May 24, 1945

Ardmore,

May 24, 1945

Dear A.P.

I neglect you too much considering the interesting letters you write so I shall answer one of them for a change.  Your letters like the Independent arrive every week and I miss them if they don't show up onto.  Please don't forget because it also will upset my routine.

I am glad to hear that Real Estate is making you so busy and apparently happy.  I guess like me, you too have averted to a war job which appeals and gives experience along a line which can be used to further an better, maybe, our post war occupations.  Your Real Estate experience may be just the thing to make you more successful building and my flying may be what I need to give me the job I will need after this is over.  We both seem to be happy which is also a good way to sweat out a war.

I am sorry to hear that the civilian radio broadcasting may be cut out.  However it may have been the incentive to further study and a real "ham" license.  I am sure that radio will have a place for me when I get home, either in the form of a ground station or maybe a small set in a plane of my own.  On airplane with a radio is most convenient and I almost believe that without one I would be lost.  We have so many in our plane that flying with none at all would leave me a little lost.

So you have an office girl who seems to know what she is doing.  She must also be rather interested in her work or I am sure she wouldn't satisfy you so readily, I have worked for you and know.  I wasn't too ready to cooperate at times and I guess it wasn't very hard to see that my thoughts were other places than on a plumb bob or a steel tape.  I would term Virginia in Army lingo as "eager".  We call some people "Eager Beavers" and some people who don't like their jobs have contempt for such people but I say more power to her.  Say, "hello", to her for me.

B17 nose

B17 nose after the war

To be able to fly a B17 looked like an impossible feat for me a couple of years ago but right now I believe it is no harder than driving a truck, and the similarities are many.  Of course you are in an element which makes improper operation dangerous but to any truck driver who can drive without accident, I say let him get the training and he too can sprout Silver Wings.

I would love to send a picture of a B17 to you if I can find a good one.  They are rather hard to find in a pose that shows off their beauty, and they are beautiful.  Like women they are beautiful when they have got smooth sailing but ugly as heck when twisted the wrong way.  Never push either too hard or sooner or later they explode in your face and it gets embarrassing what happens then.

I don't suppose I have to give you a lecture on B17s, but after all I have said about the crates I still have deep admiration for them.  There is not a ship in the world which can take all they can and still return home in condition, maybe for a crash landing but at least return home with a live crew.  All the other ships you can name go down and are lost to the war effort but the 17 can almost always be flown again.  That is why I hope they don't send me over in anything else.  Flying a 17 is life insurance I don't want to pass up if I can help it.

Since V.E. day my outlook at college has taken a turn for the better.  I must admit that before VE day I had no idea of going back to school partly because the realization of such a thing was so remote and out of this world.  I had the idea of being a professional soldier or a tramp or just anything which would take my worries and responsibility away.  I was looking for the easiest way to live I guess but right now I think that maybe college will turn out to be what I want.  It will be nice and quiet and lacking in hair raising excitement.  I will again be just another one and I believe that will just suit me fine for 4 years.  I may be bragging about my job but I still think that they are trying to make a man out of a kid and the responsibility is too much.  However I will bear up just to prove that I can to myself because after all is said and done I have to live with myself.  So long for now.

With love

Austin.

May 22, 1945

May 22, 1945

Dear Mother:

Another dull night and nothing special to do.  We have had nothing special all day so I took the chance to get a good tan and read up on the news.  I had an hour of Link Trainer today and that accounts for all the work I had done.  Some life!

I realize tomorrow is William's birthday but have had no chance to get a suitable card.  The ones in the PX are not what I would send so again I am caught with nothing too late, typical Army.  I think he is going to be 23 but am not sure.  I guess I am getting more and more out of contact with you all.  

If you don't hear from me again for a short time it is only because we have left the state of Okla. and have moved on.  It is likely that we won't ship out as crews because of the training we will be going into.  Th pilots all expect to end up in B29 schools from co-pilot transition.  The navigators and Bombardiers do not have any idea what will happen to them other than eventually they too will be in 29s.  We all hope not but since V.E. day everything points that way.  I had hopes of flying 17s some more but now I don't know about anything.  I am pretty sure we are going out soon because the will no longer take our laundry which indicates shipment.  Maybe I am about to see some more of this here country.

