September 12, 1945

Sept. 12, 1945

Dear A.P.

I guess you have read Mother's letter so you know what happened on my end of the trip deal.  I am awful sorry it ended that way and wish I could redeem myself some way but now it is too late.   I hope next time I will know enough to make better arrangements before hand.

I guess maybe I am running around with this one dame a little too much but I am getting tired of it.  You ought to know what I mean.  So now I have met a girl in San Antonio who is just the opposite of the one in Austin.  She is 19 years old but acts about 13 at times or about 26, all according to how she is dressed.  When she is dressed to go out she can be just as sophisticated as anyone.  But when she is just slumming around she just does anything that comes into her head.  Anyway she is a heck of a lot of fun and very inexpensive, she brings her own entertainment.  I guess I would rather make a lot of women happy than one unhappy.

Gee, I sure was glad to see those pictures.  It kind of makes me feel that I didn't lose out all together on the trip.  Pictures are always a good way to describe a trip or as a reminder of a vacation.  I only wish I could have been there.  The cabin in the pines down by the lake sure looks like a fun place to stay for awhile.  One of the pictures was taken at a picnic.  Just what was Mother trying to hide?  Tell Dot I am sure it was she by the big feet and who else would Bill be leaning on?

I am glad Bill is going back to school.  I only wish he could find someplace away from home but in his case it is a little different but still it could be a lot better.  I guess he will have to get to studying again and I can't say that I blame him.  It looks to me that Esther and I will have to support the others while they get their education unless they have 

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end of the war means to you in Real Estate or Building.  The government is most surely going to ease up on civilian priorities and I suppose housing will be going strong in the not too far future.  So what do you plan to do, stay in Real Estate and dabble in Housing or vice versa?  Either game has a future and the possibilities of a good living  Maybe you can let your partner run the Real Estate end while you concentrate on the construction end.  In that way you might really be able to retire some day.

Well our future here at Randolph is rather uncertain.  Seeing I am in H category and they are releasing A B C D E I guess I have some time yet to sweat it out.  We get our flying time in and not much extra.  We have no way of getting released any sooner than by the normal process.  We may get on orders to a separation center tomorrow and it may also be 6 mos or more before they even post a notice.  Seeing schools have already started I can wait 6 most but I am getting tired of doing nothing. When you have nothing to do it is hard to save money and I am really trying believe it or not.  I have saved $400 and seeing Mother is not coming I shall send it home.  I hope nothing comes up where I need money or you will hear from me.

Well take care of yourself and give me some advice on the woman.

With love

Austin

August 23, 1945

Aug 23, 1945

Dear A.P.

I am in a writing mood now and have loads of time on my hands, and I got your letter of the 19th today so I guess I have an excuse to write on to you.

First let me get something straight about the last war.  It is over and so far as the Army is concerned they have enough B29 operators right now so my prospects of getting another ride in one of those crates is about as slim as the shadow of a moonbeam.  I am not sorry because from a tax-payers point of view they just aren't worth putting in the air.  Men can get time in PT 17s or A-6 which can't cost more than $25 an hour rather than in the big iron bird where the gasoline alone costs around $100 - $150 at the least.  Yes for my money they can leave the "Queen of the Ramp" on the ramp and let her stay.

How I wish I had a lot of money and could buy all the things I could use in my spare time.  It sure would be nice to have a car but they cost $1000 right now for any car and I can't afford such a price.  Then I would like to have one of these Army Primary Trainers they are selling to the public.  They only cost $875 and use about 10 gal. of gas an hour.  The maintenance is rather high but then you can sell time in them for $16 an hour which is more than double what it costs.  All you have to do is sell 3 hundred hours and the airplane has paid for itself.

I sure wish I could have been in Maine with you a couple of weeks ago.  I'll bet that all you really needed was not time but some one interested to walk around the country-side with you.  I have a pair of real comfortable shoes that could stand more than I can and I am sure we could have found a very interesting walk.  Boy I would really have loved that.  It would have been a swell chance to relax and enjoy life in the quiet where airplane engines don't roar all day.

Yes, I have $240 a month but where it goes I have never found out.  I should keep track of it for one month but it might prove rather embarrassing a few years from now.  Of course too much goes into pleasures but it seems that when you have money you can afford to buy what you want at any price.  It's just like when you get a raise in pay or make a big deal you try to keep up with Jones's and they try to keep up with you.  If you go out to a party and everyone is spending money you can't just sit and watch.  You have to contribute to the fun and it costs money.  Hotel rooms cost and meals in the city cost especially on weekends when you have a date and you pay for 2 (you should know about paying for more than yourself) and taxi fares and bus fares, movies and such all mounts up.  Anyway as of today I have last month's check and $200 sides which will come home next pay day; or the remains of which because we have a big weekend coming up.  Anyway I think I will start out next month on my check and see just what it costs.

