July 24, 1945

San Marcos

July 24, 1945

Dear Mother:

I got your letter of the 17th and you seemed a little unhappy about not receiving any mail.  I don't blame you a bit and I guess I need someone to get me on the ball.  I guess I write a lot more to Mary than anyone else right now.  Well I will try to think of more to go in my letters and get them off more often.

Here is a good idea of just what kind of a climate we have here.  It rained today and it got so muggy that when I was standing in a breeze the sweat on my arms and hands would not evaporate.  After dinner I went to sleep for a couple of minutes and woke up with little beads of sweat all over me.  I guess it is just as they say at home, it's not the heat but the humidity.  I have no idea what the humidity around here is but it sure must be terrible.

Well I may be lucky because I didn't get a leave.  Bill Samput got his leave fixed up and now he is shipping out to go to Roswell N.M. for B29 co-pilot.  It seems that it happened to all the fellows who got leaves.  So maybe not getting a leave was a good thing after all.

Bill Samput is on the orders to go to Roswell.  So after knowing him for a couple of months more than a year we are parting.  Well we have had a lot of fun together and I have met his folks.  They were swell and I enjoyed my stays with them.

Let me tell you what happened this weekend.  I met a cop up at Addie Mae's house a week ago and he is a flying enthusiast more or less.  He asked me if I wouldn't like to go flying with him Sunday and I was more than willing to accept.  So Sunday he called the hotel in Austin where I was staying and said he was ready to go.  He has a car so we went out to an airport where he has had some in striation.

Well this is a long story but I have a lot of time.  He had told me previously that he had flown a year with the C.A.P. so I assumed he had several hundred hours.  He also said that he had flown AT-6s which made him a hot rock.  I had to get checked out in this cab which took about 8 minutes on the ground and in the air and then off we went.  

Well we got out to the point of take-off and he asked me to take it off, so I did but I thought it was rather strange that he didn't want to fly.  I took off and asked him if he wanted it and he took over.  We went flying over the city and after a while he got tired and asked me if I wanted to fly.

Sure I wanted to fly so I moved from a position of resting with my elbows on my big knees to where I could put my hands on the throttle and stick I hit the throttle and the engine quit.  Well old Timmy almost hit the roof.  He turned around, shaking like a leaf and said in a very halting voice that I had better take it.  So I grabbed the throttle and away we went.

Well from the way he flew and by his reactions I should have known more about his flying but I being an innocent pilot still accepted his word of 1 year with the C.A.P. flying the border.  Taking things for granted in an airplane does not work.

We came in and I shot a landing and then I told him to take over and shoot one.  When we got around to the final approach into the field he turned around and told me to follow him through which was OK by me.  But when he started to level out 100' up instead of 10' I really started to sweat and when the ship stalled out about 25' up and the bottom felt like it fell out I was really sweating.  I gave it the power in a hurry and we hit and made 4 hard bounces which would make your teeth rattle.

We taxied up to the ramp and got out and then I found out that Timmy wasn't such a hot rock.  He had exactly 3:15 actual recorded stick time and the rest was what he could pick up while navigating on the border.  Well let me tell you that the next time I went up with him I didn't take too much for granted and I stayed glued to the controls.  I guess you can learn something every day, even on Sundays.

Next Sunday I am going to take Addie Mae and her roommate for a ride in a Stenson 105 if I can get checked out.  I think I can so it will be a lot of fun but also rather expensive.  It will cost $10 an hour so you can see where the money goes.  "Bus man's holidays" are rather expensive.

Stenson 105

Maybe I shouldn't tell you my trouble but this climate is kind of getting me down.  I am losing weight rather fast and I don't quite know when it will stop.  Also I feel just sluggish and uncomfortable.  I only feel good when I am cooled off while swimming and only then do I feel well enough to have any fun. I hope I can get used to this climate but it is really the worst I have ever been in.  It leaves you without enough energy to live, in fact I find that I drag my feet unless I think about it.  That is getting bad when you can't find strength to lift your feet.

You probably remember the Bulova watch you sent to me more than a year ago.  Well that darn thing is more trouble than it is worth.  I have spent more on repairs for it than anything I own.  It is just not a hardy enough watch for what I am doing.  I have another watch so don't be surprised if you find this watch in the mail.  I have just l most the stem and will have to replace it.  I have too much trouble to have it around.

Well I shall send these pictures of the Samputs and me.  They are not too hot but they are all right.  You can get an idea of what they look like.  They are typical Texans if there is any way of telling.

Well I hope I am forgiven for not writing because I think of writing much oftener than I do.  

With love

Austin

July 19, 1945

San Marcos

July 19, 1945

Dear Esther:

Well here is the letter you have been expecting.  I suppose I am a little slow but really I am just short of time.  Most letter writing breaks into my social life and you can't have that.  We are going to have some movies here in class now so I have a lot of time while they try to figure out how the contraption works.

