after 12:00 pm.  Well that's enough for now.

With love,
Austin

September 25, 1943

Beloit College

Beloit Wis.

Sept. 25, 1943

Dear Mother,

I just got your letter and the box.  What a wonderful surprise.  The first thing I see in the box is the layer of cookies.  As yet I haven't got below that.  Your letters are also very interesting because they give the latest developments.

Today I finished all the flying that is given to the C.T.D.s.  I am glad it is over because it is a strain on the nerves and physically tiring.  I have lost about 7 lbs while flying and many hours of sleep that I could easily do with.  But yet I am not in such poor condition.  I still weigh a lot more than when I entered the army.

Flying was a lot of fun but don't give anyone the idea that is just like play.  It is really hard work. After one flight of 45 minutes I always feel like a good nap and the day that I had two flights was a bad day.  On the 2nd flight I just wasn't "on the ball".  My reactions were too slow and the plane got ahead of me.  I tried to do stalls and spins but just couldn't make the plane work for me.  I did the right thing at the wrong time.

Yesterday I was really the "hot pilot".  I did forced landings and made several perfect ones.  The landings at the airport were very good in fact they were the best the instructor had seen in some time, not a bounce or a bound.  It would have broken an egg if they had been all over the plane.

Today I had one flight and a check flight which finished one up.  As usual I got tense in the test and didn't do too good.  I do know however that I passed and have been recommended to go on in my air training if I pass classification.

I haven't said much but we are going to leave Beloit Oct 2 or 3.  Just a week or so from now.  We are going to Santa Ana and will be there from 3 weeks to 8, no one knows.  You had better send a list of my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins along so I can get in touch with them out there.  You had better send me some information on how I shall address them.  It will be funny if I write "Dear 3rd cousin" when she may be "Dear 5th cousin".

I just dug down in the box some more.  The first thing I see is the jelly from our own vines.  What a treat.  "Jerry" Pozen my roommate still thinks I am a "hick".

It's too bad you wrote about the girls especially on the night of our Graduation Dance.  I have been all dated up and we are going to get "hip" tonight.  Oh well!  I guess I can have some fun tonight and it won't effect me too much.  The girls name is Barbara Burling.  I will write all about her tomorrow.

 (Note: The space I give to flying and "the girl".)

I think it is about time I send along the pictures I took while here.  There are not too many but you can get an idea what I look like from them.  There are also pictures of my roommate as well as the last boy from Mass. with me.  His name is Anthony Toschs and is from some town just outside of Boston.

Please wish many happy returns to Mary for me even though it is rather late.  I wanted to send her a present but didn't know what to send.  Anyway I was thinking of her on the 23rd.  I hope she enjoys her job as much as I enjoy mine.

Those hats (caps) you see are not G.I. but you buy if you post commander allows you to.  If I get around to it I will answer all the rest of your questions later.

Love

Austin the hot Pilot

(I guess we know where all that art talent in the family comes from.)

September 19, 1943

Beloit College

Beloit Wis

Sunday. 19,

Well William,

I guess it is time for your letter to come.  It has taken a long time to get written and it might take longer if I had something special to do.  As it is Sunday is a rather dull time in town and Sunday mornings seem to be the best time to write.

I have now had exactly 5 hours flying time.  The last 1/2 hour was a check ride that was pretty good but still not too good.  My flight work in the air was fairly good but the landings were terrible.  It was taken on a hot windless day and hot rising air made landings impossible unless a lot of flying speed was lost.  You would come in for normally a perfect landing only to have to ship rise on the hot air and let you down with a terrific bounce.  I did it 3 times in a row.

In a landing you come in from an altitude of about 200' and made your turn into the wind.  As you come over the field you should be ready for the landing if you misjudge and come in too fast or too slow you just have to do the best you can.  When you reach an altitude of 20' you begin to pull back on the stick to lift the nose and you stall it in.  The conrtolls get mushy and hard to get reaction from.  When you hit the ground you have the stick back in your stomach.  Friday however when the controls got mushy and you pulled back on the stick for a landing you just started to rise and you had to go forward on the stick again.  This is in disagreement of flight rules so I had to make a couple of bounces before coming to a smooth stop.  That check was surely very poor from the landing stand point.