Yes I expect the people will feel rather cool towards the army very soon but I hardly blame them.  The army is a rather rowdy outfit.  People stood it while the war was in full swing but soon they will have the feeling that all the neighbors boys and the good boys from the neighborhood are home and only the no-goods who couldn't hold a civilian job anyway are the only ones left.  And as long as we no longer need an army it is just one more thing to make the taxes high.  No I will never blame people for having a cool viewpoint toward the army because I feel I have seen about all there is to see this side of the water.

I really wonder just what my future holds.  Prospects of getting out are not good at present and I am not too sure I want to get out.  I can't start school this year because it is getting late.  The army has no real need for me but they have me in H classification and they are only screening A and B now.  So it will be some time before they get to us.  By then they will have all the men they need and probably wouldn't consider a reenlistment for less than 5 years.  School doesn't seem to be the answer if I do get out but I am sure of one thing.  I haven't yet had enough flying to make me stay on the ground, I don't want my wings clipped yet.

I guess I have written enough. I sure enjoy your letters.  Wish you could write a little oftener.

Love

Austin

June 20, 1945

San Marcos Field

June 20, 1945

Dear A.P.

I keep getting mail post marked the 3rd of June and earlier. The mail so marked has been to Ardmore and then sent down here.  They must keep it up in Ardmore for a week or so and then send it down here.  This mail down here sure comes the long way and sometimes I believe it gets lost by mistake.

I guess it is about time I wrote to you.  You write very regularly and I on the other hand do not do such a good job.  We have all kinds of spare time but I just don't seem to get around to writing.

I kind of wish I were selling Real Estate rather than spinning my wheels down here.  Our navigation course is going ahead rather uncertainly and I feel that I could do just as much at home as here.  I just wish they would send us home on detached service until they need me and then I could really get somewhere.

Post War Aviation does take up some of my time whether folks at home think so or not.  Probably everyone feels that I am quite contented with my present flying but as it is it is so inadequate that my only hopes for enjoyable flying time will come after I get home on a civilian status.  Then I will be able to choose my own ship and fly it as I please.

However there is more to it than at once meets the eye.  Civilian flying has more to it than just take off and land.  The financial angle is what worries me the most, not that the initial cost will hold me back but maintenance costs and convenience of land.  Stoneham should have its own field but then again where would you suggest and just how could you get the small minded people you run into to consent to put up the money it would cost.  Air Fields eventually pay for themselves but the original outlay is rather large.

I read an article in a magazine which dealt along this problem.  It said that with the millions about to be put into Boston's Logan Field not a town with a light plane flying distance has made a step in the direction of furthering civilian aviation.  To me it seems too bad that people who can see Boston as the Air Terminal of the world can not also see that is also could be the center of private flying.  However I have seen enough of the country to believe that I don't have to come back to Stoneham to be happy.

Well so much for flying.  The weather around here is rather on the warm side.  It gets to 90 degrees every day except when a cold front goes through.  Then it gets cool for a couple of days.  I get to go swimming every day in town so I can keep cool.  After being here for a couple of weeks I think I am getting used to the weather.

They have a good swimming hole in town and I am getting pretty good.  Maybe I will surprise everyone when I get home.  In any event I am getting good exercise and a good sun tan.

It is about time to get back to class.  It starts t 2:00 PM and it's about time.  I guess I will write again a little sooner next time.

Love

Austin

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.

March 11, 1945

Mar. 11, 1945

Dear A.P.

I guess I have kind of neglected my writing to you of late so here is one going your way.

Well here it is Sunday again and nothing special in the way of a schedule.  Most every Sunday so far has been a day of rest with no flying but next week we have a change.  Next Sunday we fly the second mission in the afternoon.  That means no rest on the one day a week you want to have off.  Well I am rather used to looking at a schedule rather than a calendar.

So far we have had no real hard work but rather a full schedule.  We usually get up at 0530 or 0630 in order to have breakfast and get to class on time.  Our first class is at 0700 and they continue till 1700. we then have the rest of the day to ourselves.  Sometimes it means getting to bed right away to meet a formation at 0230 the next day.  It makes you rather tired after the second day.

The other day we flew the second mission.  We got up at 0230 and went to briefing at 0330.  Our take off time was 0530 but we got off at 0600 instead.  Our mission was to have the navigator checked out on cross countries.  I had to file a flight plan for the route because we went along the airlines.  I had to call each station on the way.  The experience was brand new to me and along with my other duties made me very nervous.  We of course went to the line in the dark.  Nothing seemed to go right.  It was our first solo hop with the crew and they were very dependent upon me.  We had no flashlights due to my own negligence which made things all the worse.