We really had to feather an engine the other day and it happened much like I explained to you in my illustration.  Our oil pressure line broke and started spraying hot oil all over the inside of the engine.  It started out under the cowl flaps and really looked bad.  It was a brand new engine if we couldn't have feathered it we really would have ruined it beside probably catch the plane afire from the oil on the white hot super charger.  As it was we feathered and came right back to the field and had it fixed in about 1 1/2 hours.  When you really have an emergency, you really learn a lot.

I hate to write anything about leaves but every indication points towards one.  Please don't take this the wrong way because nothing is sure.  All we know is that others have had leaves before going to B29s and that we are subject to one.  Nothing is definite but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Flying is more or less routine now.  We have certain missions to complete and the requirements are more or less cut and dry.  Lately we have been flying high altitude formation and having fighter camera attacks.  The fighter makes a gunnery pass on the ship and we take pictures of him trying to give him the comet lead and deflection.  It is training for the crew in aiming and firing their guns from their stations.  We have to have 20 hours of height altitude formation before we are completed and that is merely learning to fly the B17s at altitude where it responds a lot differently.  At 20,000 the ship has a tendency to mush in turns and to be very slow in accelerating and decelerating.  It requires much more skill to fly at 20,000 than at 5,000.

B17s in formation
Link leads to show article on B17s and checklists.

We have been flying in very large formations.  Most of them lately have been 16 and 18 ships.  In such formations a lot of fellows get a chance to lead which is the very best experience.  We have led a couple of times and of course it is a lot harder than just following someone else.  Even so it is a lot of fun.

I am not show on writing time but rather short on writing ideas.  Things are getting so more or less stagnant I am afraid I am getting that way too.  I don't seem to care very much about what happens and don't take time to think about tomorrow.  Everything is taken care of for us.  I can't get another promotion for 8 months, the army will send me where they need me most, the training I get here is relatively worthless to a civilian who plans to go back to college and fly a light plane so I just have a feeling that ti am spinning my wheels and burning things up.  I am spending the "best years of my life" away from home in an occupation I fully enjoy and would enjoy more if I was flying a different ship and doing more of it every day and not one every 4 days in 6 hr doses.  I like my army life and I doubt if I would give it up right now but I am getting tired of working like a dog 2 days and doing nothing the 3rd.  Maybe I just can't see how green the grass is over on my side of the fence.  A lot of fellows would give anything for my chance.

Every now and then I wonder just what will happen when this thing is over and we can all go home.  I will probably begin to cash in on the free education offered to servicemen.  That will mean a free education plus $50 a month for personal expenses.  It will mean I can use all the money I have saved as I see fit.  I can spend it or save it or burn it or just anything I please.  My education won't require any of it and my living expenses will require very little of it and I am therefore a very rich man.  Probably richer than I have ever been before and will be again.  by the way about the 10th of next month will bring along some more M.O.s if we don't throw a big party or something before that.  I have been living this last month on about $7 which is good for me.

Well I am near the end of my book.  Please give William a Happy Birthday for me even though it is late (Damn it).

I sure do love to get Mary's letters.  She really makes them very interesting and I get a kick out of them.  Don't let her worry too much about the men because when we all come home again she will really be surprised at the choices she will have.  Right now most of the good ones are away and are still not snared.  Wait till I sic my handsome navigator on her then she will really have something to say.

Well I guess it is closing time and bed time.  I hope you have been able to wade through all of this even though its the same old bull with its tail twisted a little.

With love

Austin

May 13, 1945

May 13, 1945

Dear Mother:

I guess you were a little disappointed in your wandering son in forgetting you today.  I feel rather disgusted that I didn't take care of things when I had a chance.  I had wanted to send some special notice of my appreciation of my wonderful mother today but as usual I let things slide until it was too late.  It seems that this is just another chance I have missed to show my love but have instead demonstrated a thoughtlessness or at least a laxness.  I only wish I had the sense to see my blessing and show some appreciation before it is too late.

However I have been thinking of this day for months and to fumble the ball makes me disappointed in myself.  I had every chance to send something long ago but missed my chance at the last minute.  I hope everyone is not so thoughtless in their feeling toward you.  I hope I am forgiven for this slip-up even though I don't deserve.  Maybe some one should take me over there knee and give me a good spanking because I deserve it but am a little too old for it.