Friday was a funny day.  On my lesson flight I was flying over a river but to my dismay began to rise at an unheard of rate.  I stuck the nose down and went into a supposedly dive but even with the nose way below the horizon in what should have been a dive we continued to rise about 150'.  After we got out of that updraft the plane came down in a hurry.

Thursday we did stalls and spins.  I climbed the ship to 2500' and the instructor showed me stalls.  In stalls you have no (I hope) aileron control because it tends to act just the opposite to the intended purpose.  Therefore the stick is not used except to pull the nose up.  The nose up and the ship begins to mush through the air at this point the stick can be pulled way back and the plane drops forward into a dive.  You then gun the motor and pull out.

The spins are a lot more fun.  You go into a normal stall but give rudder in the direction you want to spin.  The plane falls off in the direction desired and the earth begins to whirl.  You pull it out by applying opposite rudder and forward stick.  What a sensation.

You better get someone to give you a few rides.  Then you will be converted to the thing also.

All the girls have come back to college and you can bet we are now going to have fun.  The only trouble is that in 2 weeks we will again be on our way.  You ought to see these mid-western girls.  I never saw anything like it in N.E.  It must be because I didn't get around much when I was back home.  I think coed colleges are a coming thing; especially during war time when all the boys are not in school.

I have taken a few pictures lately so I expect that the next mail will bring a few of me and my roommate.  He is restricted this week because of less than a passing mark in one subject.  I should have gotten 3 extra hours for marks above 80% but the order didn't come through.

Your brother,

 Austin (The hot pilot)

P.S. Wish Mary a Happy Birthday for me.

September 12, 1943

Pvt. Austin Rounds
31359264
Hdgs. 95th C.T.D.
Beloit College
Beloit Wis

Beloit College

Beloit Wis

Sept. 12, 1943

Dear Pop: (oops I mean A.P.)

Boy!!  I have really hit the part of the training that I have waited for ever since June 7.  Just 3 mos. after entering the Army Air Corp I went to the field to get my first official log time and you can bet that I was the happiest and also the gladdest boy to be alive.  But worst luck we were grounded because of too high wind.  This was Tuesday; Wednesday were grounded as well as Thursday except for one flight.  Friday I got my first ride and it was really "the nuts".  The periods last 45 min. and you can bet you can learn a lot in that time.  My instructor took me up and shot a landing.  We went up again and after following through a series of turns etc. he told me to do the job.  Well you have never really lived until you have flown. At first you go about it in a very mechanical way.  You know that to make a left bank you give left stick and left rudder but as long as it is mechanical you never get the coordination necessary.  When you get the feel of the ship and she begins to fly for you that is really when you live.  When you get so that the rudder and stick work together with out a lot of thought you are really flying; the plane really acts for you and you become a part of it.  The plane is no longer a device to be played with but a part of you.  When you bring the plane out of a 45 degree bank and it comes back on line with none of this wishy-washy back and forth stuff you really feel like a hot pilot.

Every day you get better and better.  Things begin to come more easily.  On my second flight I did turns to the left and right and left and right gliding and climbing turns.  It was on this second flight that I really got the feel of the thing.  I have a strong tendency to not give enough rudder when I turn and I must have a lot of other faults but I think I am coming along.

Some of the fellows are having a real rough life of it.  Two can not get over air sickness.  One has been sick twice and heaved over the side.  The other has got air sick twice and heaved once.  That once was rather disastrous.  He heaved into the slip stream and got most of his dinner back on his face and all over the inside of the plane.  It was no fun to clean up after himself and I felt rather sorry for him.

The plane is a Cub J3 65 H.P. N.C. 37900.  They are equipped with gosports ( I think that's how they spell it), an instructor to student communication system (no back talk) some have brakes and others don't.  The instrument panel has only a few things to watch.  The tackometer, the altimeter, oil pressure, oil heat, and a few others.  It has no turn or bank indicator, no rate of climb indicator, but is rather fit for contact flying.  We wear a back parachute for reasons of regulations rather than safety.  Civil Air Regulation states that during acrobatics you must wear a chute so we wear one.  It is really a good way to get you used to wearing one.  I have taken some pictures with one on and I will send them as soon as I get them developed and printed.