The lights on the ramp shine in your eyes rather than on the ramp and made me almost night blind.  Then the lights in the navigators comp. shined up in the pilots compartment making it almost impossible to see the instruments.  Then we had a heavily loaded ship, not exactly overloaded but about 4000 # from the maximum.  I had never flown a ship like that.  Then I have an engineer who knows practically nothing about the ship so when the lights went out he didn't have any idea what was wrong.  I had to get the lights going myself.

Then they have good sized hills all around this field so that when the ship so heavily loaded didn't climb too well I was almost ready to give up.  I just held on and kept the power on until there was no danger.  For all I know we just made it over the hills but actually we probably went over them with plenty of space to spare.  We couldn't see the ground it was so dark and the light from the navigator's lamp made the instruments unintelligible.  Then we couldn't see any other ships in the air so I half expected to get run down any second.

Then I sighted what looked like a star because it was where stars should have been and found after looking at the instruments that we were in a steep bank.  It rather scared me especially when our airspeed was so slow and anything can happen in a heavy ship with the nose too high.  I finally got things righted and not until later did I realize what a strain it had been.

I never was so glad to see the sun come up as I was that day.  For that 2 hours before day break I had felt like I was running through a field full of ditches and gullies full of barbed wire fences in the middle of a moonless night with my arms full of high explosives. I felt like letting go of everything and letting the stuff explode.  Sun brought security again and a feeling of knowing what was going on.  I finally did let my pilot take over and went back to have some coffee.  I drank it black and shook so bad that it almost spilled.  Finally after 6 hours in the air I got back to the base and finally to the room where I was too tired to roll over.  I was almost shaking all over.  I guess I fell to sleep and slept 3 hours and woke up refreshed.  However the feeling of futility of that morning will last for a long time.

I really like my job and get the biggest kick in the world out of it but it gets so nerve wracking at times that I only wish I could be home in bed rather than making little moves and decisions which effect the lives of 9 others besides my own.  I am not afraid to make a wrong decision but I only hope I make them on the ground rather than in the air where it is so important.  Maybe I will be an old man when I get home at least I will have aged a little.  However I believe everyone will still recognized the kid in me.  I will know that I am ready to settle down for a while and live a peaceful life with no responsibilities for awhile.  I guess it will be rather hard.

I don't know if I should write this or not and get everyone's hopes high but if we finish flying ahead of schedule we get an eight day leave.  It will mean getting home again for a short time which will be a break.  However I am not planning on any such thin to happen so please don't you at home plan on it. It is just something to think about.  It sure would be swell.

I hope you are saving for that plane and not just thinking about it.  I am sure I will have enough money before this thing is over to have one so I think we had better have a plane fund like the camp fund for the future.  I have a government check for $144 here and a check for $350 coming next month so a lot is going home next month.  Someone besides me had better start saving.

What has happened to Bill?  He never writes though I hardly blame him but I would like to hear from him.

I guess I have written enough for 2 letters now.

With love

Austin

February 9, 1945

Dear A.P.:

Today is the one I have waited for for just as long as I can remember.  Today I am 21 years old and am no longer my father's responsibility.  Now all the little lessons of my childhood will be put to a test and we will see if my family did the job and gave me the right start.

I am sure I could not have picked two better parents.  If I had had a chance to pick who would give me my home I might have picked millionaires but I doubt if I could have been as happy or have learned any more practical ways of living than I have from you and Mother.  No my home could not have been much happier.

Years ago I had the idea that by 21 everything would be running smoothly and my life would be settled for me.  I had dreams of having a home of my own and making enough money to be happy.  However I have lost the last couple of years to that dream and instead I have gained a very technical education that makes life's problems no easier.  Socially I am no farther advanced than a year ago or two years ago but economically and mentally I am far advanced for my time, not that I am a great brain or anything but that I have qualified at 21 for a job held down several years ago by men far my senior.  Actually my 21 years still classifies me as only a kid in this game.

I suppose by law now I am my own boss and the parental strings are about cut.  I am no longer responsible to you but to myself.  I suppose I can take the family name to glory or to ruin.  I have only my pride and pride of my name to guide me.  Yesterday I was a kid but today I am a man but feel like a kid.

Well I am meeting my share of the girls out this way some I like and others I have little or no interest in.  Most of the college girls are loads of fun and very attractive and come from good families.  The other girls on the other hand do not generally come from the better families.

You probably know that when you are looking for fun you take along most anyone who will fit in.  I met an elevator operator who looked rather nice.  We had a date then just what you can expect happened.  She fell for the shiny buttons and the wings.  She also came from a very poor family and has no high school education.  Now when you get all the facts you can practically tell what will happen but when you ask a girl for a date you can hardly ask for her references.