We are scheduled to fly tonight but not many fellows will show up. Most of them went on sick call and are off flying for a couple of days.  That means we will only have to fly a couple of hours instead of the regular 4.  

Pop wrote and said you went to see Grandma recently.  I wish I could get to see her again but this darn leave situation is a pain in the neck.  I guess Grandma would like to see me too.

The moves are all over.  They were a couple of U.S. propaganda films about Japan.  You have never seen them and probably never will.  They are called "Our Enemy Japan" narrated by Joseph C. Grew. It was the 4th time I had seen the picture so you can imagine I was slightly bored to say the least.  I just wish someone would wise up and burn some of the films everyone in the army has seen 4 times.  I guess they are saving them for the kids they draft, so they can bore them awhile.

You should have seen the wonderful certificate I got from the civilian defense which by now much be pretty well gone by.  Anyway probably Pop got the same thing saying that they were "grateful for my patriotic service and loyalty during World War II".  I showed it to everyone and the consensus of opinion was that I should be able to go to heaven with all the big dogs now.  Maybe I should just get out of the Army I am needed so badly at home.

Oh yes, by the way, there is a way to get around this leave deal.  So far 10 fellows have left.  Each one has given 3 stock excuses, either their wife had to go home to have a baby and that they had to take her, or that they were going to get married, or that a long lost half brother is coming home after 3 years in the So. Pacific and they want to see him.  Now which one should I use?

Each week I get the paper and look at all the news from the servicemen.  It seems that all the kids younger than I am are getting into the war and getting pretty ribbons while I sit on my dead fanny here in Texas.  You should get a ribbon for being stationed here but they won't hear of such a thing.  All you ever see in the papers around here is how Texas and the United states are winning the war.   They sure think it is a great state.  What I was going to say is; what am I going to tell my kids and their kids when they ask what I did in the great war?  I will have to make up a good story and stick to it.

I guess everyone has noticed that I have a box number.  They had such a mess over at the mail section when they had to go through a whole stack of mail just to find my one little mangy letter that they decided to make boxes.  Now you can go in and look in your box and if no mail, they don't have to look through a stack of mail.  By the way I was only kidding about the one letter, I really get more than I write and am thankful for it.

I always get letters from Pop but seldom write.  The same is true with Mother but I write to Mother  little more frequently.

Well I have got to cut this gab and scram.  I don't know where or what I will do until 7:30 when we fly but I guess I can find something.

Mother has a birthday coming up on the 1st of Aug. is that right.  Anyway if I send anything it will be on the First.

With love

Austin

July 18, 1945

July 18, 1945

San Marcos

Dear Mother:

I really don't feel like writing but I guess you are wondering what has happened to your little wanderer. I'm sorry I don't write more but it seems to be just one of those things.

I had intended to write Monday night but I got side tracked.  I probably have written that I have a pair of swim fins but I don't think I told you that I also have a pair of underwater goggles.  You know with the combination you can have all kinds of fun chasing the little underwater creatures.  If you are quick enough you can catch pollywogs and things like that.  But as I was saying I got side tracked the other night.  We decided that if you can see those fish underwater why not try our luck at spearing them; so we made some fish spears.

Goggles have come a long way, thankfully.

We went down to Sub-depot and borrowed and begged until we had what we wanted.  We made the spears out of steel rods and made brass heads for them.  We put detachable long handles on them and had a lot of fun making them collapsible, so you can put them in a hand bag.  We just had a lot of fun.  Now you know why this letter is late.

Well I guess you know I am still spending my weekends in Austin.  Addie Mae and I really have a lot of fun together.  We go out Saturday night and go dancing or just go to a show or something.  Sundays I go up to their apartment and they cook dinner for me.  I lay on the sofa until dinner is ready with my shoes off and with a T-shirt listening to the radio after a really wonderful meal, they can really cook, back to the sofa I go and listen to the radio some more and go to sleep while they do the dishes.  Boy! what a life, almost like home.  Maybe you had better look out before you lose a son in the process.  It's funny though that I can have so much fun and just feel about them as I do any other girl.  I doubt if I shall ever get married.  I have more fun finding nice girls that can cook and have big soft sofas in the front rooms.

Just because it's funny.

Well we have to fly this afternoon.  They are kind of  half hearted by putting us through the AT-7 transition school here.  We are to get 10 hours a month in these sparrows and maybe get checked out. We go up and shoot landing and go out of the area to do single engine procedures.  There is not much to flying this plane but landing it is a horse of a different color.  The controls are so touchy and the least bit of movement has a terrific effect on the ship.  Also we are supposed to make wheel landings and a good wheel landing is a bouncy landing.  In fact if you can land in 3 bounces, you are considered a hot pilot.  I am not yet a hot pilot.  They are a lot of fun to fly for a change, but the time doesn't mean much as far as we are concerned.

