June 14, 1945

San Marcos Field

June 14, 1945

Dear Mother:

I received your June 4th letter today.  2 days after the June 6th letter which gives the first letter about 8 days travel time.  It is rather hard to explain how such a thing happens but somewhere things get last.  It also seems rather funny to read some things that are explained in letters you received before.

I got my mail from the central mail room and read it in between classes.  Therefore I leave it all in the classroom.  I forget to bring it back to the barracks here so I can't answer many of the questions you ask.  However I will answer them as I think of them.

Today I am the fire guard in the barracks so I don't take PT this hour so this is a good time to write letters.  Each day one man has to stay in and watch things while everyone else is at P.T. I came up on the roster today.

The Samput's address in Dallas is:
Mrs. W. J. Samput Sr.
4420 Cole Ave.
Dallas Texas.

I am sure she would be glad to hear from you.  She could probably write you a long letter about our escapades up there.  Bill is engaged to a girl in California so is supposed to be behaving himself.  His mother doesn't know that we have dates when we go to Dallas.  Maybe you had better be very diplomatic with her.  Anyway she would be glad to hear glad to hear (my mind is wandering) from you.

Sometimes I wish I had some better transportation but with all the trouble you can have I am glad I can rely on my feet.  One of the fellows bought a 39 Chevrolet the other day and is having trouble already.  He stripped the gears last night and he figures it will cost $70 to get it fixed.  If some day I can find a good deal I might look into it but it will have to be good.  I might buy a motorcycle rather than a car.  But don't worry yet because I am just dreaming again I suppose.

I went to Austin again last night and met a fellow I knew from back in Advance.  He is stationed at a field in Austin and is flying C46's and C47's.  He is in the Troop Carrier command and makes most of his trips in the U.S. to the West or East Coast.  He says he doesn't like it but at least he is getting flying time which is more than we are.  He is the lucky one even though he doesn't think so.

Curtis C-46D Commando

Douglas C-47D Skytrain

This is really awful country to live in.  The bugs and all kinds of flying insects are just everywhere.  We have the biggest, most beautiful cockroaches you have ever seen.  We put down powder but they seem to just get fatter on it.  They don't have many mosquitoes but everything else.  Auto windshields just get plastered with bugs when you drive.  I guess they live well in the hot damp air.  At least we are not in a desert where nothing at all lives.

I have been having laundry troubles lately but I think I will have some clean clothes in a few days.  That is always the trouble when you move, you just have to live in dirty clothes while you wait for clean ones from the laundry.

If you can't read those last few letters it is because we have no writing facilities.

Well so long for a while.

With love
Austin

PS Is William actually getting interested in another girl???

June 11, 1945

San Marcos

June 11, 1945

Dear Mother:

I got your first letter addressed to San Marcos today.  It was the first piece of mail to this new address.

Yes I have received a lot of mail lately but mostly because they messed up my mail box.  They had been putting my mail in the wrong box or they had been reading off the wrong names and putting it in my box so that I wasn't getting the mail.  It finally got straightened out and then I had a whole raft of mail.

They are now trying to make navigators out of us.  We are going through the regular course down here.  We are going to get another pair of wings if we complete the course.  We are not going to get very much time in the AT-7 except in studying navigation.  There is nothing in AT-7 training that can be very beneficial except that I have never flown a twin engine ship.  It will be good experience for me but for a lot of others it means nothing.  Our training in Ardmore was considered completed when we left so this is not extended training or anything like that.  It is just a navigation course because they have nothing better for us to do.

They have a very large pool here of pilots and navigators.  Most all are combat crews such as I and they are here "spinning their wheels" waiting to be sent to B29s or B24s or anything which will eventually lead to overseas.  We are permanently stationed on this field  to take this course which may mean most anything.  Anyway this course is not appreciated so it is not doing much good.  We are just going over stuff we have had before and no one is very serious about it.  No one wants to be a navigator so do not try to do the work.  I just wish they would give me a flying job so I could work everyday and then I would be happy.  I have no desire to go to school anymore.

Bill Sampert and I went to Dallas Sat and got back this morning at 1200.  Of course we stayed with his folks and they were swell to me.  They try to stuff me and fill me up so much that I can hardly see.  We went swimming and Bill hit his lip on his knee and cut it open so much so that it took 3 stitches to put him together.  His poor mother broke down when she saw him and almost had a fit.  She is much too nervous and worries too much about her one and only.  I believe if he ever gets married and leaves home his mother will have an awful hard time.  When I compare mothers I am awful glad that you don't worry too much and are not so nervous.  At least I hope you don't get as upset as Mrs. S. got over such a trivial thing.

I suppose I could write a lot more but I want to write to Mary so you can read her letter too and get all the latest news.  I guess really I haven't a lot to say except that I could tell you about this field but even that hasn't much of interest.  It is just another training field but a little worse because it is in the training command.

Well I have a letter to C. Davies to get off so I will try to do that now if I can.  I have heard a couple of "POPs" on the radio lately and they are very good.

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.