Another one is the daughter of the Attorney-General.  Of course she is attending college and a heck of a lot more sensible.  We met her quite by accident.  She picked us up.  We were waiting on a street corner one cold afternoon for a street car when this big car stopped at a stop light.  She rolled down a window and asked us if we wanted a ride.  We piled into the back seat and saw an Alpha Phi sticker.  We know a couple of Alpha Phi girls so we asked them about it and found out we had a couple more of the family.  So you see once you hit it off good and the next time you get caught for being friendly.

Well this birthday has been the best since I have been away.  The Schmale family gave me a celebration last night and the Suley's today.  People out this way are really wonderful.  Also all the people at home seemed to remember me.  I wish I could thank them all and I hope I get the time but maybe I won't be able to find the time.  I am really glad to have so many friends especially when some special occasion comes up.  Maybe all those little jobs around the church pay off after a while.  I never would take one for that reason but the friendships are really wonderful.

Well I hope my next year will be as happy and as successful as this one.  It has had a few minor disappointments but I have received all of the major things.  I have the wings and commission and a flying job, what else could I want.  Yes I am very happy and well pleased with what I have accomplished even though at present it look like not much at all.

With love
Austin

December 19, 1944 (2)

Roswell Field

Dec. 19, 1944

Dear A.P.

As I write this letter you and Mother may be making your last minute plans to go to Chicago.  I hope that is so.  This letter should get to you about the time you get home or ahead of you.

I cannot get home for Christmas and get only a pass from Sat noon to Tues-noon which in my poor opinion is a very poor Christmas leave.  I probably will go to Dallas with my friend and spend the holiday with them.  If that is the case it will be the second year way from home each time with friends.  Last year it was with Mother's cousin and this year with friends of mine.

I wrote to tell you about the horses we rode the other day.  They were regular cow ponies and really spirited animals.  After we got on they went into a trot and continued to do so no matter what we did. We galloped them so much after that that I guess we wore them down to a walk but even so they were awful jumpy.  The one I had was so jumpy that when I kicked him in the ribs his hind feet almost slid out form under him in his efforts to get going.  I tried to remember all you had ever told me about horses so I guess we didn't hurt them any.  We only had trouble taming them down because they just couldn't stand still.  I doubt if I am a horse man but if I had a horse like one of these I'll bet I could fool most of you easterners.  They had very small feet and had smooth shoes.  They even slipped on the paved road to say nothing of the frozen snow on the roads.  We rode through the woods in about 3 inches of snow as much as possible and then let them go.  We could steer them by laying the reins against one side of their necks, no pulling but just pressure. 

What surprised me was the way they ran with me 185 lbs and them so very small..  They are really rugged little nags and would make any owner back home proud.  They were awful looking having none of the shiny hair and well kept manes but they were not kept in stables and had real thick coats.  They were the best fed horses I have seen.  They weren't in the least bit bucky making no attempt to buck or bite you.  I don't know but I guess you must have seen them when you were out in this part of the country.  I would really like to own one of my own.  Maybe when I get home we can go for a ride together and you can show me how.

We had a lot of fun last weekend and hope to go up to the Ruidoso again.  It is a winter resort with ski trails and toboggan slides. It would be fun to get on the snow again and have a snow ball fight or make a snowman or something.  It would be more fun to do in Stoneham but your week ends come where you find them and you can only be in one place a short time so you might as well get your fill of everything because no two places offer the same opportunities.

Well I hope you have had a lot of fun in Chicago.  Tell me what you think of that big town.

With Love

Austin

December 19, 1944

Even if I am a thousand miles away this coming Christmas day I can be with you all in spirit.  I hope you don't miss me as much as I miss you because it could be a lot happier if we could at least be together on this day.

With love

Austin

It now seems that all the plans I have made for this coming holiday will be dashed.  I had so wished to be at home but I am not so unhappy that I cannot enjoy my second Christmas away from home in the memories of the many so happy celebrations before.

With love
Austin

December 11, 1944

Roswell Field

Dec. 11, 1944

Dear A.P.

I wrote Mother a letter yesterday but did not mail it so you will probably get two letters in Stoneham today.  Some of your questions can't be answered in Mother's letters so I must write to you once in a while.  Don't think I don't think of you but it is just that it seems Mother can tell everyone all the news I write.

Yes we pilot and travel around in those big B17s all by ourselves. It must seem wonderful to you but really it is nothing at all to us.  The flight to Houston was a surprise cross country meaning that an instructor was along to help us along.  There are a million and one little details to take care of on such a trip and they were breaking us into the job.  All kinds of frogs and papers have to be filled out and the instructor was along to see that it was done properly.