Cockpit

We are restricted to what we can take pictures of so that unless I get permission I can't show you a picture of my plane.  It is a cub with a sliver finish.  It has the R.A.F. insignia and is called the "Delaware Flitfire". It is an easy thing to take off and I did that on my second flight.  I didn't fly it in I guess because I forgot my flight pattern and didn't know I was over the East boundary when I was asked where I was.

One of the few original planes left in 2013.

We went on parade last Friday night on the streets of Beloit.  The people gave us a good ovation as we went by.  You can easily see that the Enlisted Students are the ones that rate around here.  I couldn't write after parade and last night I went over to help out all the new students that just came in.

Training is really beginning to smooth out.  Our hours are still bad but the schedule is not rough.  We only get 3 classes a day and a fourth that is a swim period.  You go to the field at 12:30 and the first flight goes up at 1:30.  There are 3 flights and 3 students on our plane so you fly every day, weather permitting.  The discipline is letting down and we are beginning to give the officers the works.  In fact they stay away from upper classmen as much as possible and only when they have the upper hand where their authority means something do they get tough.  It is rugged but wonderful.  Tell Ralph to do anything possible so he can get in.  He won't regret it a bit.

With love,

Austin                   (The hot pilot)

A short video of a J3 cub flying in England.  Wikipedia has some interesting tidbits to share too.

Grandpa also sent home his first flight log.  

September 5, 1943

Beloit College

Beloit Wis

Sunday Sept, 5

Dear Mother

Well! it must seem like a long time since you last heard from me and it also seems like a long time sine I last wrote.  It was last Saturday that I wrote last and at that time I was about to go on "open post".  I don't remember what I wrote so I will begin by just writing the news.

Thank you ever so much for the box which I received on Tuesday when I was CW.  What's that?  It means charge of quarters and it is a little job every has to do at some time or another.  It consists of a period of duty from 1700 to 2400 when I get relieved by another man who works till 0800.  You are in charge of the barracks and your duty are trivial but numerous.  You ring the bells for formations and study periods as well as for bed and lights out; you collect the mail and make hourly inspection to see that everything is in order and that all the lights are out and no one is A.W.O.L.  The candy came in very handy and tasted very good about 2400.  I was all alone and you can bet I took very good care of it.  My first thought on receiving it was that it must have meant a lot to use sugar for such a purpose.  I just want to say that I really appreciated it and was very glad to receive it.  The powder has come in handy alright and I am glad I have it.  And the film was a very unexpected surprise.  Maybe I'll have to send some more pictures home now.  I suppose I will get a letter pretty soon with your reaction on the last picture.   I am saving the film for the flying field which incidentally is in next weeks training.

Next week and the following weeks are the ones we have been waiting for all this time.  Next Tuesday and for several (4) weeks in a row we will fly 2 weeks in the afternoon and 2 weeks in the morning.  We have really been waiting for this.  The usual procedure was to fly all day for 2 weeks and then the next flight fly 2 weeks and then both leave together. Well they seem to think that this arrangement of flying half time for a month is better.  I rather think that the other system is better because you can concentrate on the thing night and day whereas we will also have studies during the day as well as fly.  Any way we are glad to get started.

We don't know much about what we are getting into.  We do know that the planes are "cubs", red in color except for 2 yellow, they fly over town and that is really a lot of fun.  Some of the fellows have some flying time and others like me are very enthused over the thought.  I will write about it as soon as I can and you may be sure that I will find time for a short note in the middle of the week.

Another shipment of fellows left yesterday.  With them left the "wash outs" of the present flights.  Two of our boys have washed out.  A fellow by the name of Harmsen from N.J. just wasn't what they wanted.  He just wasn't on the ball.  In his short stay here he had piled up 160 tours for everything in the book.  He had been gigged for everything from insubordination to a dirty floor in his room.  He was the most untidily dressed person you ever saw and only took a bath when the fellows told him that he was going to get GI'ed or else.  He just broke all the rules and thought he could talk his way out.  But what a mind.  He had one of the most intelligent minds I have ever seen.  He was really a very good student even though he asked too many questions and made the class very conscious of him and his questions that were off the subject but had a connection to it.  He didn't have discipline and will never have it.  They are sending him to radio school and the Commandant of Students here thinks he will do a good job there.  He will end up as a radio man gunner and that is really too bad for a fellow with his ability and lack of judgment.   

