October 30, 1944

Roswell Field

Oct. 30, 1944

Dear Mother:

I am glad you like your "chews" but as for cementing foreign relations with gum I only hope it works.  You know that was a rather poor pun.  Don't get discouraged I am sure you can do better.

You know those little lion cubs are rather cute.  The first thing I thought of when I saw them was that they would make swell mascots for some unit overseas.  However I guess they would eat too much and might scare too many people.  on second thought they are much better off in Paul Greggs hands feeding off the taxpayer's money.

Tomorrow I am going to Bob Hope's radio show here on the post.  I was lucky to get a ticket as only 69 out of 300 got a chance to go.  My number happened to come up so I am jumping at the chance.  Here I have a chance to see a real live movie star.  This would never happen if I were any other place.  Maybe Roswell has it's advantages.

Bob Hope

Say, do you think you could send me a little jar of that dandruff killer.  My head is getting into rather bad shape even though I wash it every 3 or 4 days.  If I had some of that ointment I might be able to do something for it.  I don't want to take any $3 treatments like some of the fellows are doing.  It seems like such a waste of money.

I still have that check for $300 and I guess I will send it along soon.  You know a lot of money like that gives a kind of feeling of security.  I guess it would be a lot more secure in War Bonds and in the bank.  I will tell you how I want it put away.

I write to Mrs. Blaisdell right along.  You know for a person who can't get around too well she seems to enjoy life an awful lot.  She writes quite a number of letters to Freddie's buddies and some of her friends in Stoneham and seems to get a lot out of life from them. She asked me what I wanted for Christmas and even though I feel I shouldn't ask for anything it might make her feel bad.  I think she gets a big kick out of making cookies and things for her boys.  She really is such a swell person.

Time seems to pass so fast here.  I guess it is the schedule.  We keep going from sunup to sun down.  If you fly in the morning you see the sun rise through the clouds and if you fly at noon and after you see the sun go down through the clouds.  If you fly at night you just see the moon and if there is no moon you don't see a thing.  In fact this is the darkest country I know.

We had to fly Sunday afternoon.  There had been a little ground fog all morning and we had hoped that it would soak in so that we would stay down but no such luck.  We flew 5-10 which made last Sunday seem like any other day.  I guess that is the reason time flies so fast.

We still get ground school 7 hours a day on the days we don't fly but it is not so bad as it was the first week.  We are getting all kinds of subjects thrown at us so that we can run the whole ship by ourselves.  In fact I don't see the need of a crew if they had pilots who could get around fast enough.  All a B17 needs is an automatic pilot in good working condition and a good first pilot.  They have good automatic pilots but not so many good first pilots.

Maybe I have written that they have a B29 in the field.  The instructors are being checked out in it so that soon they can begin to instruct.  Roswell will soon become a B29 school so maybe I can get in on a new deal.  Maybe I don't want it after I hear what has happened to some of the so called super flying fortresses.

You know soon I will have a chance to go to most any city in a radius of 1000 mi. from here.  What one would you select if you had a chance.  I think New Orleans or San Francisco would be my choices.  What do you say?

I am glad Mary is enjoying her school so much.  I am sure if I could have liked my Accounting a little more I could have liked school a lot more.  Right now I can't see myself settling down to it again even though I may have to.

With love

Austin