I am glad to hear that you are going to take a trip to Chicago this month.  I think you should take Mother along even if she is reluctant.  She will probably say that she has too much at home on her mind but I don't think a little housework or mending or anything should stand in the way.  It could be so much fun for her to see the city.  She has been stuck at home much too long.  Please do everything to get her away from Mass.

Jan 22 I will be in ground school as well as on the 23rd.  However I should be on the way home some time after that.  Of course everything is very indefinite and no one here knows what our chances are of getting home for Christmas and New Years.  I do know that 15 days is coming our way soon.

You have never written much about your radio.  I was wondering what frequency you broadcast on.  I imagine you use a voice procedure and no code.  I was wondering because our because our Liaison set in the plane can pick up anything from 300 KC to 18 M.C.  It is also good for several thousand miles.  You see we can pick up Tokyo on it but that is a beamed station.  We might be able to hear you if you have the power.  I have no intention of listening to you but I was just wondering.

Liaison radio station

Christmas is really a problem.  I have no great pressing needs and wish only to be home.  I want to buy everyone something but have no ideas.  Everyone seems to think that hey can buy for me while I am no expected to show my gratitude.  I have been with you all for such a short time the last year that I have no idea what you have on your mind or what you would be pleased to receive form me.  If I were home I am sure things would be a lot different.  I only wish I were on the way home rather than sweating out a course in which i have no interest and from which I will derive little.

Well enough of all this gloom.  Next week I am going to have a special pass to go down to Mexico.  All military personnel must have special passes to get in but that is the only restriction.  We may have a little trouble getting on the 1230 bus but we will devise something somehow.  I figure that next weekend will be our last chance and we plan to make the very most of it.

As long as I shall be home before reaching my next station I will not need any information about wills etc.  I am sure we can make arrangements when I get home.  Maybe I have no great need for such a thing seeing everything of value, bonds and money, are in someone else's name along with mine.  Anyway I plan to grow a long old grey beard when I get to be your age.

Well I have a book to read and this letter seems to drag out so before I begin to bore you I will finish. mother will tell you about my trip to El Paso last week.  You know I am going to see more than you did when you were out here.  It is under slightly different circumstances but just the same I am getting rid of my itchy heals.

With love

Austin

November 8, 1944

Roswell Field

Nov. 8, 1944

Dear A.P.

I have finally broken down and decided to write again.  Even though we are on a tough flying schedule we don't have too many ground school classes and get a pretty good chance to sleep in the morning.

We are getting an average of 2 1/2 hours a day lately and are going on a 5 hour a day schedule tomorrow.  It gets awful tiresome but at this rate we are now going we will finish ahead of schedule.

Tomorrow we get our instrument check so by the time you get this I will know if I am to be a pilot or a co-pilot.  If I don't get checkitis or something I will have it made.  It will be tough concentrating for 2 1/2 hours but I guess I can stand it.

I may even get home for Thanksgiving if I am lucky.  We are due 7 or more days at the end of our training here and the end should come up in a couple of weeks.  If it does I will make tracks for the first plane going East and there should be a lot of them.  We may have a great Thanksgiving even yet.

Mother has been sending a lot of clippings from the papers about the problem of making Boston the center of air activity after the war.  If Boston is made the stopover on flights across maybe fellows like me can have a chance to find a job in what we like after the war.  Even though the competition for flying jobs after the war will be stiff the further I go in this training the better my chances get.

I was glad to hear you got down to Bridgeton last week.  I hope everyone was well and from what you wrote Grandpa seems to be his old self alright.

We got Radio Tokyo on our Liaison Set today and got quite a kick out of their broadcast.  They really have a lot of propaganda but it doesn't seem convincing to me.  We get it on 13.5 megs if you have a set.  You might get a laugh out of it.  They have a lot of good music anyway.  

For a recording and more details about Tokyo Rose, click here.

Well this is a rather brief letter but I am out of paper.  Well have to write again soon I guess.

With love

Austin

September 7, 1944

Thursday.

Sept. 7, 1944

Dear A.P. 

I got a letter from Mother today and she reminded me that I owed you a letter so I am taking this the first chance to write.  We are going to the show tonite so don't expect too much.

Seeing your interests lie in my new schedule down here I will give you a bird's eye view.  We get up at 0600 and have until 0700 to get to the flight line.  We are on the line flying at least 3 hours and quit at 1200. At 1400 we go to ground school which is one big gunnery course.  At 1600 we go to P.T.  At 1800 we go to chow and are done for the day.  We put in a pretty constant 12 hour day but also have a little spare time.