We got up to fly this morning but the field closed about the time we started engines.  Therefore we didn't get off the ground till late and had to come back early.  Aside from the usual trouble things went smoothly.  As Airplane Commander I don't look far enough ahead to see all the eventualities so I make more than my share of mistakes.  It makes me so mad sometimes when I look back at what I have done and realize there was really no call for them.  I guess I am still learning the hard way.  You may think that I have come a long way from school but when I see my own deficiencies stand out I just feel like giving up and throwing in the towel.

How I wish I were home following a planned future.  It would be so much easier to be going to work every day to a steady job with a fairly secure future than to live each day knowing that some day it will all end and I will have to start all over again.  Just wish I were home in my own room resting and thinking of my days in the army and swapping stories with some of the kids in the neighborhood.  I suppose I will never be able to take up where I left off but will have to find the remains and start over.  That seems to be just life, one struggle after another to find happiness.

I suppose I don't tell you much about training paths because you might have trouble doping it out and partly because I just don't know how to tell it.  Some of the stuff is so new to me I don't even know what is going on. Even so I suppose I could tell you a few of the details.

You asked about feathering again.  Well it is nearly putting the blades of the props in such a position so that the airflow around it will not make it turn.  When you cut an engine it continues to turn over at a constant rate which can be set in the cockpit by varying the blade angle which is done with the prop controls.  However a windmilling prop creates a great deal of excess drag and will do major damage to an engine which started out with only a minor break.

For instance say an oil line should break. If you couldn't feather the engine it would continue to turn with all the accessories operating.  The engine would windmill, the pump would dump all the oil overboard, the engine turning over with no oil would be ruined, either it would freeze and snap the props off or it would start a fire and the engine would eventually drop out or catch the whole ship afire.  However we feather the engine and stop its rotation and have only an oil line to repair when we get down.  Now you are a qualified instructor on the whys and wherefores of feathering an engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDBbDVF8vNo

It is getting awful hot around here now.  I don't know if I can get used to the heat like I did last summer.  It is so muggy that things just stick and make you uncomfortable.  I can't imagine what it will be like in 8 weeks but will probably find out because we are about to start another advance schedule.  This schedule can be broken at any time but I doubt if it will.  The class ahead of us hasn't even shipped and they were scheduled to go a month ago.  We can be pretty sure of going a month after them and they show no indications of leaving.  They expect to get a leave of some kind but it won't be anything big.  I am not due any time for another month so am not looking forward to it.

Well I hope you will forgive me for neglecting you.  I used to wish I had another mother but I have long since seen the foolishness of such a thing.  I wouldn't swap you for a hundred Trusedales and Hunts because they could never take your place.  I guess you are the indispensable member of the family, at least the one who sees all our weakness and loves us in spite of them.

With love
Austin

May 11, 1945

May 11, 1945

Dear Mother:

If this letter comes air mail don't be alarmed because it is just a ruse to make you think I write oftener.  My last letter probably got to you a few days ago and this one coming so close behind will make you think I write often. It has really been 7 days since I wrote last and I am a little ashamed of myself.  I have the time but lack the will power and the gab.

Whenever I get time to sit down I usually go to sleep or go to the movies and relax.  It is either work or play all the time and letter writing fits in neither as work or play.  So as I lay in my sack writing uphill I wonder whether letter writing doesn't get to be work once in awhile.  However I don't find it to be work but just something requiring a little effort.

We went to Dallas yesterday noon and came back this noon.  It was mainly a pleasure jaunt and we stayed in a hotel.  We didn't want to go to Sam's house because his mother would have made us come home early to bed and as I said we were down to look the nightlife over.  We stayed at the Baker Hotel which is a wonderful place, in fact it is the best hotel in town.  We had dates with a couple of girls Sam went to high school with and had a swell time.  We went to a dance and then to a Bar-B-Que.  Of course we had my pilot's car and all the gas we could use.  This we got at Sam's cousin's farm down in Gainsville.  We had a heck of a lot of fun but I feel the trip was hardly worthwhile because we were so tired today.  We were supposed to fly but the weather was bad and no ships got off the ground.

We have been through processing and according to all records are ready to ship, from the administration standpoint but we all lack about 50 hrs flying time.  We have only a small percentage of missions complete and they are giving us extra missions for another phase so we will be here for another month or more.  I can almost promise another month and maybe 2 more.  I am very satisfied to stay here for awhile longer especially if we can get more free time.

