December 30, 1943

Santa Ana Army Air Base

Dec 30, 1943

Dear Mother:

I have a lot of spare time now so I am writing and spending the time the best way I know.  Of course I could have written last night but I wrote to Cousin Emma in Hollywood.  I think I hsall go there over the New Year weekend.  She is really so nice I really enjoy the visits very much.

In a week or 2 or more you will get a package of stuff I have collected here in California.  There will be old letters, cards, etc. along with books, papers and other junk.  The reason I am sending them you may be able to guess.  We are sure to be shipping out in a short time and although I am not positive I will go I am not worrying as  much as these fellows who got low academic averages and too many giggs.  They have washed out a few fellows already for too many giggs.  My grades in school were not too bad and we don't know just how the averages came out because some classes got more credit than others.  Anyway I got a 95% in Physics, 87% average in Math, 93% average in Aircraft Identification, 93% in chemical warfare, 85% average in gunnery but fell down in Navel and at 78%.  I had one midterm examination that was very poor and it pulled the whole average down.

One thing I do know.  The squadron will be broken up and different sections will be sent to different fields.  We were not good enough to stay together.  I was going to leave a lot of friends anyway because a lot of fellows are being held over for some reason or another.  Only 7 from one section of 46 will leave.  In our section however (No I) we got all good averages and will have only 1 holdover if things all go well.  Our section by the way seta  few records around here.  We got the largest number of superiors in class (43 in a row) that has ever been recorded.  No one failed code, another record.  Got the highest marks in Aircraft Identification of any class (above a 90% average).  We carried the E flag for 4 straight weeks.  Oh well, we did pretty well but I only wish the whole sqn had done better so we could stay together.

There has been a rumor around that we are going to ship out of California to Arizona or Texas or some such place.  The reason is that the last class has not received enough flying time to leave for Basic and therefore we shall be shipped to some clear weather states where we have a chance flying.  This is a poor time of year to be flying out here.  Last week there were only about 1 1/2 fly hours per student and that is not enough.  You have to have at least 20 to get out. Well it really isn't too bad to see such rain if you don't have to fly but if you want to it is disappointing to see all the rain we get.

Maybe the Chamber of Commerce has fooled the whole country but not the natives around here or the soldiers who are training here.  We fall out at 5:45 and find a clear star-lit sky but it is usually raining by 8:00 and not later than 1200.  It isn't a bad rain but a slow drizzle that always seems so cold and penetrating.  Out here however they are warm and do not chill so much.  Some times it really pours and then it really rains.  The water comes up about an inch every where so that it is impossible to keep the feet dry.  We wear the wet shoes to dry them out and because they will dry out no other way.  The only trouble is that socks wear out fast and with no mother around to mend we just have to buy new ones.  It is terrible waste but then we figure our time is worth more than the stockings.

So far I have been very lucky and have lost only a few minor articles of clothing.  I have only lost one O.D. hat with the insignia on it.  I always thought that you would lost more than that but it seems that I am in with a picked outfit and they don't swipe so much as the regular "run of the mill".

I seem to be just rambling along here and not answering any of those questions you are always asking. Cousin Emma asked me if I ever got questions from home and if I ever answered them.  She said that her boy Robert hardly ever answered her questions and I guess I must seem that way to you too.  I gave her the only answer I know and that is that whenever you write you never have the old letters available to get questions from.  Right now I am C.Q. and don't have letters available.  I guess if you have anything you want answered you will have to write it on something special that I can carry around for reference.  By the way, the Independents are coming through very well and I have received the last 3 or 4 issues.  They are really swell; I must write something some day to put in.  You wrote that old Seward got his commission.  Well if I don't become a pilot I will look like him when I get home.

With love

Austin.

December 27, 1943

Dec. 27, 1943

Dear Mother:

I have finally gotten around to writing again and you can bet I tried to write before but didn't get time.  I have been working all my spare time studying or on details.  I fact no one has received letters from me except for an occasional one or two sent East.  I guess Pop A.P. and Esther got the only letters.

