November 10, 1944

Roswell Field

Nov. 10, 1944

Dear Mother:

I have missed my chance to go to the movies and see "For Whom the Bell Tolls" so I am writing this letter before going to bed.  We fly the early mission tomorrow so it is early to bed if early to rise.

For Whom the Bell Tolls Trailer

This letter may reach you a day ahead of A.P.'s in which I stated I hope I pass my instrument check.  Well I came through by the grace of someone and the check rider so I guess I have a chance of getting through all right here.

Today we went up and shot landing all day.  About half were 2 and 3 engine landings and very strenuous.  You really need all the P.T. we have been taking the last year or two (it seems).  Anyway I am about worn out and feel like getting some "sack time".

We have had 10 hours of flying in 18 so you can see how tired I should be.

We are really having some fun now.  This is hard work but not so intense and never racking as instrument flying.  We also have a chance to make solo lands soon so we are kind of looking forward to the day.  It will come soon if we don't wear out sooner.

I am learning a lot about N.E. chance in Post War Aviation from your clippings.  It seems quite possible that some day Boston will again be the center of world transportation as it was 50 years ago. If so I guess fellows in my shoes may have a chance to make something of all the training they are acquiring along the way.  It is so valuable I can't see how it can be wasted.  It seems to be one of the best sources of ready made pilots who should by all authorities become the pilots of tomorrow.  Even so I am pretty new at this game as is most everyone here.  Thousands of hours are needed instead of hundreds such as I have.

I can remember when I used to look up at the airplanes that went over and wonder what kind of a man could fly them.  I could not visualize a common ordinary everyday man up there but rather someone who was a hero and had hero all over him.  He was always someone far away and never someone next door.  I could never recognize a pilot because it did not especially show on him.  He was no superman but rather probably a quiet spoken person who didn't think too much about the admiration of others.  His flying was like our driving and he probably admired our driving.  Yes everyone on this field who flies the B17 could have flown those DC-3s and we have some awful seedy looking pilots.  We have some boys also who look like hot pilots.

Well I don't have much to write about.  Nothing much happens.  We have no accidents to talk about.  I could gripe about the food because it is getting rather poor but I am gaining weight again and weigh 185 so I guess the food situation won't get much sympathy.  We get P.T. regularly and classes fill in our spare time so we are pretty much on the go.  Time flies so that we seem to be constantly getting ready for the weekends. They have a little snow up in the mts now so we are going to see it at our first convenience.  Class 44-4-J is here and ready to fly next week so what else can I say.  I guess I have run out of gab and paper.

With love

Austin.

July 29, 1943

Pvt Austin L. Rounds

Hdgs 95 C.T.D

Beloit College

Belloit, Wis

Dear Mother,

I am thoroughly ashamed that I have not written before.  We have been here 3 days and I just decided that you should know where I am.  I am glad that I am shipped but this is a different story.

Beloit College is where we expected to go when I wrote last time and I don't remember whether I told you our destination or not.  You can find the place on a map because the town is industrial and has between 30,000 and 40,000 people in it.  We are about 3 hours trip from Chicago and that means about 100 miles. When I say that this is different from J.B. that is just what I mean.  We thought we might be sent to a nice quiet ivy college and have plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.  It is quite the other way.  The upper classmen are after us all the time.  It is a form of hazing even though it can't be called that.  We have a Student Commander and it is his job to see that we learn to march walk stand and sleep at attention.  You may not think so but we walk in what is called "a brace".  A brace is the position of attention only exaggerated.  You have to stand so that you have 4 more wrinkles in your shirt between your shoulder blades than you have years.  The same goes for chins.  You have to stand with your chin drawn in so that you have 5 chins.  Then try to walk this way never looking at the ground and keeping your eyes fixed on a point in front of you.  You have seen pictures of the discipline at West Point and other military colleges; well this is just like that.  Every thing is done to precision, no rests and only positions of attention (in a brace) and parade rest which is almost as bad but not quite as stiff.

All the hazing and training is done by student officers and we seldom see an army man except for lectures.  They are really swell fellows.

Our studies have already started.  A student officer may come in the room and tell you to "sound off."  You have a whole list of stuff you have to know, beginning with "Sir Enlisted Student Rounds Austin L. 31359264, July 29 1943 and so on giving date of graduation, days till graduation, the sponsor, the mascot, a list of colleges, etc.  It is just to get you "on the ball".  We will be on the ball when we leave here you can mark my words.

Just in case you didn't know either

I have some bad news, (not too bad).  When I joined the Army Air Forces I joined in the East Coast Command Area, and was shipped to a Gulf Coast Training station.  I am now in a West Coast Command area which means that after I leave here I will not go East but go west to a classification center in California.  You, I know, will not like this but to say frankly I am going to like getting a chance to see the country.   I imagine that before I get to see much flying I will see twice as many states as I have seen now.  California is a long ways away and even thought the farther from home I go I dislike the thought I am getting something I always wanted, a look at the country in which I live.  I have learned a lot and seen a lot but not a fraction of what I hope to see.