Today we didn't fly because of the excessive wind which ran from 25 to 35 miles an hour and gusty which makes landing the AT6 rather hazardous.  Yesterday we flew 2 missions and had to make two solo landings after 7 weeks of no flying.  We had no accidents so you can see we have the best pilots down here.  The A.T-6 is a hard plane to handle in landing but was doubly so yesterday when we had a cross wind and a very gusty wind at that.  A lot of fellows at Luke Field right now would have piled them up. In fact flying would have been called off up at Luke.  I feel quite happy about the whole thing.

We flew 2 ariel gunnery missions yesterday firing a gun camera instead of ammunition.  It is a good way to save powder and also point out mistakes made during each pass.  In all you make about 15 passes each hour.  All are recorded as soon as you pull the trigger on the guns.  Therefore they can tell if you are leading the target correctly.  I'll sat that we are getting the best flying right now.  Even though I am rather rusty I am having a swell time. 

Gila Bend is no place for a vacation.  We have ants and all kinds of wildlife down here.  It is in the middle of the desert and gets an average of 20 degrees hotter here than at Luke.  However we are beginning to get cool weather so it is not too bad.  If you are willing to work you can have a lot of fun. I certainly will try to make the most of it even though this is a so called "hole in the ground".  It only lasts 10 days.

I have thought a lot about your buying that house in Walden.  Of course if you sold the house in Stoneham and went to live in Walden it would affect all of you a lot more than me and from the point of a good business deal it would be one of the best.  You would be getting a much better house in the exchange. As I say it would mean a lot more to you all at home than it would to me.  However I would hate to think of never living near my old friends again.  We would be in easy motor distance but not walking distance.  I guess it doesn't mean too much to me seeing that in several years my interests will be very much different than they are today or when I left 1 1/2 years ago. Maybe this would be a good chance to get away from a crowd and get into a new bunch.

I will have to close now and go to the show.

With love

Austin

June 19, 1944

Luke Field

June 19, 1944

Dear A.P.

I hope I can write a letter on these two sheets of paper because it is all I have now and can get no more till tomorrow.

First let me say "Happy Birthday".  I hope this letter comes somewhere on time.  I don't think I know for sure how old you are but I guess it is close to 60 years.  That seems to me to be a long way.  I guess you said in your last letter that you were close to 60 so I guess I am right.  I can hardly imagine you as that old because I used to get the idea that after 60 you retired and looked old and brittle but I guess you kind of pushed through.  I guess you are going to keep right on just as your father has.  Well Congratulations and best wishes for next year.

I'm sorry I can't get a card to send but this will have to take the place.  I don't leave the past weekends because I have nothing special to take me away.  I go to the swimming pool and get a good tan and drink Root Beer all afternoon.  I also see 2 movies so my weekends are very enjoyable.  I am also saving a lot more money which I may use later.

Mother wrote and sent along some pictures.  I guess you know what I am talking about.  I got quite a kick out of them.  Everyone looks just as they did a year ago.  If you have any more taken please send them along.

I am glad you are getting so much fun out of Real Estate.  I doubt that you could interest me right now but maybe after I get home again.  You have got to work hard so we can have a plane when I get home.  By the way what kind of a radio license did you get and just what can you use it for? Please write something about it in your next letter.

Of course you know we use radio every day and it doesn't mean much to me.  I guess your radio deal is a lot different from mine.  I probably couldn't get a license to talk over it.

I have finished my instruments and got a instrument certificate saying I can fly in instrument weather and make take offs in weather with 500' ceiling and 1 mi visibility.  It means I can fly an kind of a plane in the "soup".   I call it quite a victory.  Right now I am back trying to learn to land the AT6 right and do other basic maneuvers.  I like my instructor very much and get along pretty well with him.

Yes, I got my watch all right.  Thank you very much.  I hate to say anything that might worry people but I had the watch only 2 days and lost the crystal out of it.  It had to go to the PX to get a new one.  It also lost 10 min that day so I don't know if it was due to the lost crystal or the watch.  I will see pretty soon.  I guess it is all right.  I almost feel like getting a cheap shock water proof watch for flying.  However I will see how this one stands the strain.

Mother wrote the other day and sent a clipping advertising T.W.A. 

(This is borrowed paper)

Well she has a very good idea and the expense doesn't bother me but I would hate to get grounded in Kansas City on the way back and have 12 hours to get to my next post.  It would be swell to come home but I would be foolish to try to come home in 10 days.  I might show up.

Flying is coming along all right I guess.  I am no hot pilot yet but I guess I still have an even chance of getting those silver wings.  Just think I have spent a year of hard work to get something everyone strives or wishes they could strive.  More fellows my age would like to be in my shoes.  I can see wha they want but I doubt if they can imagine the work it was and still is.  I have about 8 weeks to go and still have hopes.  A lot of fellows have given up and are now dropping out.  They all seem so tired that after the first E ride they give up.  After they are definitely out they seem to again come to live.  It seems that way with everyone.  Everyone is almost worn out.  Everyone is tired, all need a vacation but has 8 more weeks to go.  They have washed out 3 of our flight.  I hope they get no more.  They are bout to get another because he washed out a plane today.  Well it seems to be the breaks I guess.