April 20, 1945

Ardmore AAF

April 20, 1945

Dear Mother:

There seems to have been a long silence from this end of the line but as usual I have been busy or too tired to write.  Think today is the 20th but am not sure so don't figure the mail is coming too fast until you check further.

I guess I left Pop's letter rather abruptly the other day when we took off for Dallas.  Sam and I went down with my gunner in his car.  It took about 3 1/2 hours to go the 110 miles.  We stopped in Denton to see the town again but took off again in not time at all.  As usual we had all kinds of adventures and fun on the way.

Sam and I were sitting in the back seat and halfway to town when the door on the car blew open.  I had been in the car when it happened before but Sam almost went out through the roof.  Owen, my gunner, slowed the car down and I went to shut the door and it fell out of my hand on the street.  It went skidding and thumping along on the hinges and knob.  Well we stopped and looked at the damage and found the hinges were broken so we had to hold the door on until we got to town.  We couldn't find any hinges so we wired it on and it stayed perfectly.  It never was shook or anything all the way down.

They let us off at Sam's house and his folks were awful glad to see us.  His grandma was there and his aunt and uncle from Fort Worth came over.  We had a lot of fun talking to them and they had a lot of fun with me talking to me in German and just kidding me along about my accent.  They are all swell down there and I had more fun talking to people like them than I have had in some time.

We went to see some of Sam's old girl friends and I went along of course.  We took his dad's car and filled it up with gas.  The gas stamps were something we picked up somewhere.  We went to see a girl named Nancy Hunter and she had a visitor named Margaret Rombeau so we all went to a movie.  We had a lot of fun with Margaret because she cried all during the picture.  The picture was Since You Went Away and I didn't think it was so weepy.  This was Sunday night.

Guy Madison in Since You Went Away

Monday we went to Love Field and got our Commercial Licenses.  They were not very much trouble.  We had to take a written exam on regulations but that was about all.

Monday night we took the same two girls out to the Fair Grounds where they have a carnival going on at all times.  We rode on all the things that go round and round and had a lot of fun.  We couldn't spend much time there because Mrs. S. said we had to be in at 11:00 to go to bed.  We got in on time all right so had no fights in the family.

Tuesday we took off in the car for home at 0200.  He was so tired I had to drive most of the way.  We got back in town in little over 2 1/2 hours.  We made no stops and had no traffic so we could come right along.  His car would really go and the roads are so straight it is safe to drive that fast even though a cop might have pinched us.  Anyway we only averaged 45 miles an hour.  We got back good and early which was what we wanted.

I think I had more fun in those 2 days than I have had in a long time.  I don't know when I had take 2 days off and gone and done what I pleased and met nice people.  If you could only come to Texas you would see what I meant by nice people.  They are the very best in the country.  I am now half Texan.

I will have to put an end to this and go get those money orders.

With love

Austin .

April 14, 1945

Saturday night 2200

April 14, 1945

Dear A.P.

I got your letter the other day and deciphered it and was glad to hear from you.  I am getting so I can read your writing so you can send any kind of a letter you wish.

I am at present working in a big deal to get my C.A.A. commercial license.  All it requires is a little study on my part because I have the flying requirements.  I believe I will have the license  in a few days and will be all set for civilian flying.  The license is worth about 2000 dollars in civilian time but to me it came for nothing but a little effort on my part.  The Army really is giving us the breaks.

I have been to Dallas in the last few days as Mary can tell you.  We had a swell time, Sam and I, and I shan't forget it soon.  I get two days off starting tomorrow and we are going down again and get our final papers on the license.  Mary can tell you about Dallas because I wrote to her today and I guess I didn't actually say much about the city but more about the girls down there.  I have fixed my schedule so as to get 48 hrs off and it is going to be the first time off in about a month.  I guess I am about due a vacation.

I had to get some sleep so this is Sunday now.  We have to parade this morning in memory of our late president. It is raining to beat heck right now but we will be out just the same.  We were supposed to get today off but due to circumstances beyond our control we have to stick around.  It kind of makes us mad because i had a chance to get off until Tuesday at 1200.  We would have been able to get a good weekend off.

I have doubts if we get a leave after our training here is over.  We are now a couple of weeks behind schedule because of bad weather so we will get held over.  That may mean no leaves for anyone.  However the program is getting stalled all along the way and few crews are going overseas but are being held at DOEs and given leaves.  Our POE may be N.H. and if so I still have a chance to get home.

According to the latest poop no one goes to Lincoln after training is over.  We go to another base in Nebr. which is taking the place of Lincoln.  In that case I will get a chance to see more of the state which is OK with me.

Everything here is very agreeable except the doing of the 2nd A.F.  I am getting fat and lazy.  I must have gained back all the wt. I lost up in Lincoln and some besides.  I weigh close to 190 now and getting fat.  Flying and eating is a good weight building combination.

So you are still using the radio.  We could send to you on our V.H.F. set if we could ever get over Stoneham or nearby.  We can send about 100 miles plane to plane but plane to ground operation is not so good.

I am off to Dallas right now.

With love

Austin