College training may be tough, but it has its good points.  The meals are wonderful served by coed students here at school.  We can't talk to them and might even get gigged for smiling at one but the certainly add to the scenery.  You get light meals during the day but get a big meal with ham or beef for supper.  Potato, vegetables, fruit, ice cream, cake, cream (heavy) in your coffee, all the milk you can drink, cookies, donuts, and everything.  It is swell.  Every thing is compensated- or you just couldn't stand the life.

As yet we're just getting "oriented" or as you would say we are getting lectures on Hygene, Interior Guard duty, Military Discipline (a new word I learned to spell) and courtesy, and the rudiments of Aircraft Identification.  Monday we really start to work beginning classes, and the worst of all P.T.  The P.T. out here is much worse than at J.G. where you could do as little or as much as you want.  Here they really can give you a workout because not too many are here.  About 60 men came.  I saw part of the athletic field and it looked good.

I saw that big train station in Chicago (I was in it) of which I don't know the name.  You come into it under ground and you have to walk up a flight or two to see the taxi cabs and the street.  On the second floor we had one breakfast and it was from that big station that I mailed those cards.  I won't get a chance to see Chicago because we are restricted to a 25 mile radius from the Post.

Chicago Union Station

4,500 aircraft models hung from the ceiling of Chicago Union Station.
See here for more details

I went to the big railroad station in St. Louis to get a train for Chicago.  The name of the station is the Union Station it also is a big place.  On the top floor (or nearly) they have a U.S.O. where you can go and get anything you want to refresh yourself.  You have to buy what you drink but that is all. Doenuts, candy, popcorn, crackers, bread, cookies, crackers and all are free.  They have a special jar of smoking tobacco, of cigaretts, and cigars, plenty of all kinds of everything in this line.  They had wonderful easy chairs and plenty of stationary but we weren't allowed to write or telephone because they didn't want anyone to tell where he was going.  Magazines were everywhere.  You could read all day if you wanted because their were the best fiction and non-fiction just waiting to be read.  It was a service man's heaven.  It was not too crowded however until we hit it.  I felt sorry for the poor women working there because some of the fellows feel the country owes them a living already.  On a whole I am in with a very good bunch of fellows but I will write again as soon as possible and that may not be too soon.

With love
Austin

I am now what they call here an Enlisted Student.  No raise in pay.

July 1, 1943

Dear Pop,

I got your letter in 2 days which is very fast for mail coming this direction.  Even airmail takes as long or longer to get here.  I can't understand how it came so fast.  The train doesn't come faster than the mail so you explain it to me.

Thanks a lot for the code.  I had forgotten a lot of it and I wanted to finish up on it so I could be a little ahead of everyone.  A lot of the fellows know code as it is.  Especially the fellow who was in the R.C.A.F. and shot down the German planes.

If you should compare the handwriting in some of these letters you would find that some parts are not written at the same time of the preceding parts.  Just now I got back from the Service Club.  Before going there we had our Tetnus shots and we had that on a full stomach.  I started the letter this noon but am writing it at 8:00 tonight.  Some span of time.

The Service Club is new and its a swell place to go and write letters.  It is a 5 minute walk away and not too convenient.  But the girls that work there are really fun.  They are of course Missouri girls and don't talk Yankee talk.  In fact they have a language all their own.  Everything is O.K. to them and it sounds funny when they way it.  Some of the fellows sit at the soda bar and order and reorder just to hear the girls talk. You really have nothing better to do with your money.

You may have a lot of money but just what can you do with it.  You can go to the P.X. and buy things to eat and drink but you soon fill up.  You can't go out and spend it because you need a pass to get off the post.  You can buy things to send home but most of the stuff is Air Corps stuff and I sometimes wonder if I will make the grade to fly.  Anyway the money problem doesn't trouble me very much.

Our "Conditioners" (physical training) is really tough.  They really wear you out if they can.  You start off with exercise of the arms and shoulders.  When they are tired you work stomach muscles and when they are tired you do push ups in cadence.  About half the time is spent running the 1 3/8 mile or the obstical course.  You then get rope climbing, pull ups, and combatitives.  They are a series of personal combat exercises such as Indian wrestling and ends in Jujitsu training.  Before you can fly you have to be able to chin yourself 9 times with your hands on the bar so that the backs are towards you (the hardest way).  You also have to do an agility exercise.  This starts from the position of attention, bending putting the palms on the ground the elbows between the knees, throwing the feet to the rear so that you are resting on the ground on your hands and toes.  You then do a push up and return to a position of attention.  You have to do 15 of them in 20 sec.  That will really be tough.  We also have coordination exercises that are not tough but are a test of your power to act on what you think. With a little practice you get so that you can do them.