Christmas was very exciting out here for me because it was the first one away from home and I again went to Hollywood.  Robert Johnson was home again from some camp here in Calif. and he has many friends that are connected to the movie business here.  I guess he was a play producer before the war and is putting on 6 plays he came in contact with many of the popular stars of the stage and screen.  we went out to see some of his friends.  I met one movie stars that went to school with Robert but who is now in the Sea Bees. {?}

His name is Rick Vallin, his real name is nothing like that because he is of Russian birth.  He is really a handsome fellow and the movies lost something when they lost him.  He was a swell fellow and not a bit snooty as you might expect a movie star to be. {There is a 3 year gap from motion pictures after 1943, but no real clues to what he was doing during that time.}

See here for a more interesting bio than Wikipedia can give you.

  At the same place was a girl move star who had just completed a picture.  Although she was not the star and I really still don't know what or how important a part she played, she was very likable.

Of course I opened my Christmas presents as soon as possible and was rather surprised at all you got into that small box.  Everything is so useful.  The first and most important item seemed to be the slippers.  I have no other pair and I was beginning to hate walking around bare footed all the time.  The polishing equipment is the small metal box is the best outfit I have seen.  One of my main troubles with polishing buckles and buttons is that I never can find the cloth when I want it and I have had to keep the cloth in a bag and it is not so neat looking as a a metal box.  Foot lockers are hard enough to keep clean but things in metal boxes are much easier to keep.  The polish works very well on my belt buckle and makes it shine better than a polishing cloth.

The handkerchiefs are very handy and can always be used.  I have a cold now in spite of the sulphadyazine tablets we have had.  My next letter will be written on the new paper as this is the last piece of this.  The little game is rather handy but I guess the only chance I will be able to use it will be when traveling or on rainy days.  Whose ideas was the shoe strings?  It just so happened that I needed them but I am not usually caught short. (I haven't got space to write about all the rest but you know I really appreciate them).

I have got so much more to write about the Johnson's but I am very tired after that weekend.  He is a teacher of Science (math, chem, physics,) and Spanish.  She is about 60 years old and is a dear lady.  She is really a real mother to me.  The first thing she did when I came in was give me a big kiss.  "That's for your mother," she said.  I will write again tomorrow if possible.  As usual I am in as good health as can be expected and Cousin Emma says I look like a real Californian.

With love,

Austin.

December 23, 1943

Dec. 23, 1943

Dear A.P.

I got your air mail letter today in the second mail call at 1700.  It was post marked the 20th and you can see that it came right along.  It really did save time as in normal times it takes 6 days and lately mail has been coming through is 8 and 9 days.  Your last letter of the 16th came in 8 days.  It must be due to the strain on the Railroad caused by the Christmas rush.

THe watch situation is rather tough everywhere.  The clipping I am sending shows that recently they hooked a lot of red tape on to getting a watch here.  Don't get a Swiss watch for $50 because I can get one (if I am lucky) for $30.00 or less.  The watches are available for a short time each month and the supply does not last long.

Well our classes are coming to an end soon, in fact most of the finals come tomorrow.  That is the reason I have not been able to write for the last 2 weeks.  We have had 5 classes a day with a test every other day in each one of them.  That takes a lot of studying and cramming as you can not prepare for a test and do all homework and get enough sleep in the time we have.  After Christmas we will have a little more time off and I expect to write again more often.

I imagine Mary will be quite changed when I get home.  Everything will be changed when I get home. I wish I could be home for Christmas but the Air Corp has no furloughs over Christmas or any holiday although they do give out 72 hour passes for Christmas and New Years.  You speak of ski boots and I think of snow of course and how I wish I could get a hold of a snowball.  We see snow on the mts. about 35 miles away but it never gets cold enough here to make it worth while to hear heavy clothes.

I rather like the idea of a community club but to me it seems that it is coming too late.  I know that I could have enjoyed it much more before the war.  But as for the future uses I am sure they are all for the idea.  I am sure if it is well supervised that it will be a great benefit to everyone in town who will participate in it.