I must close now.  Let me say Happy Birthday again and many happy returns.

With love

Austin

My address is just as you find it on the envelope.

April 4, 1944

War Eagle Field

Lancaster, Calif.

April, 4, 1944

Dear A.P.

I have received a couple of letters from you lately and have just got around to answering them.  I hope I get this one finished tonight.  I guess I should be studying but I can't study with these fellows making all the noise they are.  They are repairing a radio or what was a radio and you can imagine what is happening.

We had a little speech the other day from our Sqn Flight commander.  Sqn 15 is going to be inactivated, after we leave.  The reason seems to be that the school is no longer needed to train pilots. They are now training the replacements for the replacements and because losses are not nearly as high as anticipated the training program is being cut down.  He also said that it is more than likely that unless we pull a lot of strings or are very lucky we will never leave the good old U.S.A.  We will become members of the Air Transport command and remain in the U.S.

I suppose this is good news to everyone but it brings to mind the fact that I might not see much more of the world.  It also makes me think that I may get a chance to go back to school.  In a way that will be good but I hate to think that I will not be able to fly.  I am getting to like BTs and I can hardly see myself flying anything smaller.

How will I ever be able to settle down to an accounting problem again?  Those things used to be a constant dread to me, ask Esther if you think I am fooling.  I can just see myself poring over the books in the wee hours of the morning.  The Army may be tough but it has something that appeals.  

I know how much you want to learn code but please don't write a letter in code!  You see I hardly have time to read my mail now and code takes a long time to decipher.  It is also a lot of work and I kind of lose a lot of pleasure from the job.  You see we are getting code at 10 words/min now and I don't need the practice.  I don't think visual code practice helps me in what I am doing.

I get a heck of a kick out of our radio course.  They make a very interesting course out of something that could be bad.  I am learning a lot about radio that I could never learn before.  It is getting very interesting.  In fact I am getting some good radio books and am going into the thing a little further.  You see if I learn a lot and remember the code I have learned I could even get an amateur license after the war.  I could fly a plane with a radio.  That would be what I would want.

I am writing this letter form my bed so the writing must be very poor.  The table is covered with radios and I can't write there.

Sqn 15 has a pretty good record now.  It has had no accidents in 4337 hours.  That means that no accidents of any type have happened.  If you drag a wing or taxi into a plane or scratch a plane in anyway that is an accident and you have to start all over again.  I think we have the best record now on the base.

Last Saturday we went to L.A.  I stayed in the Hotel Clark.  Boy what a bed I had.  It felt like feather or a cloud spring.  I thought I would fall through before I hit the bottom.  There isn't much to do in town except go to movies.  I saw a triple feature of horror stories "The Corpse Walks", "Dead Men Tell" and another.  I slept well however.  Each weekend costs an average of 7 or 8 dollars.  3 dollar bus tickets $2 for a room and $1 for a meal and $1 or more for accessories.  Often you see how you can spend a lot more.  If you want to send anything home you spend a more costly week.  The overhead on a job like this is well paid for but the entertainment is what runs up the bills.  You can't live on the flying but you have to get some relaxation somehow.  During the day tension is always building up.  Unless you have a relief valve of some kind something is bound to go.  You don't just blow up but you don't give a darn and that leads to tours and tours lead to more tension and that leads to getting in trouble such as going AWOL or talking back to the wrong people which all leads to a washout.  I guess the first battle is getting along with people.

I guess what I wrote about going back to school isn't as bad as it seems.  The only trouble is that right now all I want is a month to sleep until I wake up of my own accords and not by a whistle or a bugle or some san Commanders raspy voice.  I have a rather tired feeling now.  I also have a year for adventure and a lot of excitement.  How can I slow down to an everyday prewar 35 m/h when I now drive and zoom at a mere 200?

Well it is time for taps.

With love

Austin

March 16, 1944

War Eagle Field

Lancaster

Mar. 16, 1944

Dear Mother:

I received your letter of the 9th yesterday.  It took quite a time catching up with me but it did all right and I was very glad to get it.

I don't like California for more reasons than one.  The weather around here is such a disappointment.  All the mts. around here have snow on them and it feels like there should be snow here soon.  Actually the snow has come and gone and it should warm up soon.  We get so much wind here that it makes it seem a lot colder.  You see we are situated between 2 good size ranges of mts and the wind just howls down through this valley.  I guess it wouldn't be so bad if we had an idea that they had a winter out there but they always tell you how wonderful it is, this land of the sunshine and flowers.  Well I guess everything like this is bad when it is new.