The other fellow was a very mediocre person but knew what he wanted.  He had just as much chance of becoming a pilot as anyone but blew his top to Lt. Manning when he couldn't see his wife and mother whom he hadn't seen for 18 mos and had come 2300 miles

Somehow he ended up with a blank page in the middle of the letter!

to see him.  It was hardly necessary because he would only have to wait several days to see them.  When he was asked at that meeting with the Lt. if he liked it, he told him no and told him what he didn't like.  The Lt. said that he would see what he could do about it so this gentleman will get back his Sgt. rating and go into the ground crew.

We moved last week into Haven Hall about ten yds from N. Dorm. We have a room overlooking the river and a pretty good place to be.  We get a fine breeze all day and the sun shines in all afternoon.  The one trouble is that the breeze also brings a lot of dirt and grime from the factories and the rail road track on the other side of the river.  Even so we like the room better than the one we had.  Of course my address is not changed.

I got one of the biggest compliments of my life yesterday.  I got an English paper back that was a test.  I thought that I had done a very poor job on it but across the top were these words, "Intelligent Paper".  The English teacher and I will get along very well together from now on.  My spelling is not too good but I almost passed the last test.

I also tied for having the second best paper in history.  That test was rather tough but I got the second highest mark in the class.  Now I have about run out of news and shall reread some of your letters to see what you would like to hear.

I almost forgot the newspapers even though they are the main thing cluttering up the place.  I was sure glad to get them and some news from the "home town".  All the fellows got a kick out of my picture.  They thought that I was a lot fatter now than I was.  Well that is a fact.  I weighed somewhat over 180 lbs.  That means that I have gained 25 lbs since that picture and about 20 since June 7.  I almost think that I might get fat.

About that Methodist Church I knew I had to go to church soon or I wouldn't know what to do when I did.  This church was the nearest to the campus and the only church I know.  They gave us a little card to fill out and it was from this that they sent what ever you got.  I did get an invitation to dinner but it just so happens that I had also signed up for a picnick at the swimming pool and I didn't want to miss it.

Our schedule is full until Oct 2 and then we are expected to move to Santa Ana.  Everyone from this college has gone to Santa Ana and I see no reason why we should be the first to change the procedure.  Of course I don't know what we will get for "open post" out there but you better send the information about the addresses out that way.

I got a letter form Mrs. Weeks this week.  It was really a card with a message on the back.  It was a very attractive card and I appreciated it very much.  Please thank her for me. By the way I will tell William in his letter but you can also.  Don't forget because it was very nice of her to think of me.

I got two cards form William from "Old Orchard" and I was surprised to receive them.  He seems to enjoy life quite a lot now adays.  I will write to him too as soon as possible.  I liked Mary's letter a lot.  I thought I had lost it but I finally found it in another "pile of stuff" (this is impossible).

As for Bill Cunningham keep sending them along.  I enjoy his stuff very much.

So the "refugee" arrived.  Well what do you know about that?  I hope she fits the baby carriage.  Nancy Jean is kind of a nice name.  I rather like it.  Give "Bertha" and the baby my love.

You talk about a meat and butter famine.  Out here there is still plenty of everything.  We seem to get the best of everything.  We get get Beef and Gravy 2 suppers and one dinner.  We get cold ham once a week.  We always get a stew once a week to finish up the leftovers.  We get one pot of butter a meal and all the cream we want and all the milk.  You can drink.  The Beloit people do not seem to be short of meat or butter but they are much nearer the supply than you are.  I am (was) going to send you a few interesting things I found in the paper today but as I read it I can only find one little item.  This may interest you the way it did me. I have never seen anything like it in Mass. papers.  Out here you see a great number of people wearing these hay fever masks.  It seems that the ailment is very prevalent out here.

Tell Mary that the service men out here are well taken care of in the way of girl friends.  I guess some of the fellows have more than one in more than one place.  My roommmate has a girl back home and you ought to hear some of his letters.  His mother and sister came from N.Y. to see him this week and that is where I spent most of my time (with them).  We really had a swell time.

I have to close now.

With love,

Austin (the hot Pilot)

{Some of the clippings his mother sent from the local newspaper!  They don't write them like this anymore!}

Funny that they don't tell you the Coast Guardsmans name.