I too have been studying code and have passed an 8 word check which has given me a a passing mark for the course.  However I can take 10 and 12 and 14 early in the morning when I am feeling alert.  I could easily pass 12 words if it were not for a few letters that come over and make me think and at that speed you can't think and get the letters.  While you think you miss a few and 3 misses are all you are allowed.  Code is something you have to study every day and do intensive study if you want to get anywhere.  Out here they give you 1 hour a day of study with extra periods if you can work them in.  Some of the fellows can take 14 words with no trouble at all and some can take 20 which is the ceiling around here.  At that speed it is almost impossible to print the letters.  I think I shall send you a code sheet we used here.  It is primarily a practice sheet and the letters and send in series of 5.  You can not receive messages too well with it but receiving the unrelated letters is better practice than receiving messages where you can guess half that is sent over.

I must close now.

With love

Austin

December 12, 1943

Dec. 12, 1943

Dear Esther:

I guess it is about time I wrote again; seeing I got your letter last I will write to you first.  I have a whole foot locker full of letters to be answered but I can never hope to answer them all because my time is much too limited.  Tomorrow we start classes at 0700 and finish at 1200 then P.T. Drill etc till 1700 then chow and then studies.  That leaves very little time for other time.

We have gone on garrison rations.  That means that we eat.  We get a qt. of milk a day seconds on everything; jelly and jam each meal steak, ham, beef, or some kind of meat and gravy.  I am really going to get fat now.  We were issued rifles last week and so had guard duty this weekend.  I got the 0200 to 0600 tour this morning.  I had to challenge everyone on or near my post (sqns 37-42) and a supply house.  Just before 0200 it started to rain and we fell out with wool coats on.  Those coats will shed water better than any rain coat and they are warm as well.  We were given a pair of overshoes and a helmet liner so our outfit was pretty complete.  My post was rather muddy and every time I stepped off from the pavement I went into this nice California mud up to my ankles.  When it really began to rain hard it was rather miserable and I was sure glad to get back to the barracks at 0600 to have a nice hot shower.

You turn on all the showers in the room full hot and then adjust one to warm and stand in your own steam.  I went to bed and slept till 10:30 when I had to get up and go to dinner and then to traffic guard at 1200.

72 of us guard the camp from the civilians and the civilians from the fellows who have been restricted for some reason.  They have one road over which they can travel; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, girl friends, wives, and all the relatives.  Since some of the girl friends are all right the fellows feel that this Sunday guard is a "good deal".  The center of activity is the Service Club and it is here that I was stationed.  Guess what?  I guarded the ladies Toilet to keep the women in and the men out.  What a job.  I guess I will never hear the end of that one.  The fellows got quite a kick out of me guarding the Women's Toilet.

Yesterday we were issued a 4 sulfadyazine tablets to prevent us from getting colds.  The reason seems to be that too many fellows have gone to the hospital with colds and strep. throat.  The tablets make you have wonderful head aches, etc. but if you drink a lot of water they go away.  The will kill a cold in a hurry the only thing is that they affect some people and make them very sick.  I am in what a call a formal guard mount.

12/13/43

That should have been I was in a formal guard mount because today the parade came off and we got the best commendation given for a guard mount on the Post.  It is kind of a formal parade; white gloves, rifles etc. all dressed up in class A's.  It is a formality that has very little meaning in itself.  It is something like the changing of the guard by the English.  Of course it is not so impressive but when it is done right it is something to see.  Well Sq. 55 put on a good show and the Colonel was very pleased with what he saw and commended the Sqn very highly.  As the whole thing is put on for the cadets by the cadets with cadets reviewed by the officers who wish to see it and if they are pleased you can bet that everyone is pleased.

We also set a new record for section marching and conduct for the Air base.  Section 55-1 (the one I am in) got 43 superior in class in a row thusly beating the old record of 12 out of 13 by a wide margin.  We were told that it is a record that is next to impossible to repeat.  This was a perfect record.  We are very proud because it entitles us to carry an E flag.  You can bet that all the officers and Junior officers watch us now and try to pick holes in our marching and conduct.