We started ground school yesterday and it promises to be hard but interesting.  We get code and radio theory and the procedure for running our B.T. all in one class.  That radio procedure in BT is a lot of fun because they have a real radio upon which they can p ice up all kinds of stains you can tune in the tower here and listen to the operations control officers giving orders to ships landing.  You can pick up radio beam signals and radio range station signals which are not at all interesting.  They send out code all the time and its the same thing all the time.  We have a course in navigation which is not too much of a course.  It is just a case of learning how to plot a course and learning how to stay on the course with wind, magnetic variation and deviation.  We will do a lot of work plotting our cross country courses.  There is really not too much to a navigation course if you do contact flights.  However we have a lot to learn about radio beams and such but I don't know if that comes in navigation or in radio.  We also have a final course in meteorology which is the final course we will have on weather.  We will be able to predict weather conditions and future weather when we finish.  We also have a course in aircraft identification.

We had 2 tests that we had to pass if we didn't want to go ground school.  I think I passed both.  They were identification and code.  We had a 6 words code check which was slow enough even after laying off for 2 months for me to pass.  The aircraft test was not too easy because they had shots of German and Jap planes we had never studied.  Even so I just passed.  I guess I will have a chance to get "sack time" at night and write letters.  You may get a pick up in letters.

We have very little time in the morning to do anything.  We get up at 5:45 and have our first class at 7:00 which gives about 1:15 minutes to do everything that is required.  After we have eaten breakfast and made our bed we have little time to clean up around, however everything must be spick and span for inspection.  As we haven't had an official inspection yet we don't know just what is wrong so we may have a lot more to cram into this morning than we have now.  Things are getting organized slowly but surely and we are all getting acquainted so it is not going to be such a tough life after all.  In fact when we get to flying and get to use the PX and some of the recreational facilities it will be rather nice around here.  I guess they are just trying to make officers out of us and some of us don't catch on so quick.  I guess none of us catch on too quick.

Well I hope Pop sells a lot of houses so you can come out when I graduate (If I do) and pin my wings on.  You will have to come all the way because I will never get out of the west coast area now.  They have so many fields for all kinds of training here that they won't send me near home for any of the training.  I might get to Western Texas but that is none to near home.  I guess it is time for chow so I will sign off.

Your loving son

Austin

Just for fun, a news clipping of A.P. describing him as the oldest builder of houses in Wilmington.

August 8, 1943

Dear A.P.

I started to write this letter at 13:00 but I was called out to walk "tours".  In case you don't know what I mean and in case the others don't know I will tell you.  Each day we get an inspection, physical and other wise.  If you don't quite live up to expectations you get a gig.  If you get 8 gigs you are a free man but 9 means that you must walk an hour to get rid of it.  If you get 12 or more you walk 2 hours for a gig.  When you get 14 like I did it means you walk 7 hours.  I spent all my free time Saturday and 3 hours today walking them off.  It isn't too hard but it's just monotonous.

The place we walk them off at used to be a pretty good field but now it has a series of parallel paths made by we poor sinners.  We were what you call "off the ball" or "behind the 8 ball".

As yet I haven't had time to find out if there is a Davis on the staff here.  I don't know just how I shall go about finding out unless I do some inquiring next weekend.  I won't have time to do much questioning until then.  I sure would like to meet the gent.  I might get a chance to make some headway around here, maybe see some things I couldn't otherwise.

I wish I could be home on the farm working with the tractor.  It would be a lot more pleasant than some of the things we do.  Our drilling is no farce.  We really drill and the upper class men see to it that we do it properly.  Some people think top Sgts are tough, well they haven't seen any of these Cadet Lts.

I would like to see some pictures of the potatoes.  They must be some sight.  I have never seen as many potatoes as you have.  They must keep you rather busy.  I suppose the tractor is a lot of help when it goes but it seems that you should have trouble with it.

I like Bill Cunningham's articles so when you see the good ones send them along so I can read them.  He is a very clever writer and really put the point across.  He may not be the best writer but he appeals to a lot of people and I am one of them.

As you can see most of my letters are written on Saturday and Sunday.  I have other free periods of course but they are taken up.  I have written 2 letters today already and I want to write another one to Jenny.  Mother's letter will have to come later this week.

I may be able to send some pictures home but you keep looking for the film.  One of the few Mass. boys has some film and no camera.  I may be able to buy some from him.  I can then get them developed and send home a few.  I can't send any home of formations but I can send pictures of my friends and me in uniforms.  You will probably get a kick out of them.  By the way I have grown most of my hair back.  I no longer have an Air Corps clip.

With Love

Austin