Maybe I have written about the new missions in the training.  One is a 1000 mile cross country which I have mentioned but another is a 1000 mile trip to Havana Cuba and back.  Its purpose is to simulate combat conditions like those we will get overseas.  In any event it will be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the nuts.  They were very much appreciated by all.  I had no idea how much other people enjoy such things.  I guess I am not the only one.  Also thank you for the paper and the clippings.  I had no idea that such big steps had already been take to make Boston the civilian air base of the future.  Also thank Mary for the B.U. news.  I had quite a lot of fun reading it and went through it almost as closely as I do the Stoneham paper.  The only people I really know was Prof. Scammell and a few such notables and one of the best Business Mjrs, Minna Garden.  She is in those photos of me and the gang at Prof Thompson's house.  I know Norm Whiton and wonder after such a write up and all why he is still a private.  Maybe he didn't get the breaks some of us have had.  However I still say opportunity knocks and is heard only by the men who are not deaf.  However promotions come rather hard in some branches of the army, at least a lot harder than they do in the Air Corp.

Well maybe I have found something to write about after all.  I guess you just have to stop and think for awhile.  Gets difficult at times.

With love

Austin.

May 3, 1945

May 3, 1945

Dear Mother:

I don't know when was the last time I wrote.  It must have been last week some time when I sent the money orders.

I haven't heard about the money orders yet so I have no idea if they got home all right or not.  I have been waiting for a letter for the last 3 or 4 days and I am a little worried about them.  I know they can't get lost or anything but I was just wondering what has happened to them.  Please write and tell me what you intend to do with the money or what you have done.  If you are waiting for a suggestion, you can just put it in the bank until I find something better.

We made a 1000 mile cross country yesterday and came out relatively well even though we didn't get credit for the mission.  We didn't have the navigator shoot enough sun lines to get credit for the mission.  We flew to Marfa Texas, which is about 100 miles from El Paso.  We ran into a couple of storms but our course happened to lead between them, so we had no trouble.  One of the fellows thought he could fly through a hail storm and ended up with a wrecked ship.  It was torn up so bad by the hail that he had to make an emergency landing at a small advance school down there in Texas.  They said that the hail did so much damage that the ship may not be repairable.  Well some fellows are a little bit foolish when it comes to flying and it might have happened to me if I had come near the storm.  Some things always look so harmless but turn out to be the most dangerous after you have been through them.

Another fellow had to feather an engine because he says it was running rough.  Undoubtedly it was not running properly but anyone who would feather an engine when all his instruments read properly and then land at a place called Pyote, Texas should have his head examined.  That field is a hole in the ground and a hundred miles from anyplace.  Even so he had no reason to land when he had 3 good engines.  This old plane will run on 2 engines to say nothing of 3.  This airplane commander is noted for the foolish questions and dumb stunts he pulls.  He is also somewhat of a blowhard and generally full of wind so that stunt is about like what he usually pulls.

I wish you had told me William needed shorts and shirts before because I had some brand new white ones he could have had but I have worn them now.  I can get shirts that are white ribbed and the shorts are another story.  I can get khaki colored ones some silk ones that look better but I have never worn them so I know nothing about their wearing qualities.  They have elastic tops and might be just what he wants.  Just tell me what he wants and I think I can get them or send some of mine, even they don't have holes yet.

Grandpa wrote to me the other day.  I sent him a letter on his birthday and I guess he wrote right back.  I guess he was rather glad to hear from his wandering grandson.  I told him about all these beautiful Texas girls and he seemed all for the idea.  He said to land a nice pretty one and bring her up to Maine and see him.  He seems to be all for another marriage in the family and doesn't seem to have to much cooperation from the Rounds family.  Anyway we are all still looking even though some members don't seem to be looking too hard.  Well things are not too good lately for such things.

I have been writing from the club here because I am holding down a good seat for a show they are going to have here.  It is a stag party but as usual everyone had brought their girls so it won't be very enough.  It is just a novelty show more or less anyway.

Well the way things look now N.E. won't be our P.O.E. so tell Pop to stop worrying.  Europe seems to be a closed issue now.  It might be a training ground but nothing less or more.

Well I have some other business to attend to so I will have to close for now.

With love

Austin.