Now I will tell you a little about California.  It rains most every day either in the early morning or early afternoon.  It really rains and the sun shines at the same time.  But what beautiful clouds.  They look like big balls of cotton and when they open up the cotton comes down but fast.  But the sun shines every day also so that activity isn't cut down very much.

Well I can't think of anything else to write but will write again when I get the time.  As it is it took 2 days to write this one and the next may take longer.

The C.O's wife is having a baby so everything is "huba huba" as the Air Corp says.

With love

Austin.

December 11, 1943

December 6, 1943

Dec. 6, 1943

Dear Mother:

This letter may seem wrinkled but it should be because it has traveled quite a few miles before I even got a chance to start.

Saturday night we started out to L.A. as usual but being very late to start because of a late class and consequently the long line waiting for the bus out we got as far as Santa Ana and decided to go somewhere a little nearer to the base.

We went to Long Beach about 24 miles from Santa Ana.  It is a place very much like Revere Beach only it stays open all year around.  It has all the amusements and little gambling booths as they all have.  Of course the first place the Air Corp heads for is the very tame Roller Coaster.  We rode on that until I was almost sick.  I rode on the first car, the last car and the middle car.  I rode everywhere.  It was a lot of fun but much tamer than it used to be.

We next went on the Dodgeums, you know the little electric cars. {Bumper cars} We rode on them until my knees were black and blue.  They are so big that they kept hitting the little dash board and hood over the front of the car.  When you get a whole gang on those cars you can have a lot of fun.

Things were beginning to quiet down then so we went into one of these places where you roll balls to win presents.  I tried once and didn't win anything so I quit and called it a day.  My friend Bob Sundius (from Brooklyn) had better luck.  He won a package of cigarettes on the first nickel and won every time after for four times.  Missed a couple then won again until he had a carton of cigarettes which cost him about 75 cents.  Regularly they would cost anywhere from $1.15 to $1.50.  I guess that it is possible to win if you are lucky but not many people have the right kind of luck.  We decided that we had better not trust his luck any more so we quit.

We went back to the Hotel Room and got a good nights sleep and I can say that I did sleep.  I don't like sleeping in hotels however.  They can be noisy but noise don't bother me any more.  I do wonder some times who slept in the bed before me and I wonder who might try to get into the room while we are sleeping.  Any way when there are two together you can be pretty sure that nothing can happen.

Well about 12 hours have passed since I started this letter and this new paragraph so things may not follow too well.  

I have received several letters since I wrote last but I just can't find time to write.  I have to study nights for if I don't I may become a military holdover and I don't want.

So I don't complain hu..., well it's this way.  I always feel pretty good when I write and I forget a lot but right now I am burned up because right now I have enough giggs to walk a tour and it was because of someone else's neglect and general lack of responsibility.  We were issued rifles the other day because we are going on guard.  When they were put away today someone put his "piece" in the place I should have mine.  Because I didn't move it I got gigged for improperly putting my rifle away.  This fellow left his bold closed and I got his giggs.  Of course I can protest but I'll have to write a letter to the C.O. and attempt to explain why my rifle wasn't in the proper place.  Even then I can get 5 giggs for improper form for a military letter.  Really there is no appeal.  I have never walked a tour while I have been here and I am burned up with this system.  From now on it's A/C Rounds for himself and no one else.

Two sqns near us have been quarantined one for Scarlet Fever and the other for "Spinal Meningitis".  Of course we can't see those fellows and you can bet we are keeping clear of them.

This letter was not written on the way to L.A. as I expected and is pretty well tattered.

Tell A.P. that I have received all his letters and will send his air mail letter home when I have the occasion.  Get busy on that watch or tell me what the stay is.  I could have got a good watch Saturday but passed it up because I hoped you would send one soon.  I will have to wait a month now for another chance.

With love

Austin.