It is time for dinner but I don't feel much like eating.  Breakfasts don't agree with me too well and make me feel groggy.  About dinner time I feel like I have rocks in my stomach and not hungry at all.  Maybe it is because I don't get much exercise.  However I drank a couple bottles of beer last night and that may be the cause.  I was just thinking that the next time Pop rather jokingly asks me if I want a beer I will take him up on it.  I don't really like beer but you acquire a taste for such things just to be sociable.

I was going to send you some pictures but the young ladies in Austin want to see them for some reason so you will have to wait a few more days.  How mothers suffer.

I heard the "Pops" Saturday night and heard them say it was the last one this year.  I guess I was halfway scheduled to be there rather than listening 1500 mi away.  But I suppose you couldn't do everything but I could close my eyes and visualize things.  Maybe I can get home when they are out on the Charles.  That could be fun also.

It seems to me that Pop is rather busy.  I just wonder what is becoming of all the money.  Maybe he is salting it away so he can retire but I'll bet he has got some scheme up his sleeve.  As for me I am going to buy a big car and an airplane after the war and the way it seem stop be going I will be out of a job very soon.  I hope so, so I can get back to B.U. and flunk another accounting course.

So William is an old Foran man.  Well I guess he can tell you just how the thing works which is a lot more than I could do.  My knowledge of Foran is limited to what happens when you twist this and that knob and why this and that happens when this and that do-dingest goes wrong.

I am afraid my letter is getting long and boring besides I ran out of ink.  Maybe I had better call it quits and go eat anyway.  I have got to write some more letters but I haven't got time.  My mail piles up, I have to write to Lenny, besides Esther and Mary and Pop always like to hear from me, besides all my other fans around town.  Maybe I can get a private secretary to mimeograph them off.

With love

Austin

How would you like to come to Texas?

July 4, 1945

San Marcos

July June 4, 1945

Dear Mother:

All leaves have been canceled.  We got the good news yesterday and everyone is a little unhappy.  They are expecting some shipping orders for some of the boys and so no leaves are being given out and all those on leave are coming back.

Well I guess that kind of fixes up my little visit home.  I was kind of looking forward to it and had made some plans but everything is shot now.  I just wish this army would make up its mind and decide to do something.  If orders do come through I hope I am on them and that it is to B17s and not B29s.  Then I will be happy for not getting a leave.

Well the same old routine seems to go around here.  Up at 0800 class at 0900 until 1200 then from 1200 to 1600 and then swimming or what ever you want, the day is yours.  Yesterday we went swimming with my new swim fins.  You put the things on your feet and they cut down the motion of your feet but they give you twice the speed.  In fact your hands and arms get in the way until you get used to them.  You can swim under water a lot faster and some what farther without using your hands.  They are a lot of fun if you can forget you have spent $9.00 for them.  I believe I will use them long enough and have enough fun with them to make it worth while.

Well today is the 4th of July a holiday but here I am in class writing this letter.  Classes should have started 10 minutes ago.  (They are starting now)  Be back later.

We just went out to a class in Loran which is connected with Radar and very secret.  It was the most interesting class I have ever been to here at San Marcos.  They use Loran to shoot a line of position which will give you a radio fix anywhere in the world accurate to 1/2 mile or less.  It is accurate to 500' but because you fly down your line of position while making readings on the 2nd station you loose part of the accuracy you can get two simultaneous readings so the faster you can read the stations the better the fix.  It is really one of the most interesting things I have seen on this field.

San Marcos Field

I was a little surprised to hear that you were in the process of losing a daughter.  I had no idea that any like that was in the wind.  However I am happy to see her get away for awhile and glad to see she has the gumption to go ahead and do something on her own.  I think your younger daughter has more gumption than the other two.  I guess you will miss her and I don't blame you but I hope you can get along.  It is too bad Pop doesn't stay at home more and provide a little company.  I guess William and Esther will be around so you won't be all together without gab.

So Mary is going to go live with a houseful of women.  Boy!  Would I like to go see her.  That would turn out to be quite a date bureau, just the place for me.  I suppose the idea of the thing is kind of to keep in contact with your music and make money during the summer vacation.  It sure is a good way to keep up with your music and work at the same time.  Maybe Mary won't be able to make much money and stay at the house but what fun she can have being away from home.  She will enjoy it as much as I have I am sure.  Now if you can only get a couple more of the family interested enough to live away from home awhile you would be doing a good job.  Well two of your youngsters "have flown the coop". 

Well I am going to Austin tonight and have a date with the girl I met selling War Bonds.  Her name is Addie Mae Schwake, a Krout from way back.  She is a lot of fun but don't worry, it's not love, just fun.  Anyway it's a good way to spend the money I was going to use on airline fare.  Dancing and taxi fares and hamburgers don't cost much so don't worry about the money.

I have written enough.  I am sorry I got your hopes all up and maybe made plans but things stand as they are and who am I to change them.

With love 

Austin