I am sending some of my laundry out now.  Some of the stuff I just don't have time to do.  Our coveralls get so dirty I don't get a chance to do the work on them they require.  When you swet and then lay in the Missouri dust you get mud that gets too hard to wash.  Right now there is as much as 2 inches of dust in spots.  We haven't had rain for so long (4 days) we expect the pace to go away in the next big wind.  When the rain does come it will be a cloud burst and wash all the dust into the valleys.

With Love
Austin

{For a more complete discussion of the physical training, check out the Art of Manliness's article.  Are you as fit as a WWII GI?}

June 19, 1943

Jefferson Barracks

Missouri

June 19, 1943

Dear Mother;

How is everyone at home?  I hope that everything is going well.  I sure would like to go home for a day or two to see what is going on.  I am not very homesick because I don't get time to think about it but I would like to know how the garden is growing and especially how and who is mowing the lawn.  I think someone must be doing that job but who finds time besides you?

We are really going to work out hear (sic).  Heat or cold, rain or shine we get out at 5:15 and begin.  Today we really got the works.  We started the day by learning how to assemble to pitch tents.  As I am a squad leader a little of the resonsibility (sic) of such movements falls on me.  We have to give a few orders to the squad only and since there are 3 of them besides mine you can see I do not get much gratitude but a lot of criticism by people who think they can do a better job and in some cases probably could.  After we had done the movement several times the instructor gave up and we went to an hour lecture.  After the lecture we had an hour and a half of P.T. (physical training) and cross country.  After the 1 3/8 miles they decided we were ready for dinner.

Most of us felt too hot to eat dinner but most everyone did.  We had potatoes, meat, vegetables, ice tea, two slices of bread and butter, and desert (sic).  After a break of about 1/2 hour we started out again.

Picture from a Jefferson Barracks booklet found at http://www.b17tailgunner.com/, a website dedicated to a soldier who served just a few months before Austin and on at 2 of the same bases.

At 12:00 we headed for the lecture field, (a beautiful woods behind the huts) and had an hour of gas mask procedure with practice gas masks.  These masks are good for all gases but become saturated with gas in a short time and become unusable.  We use them for learning the procedure and for a short time in a gas chamber (which we get later).  You should see us when we all (50) get into the masks and light field helmets.  We look like Orson Well's "Men from Mars".  If you will send a camera I will send you a few shots of such things.

The camp is really a swell place but has too many hills on it.  This really makes it tough marching.

(I seem to be off the subject)

After gas procedure we had a couple of lectures and at 3:00 went for P.T. again.  The instructors are trying to build muscles in the arms and stomachs (The necks get developed in St. Louis) and to get a high degree of coordination in development of reflexes.  We therefore get a highly diversified bunch of exercises.  You really feel like going home to bed after that because they don't take it any too easy.

To top this off we ran for the first time the obstacle course.  It is just what you have seen in pictures and when you get through you don't feel like standing up.  You first run down a steep hill to several narrow planks, across them to 3 hurdles, 3', 4' and 5' high respectively, over them under a low platform, down a gully to the bottom and a steep wall. up the wall you go by the aid of ropes, run from that to a fence of logs piled about 11' high.  You crawl up that and jump down if you feel like it, from there to jump hurdles going uphill until you come to a wood fence 7 1/4' high you have to get over this any way you can.  I had very little trouble because I am tall, next is a series of pipes you have to crawl through, followed by a ladder over a very very muddy hole, you have to swing hand over hand over this (it don't pay to drop off) run up a very steep hill and you are done.  We ran it slow today but I was still ready to drop at the end.

Maybe you thought at one time or another that you would like to live in the nice warm tropics.  Well they may be alright to live in but terrible to work in.  When you get the heat we have had you still would like to live in the tropics but do nothing else harder than sip nice cool drinks and relax.  This is a killing climate to work in.  Everyone seeks shade at 1:00 and stay there as long as possible.  Today we had to sit one hour in the sun at the end of which time our uniforms were soaked through.  When you get P.T. after such a period you look like mud has been thrown at you.

Many of the fellows are taking it rather hard.  They were used to another easy life without too much hard work.  There were used to only the best food also.  Now they have trouble adjusting themselves.  Some continually complain and threaten what they will do if they get a chance.  Some just go off to the Service Club and pay 70 cents for a meal.  I find however that what ever they do they feel a lot better when they get back.  I guess there is a reason for letting the fellows gripe and groan.

I suppose you remember the letter that you forwarded to me with the Shrewsbury return address and wondered who I could have found out there.  Well don't get excited because the girl was one of the class, them that took the pictures out at Prof. Thompson's house. {ed. note - See the 3 pictures posted in the 2nd post} She was a swell kid and I was delighted when I got the letter.  It had several pictures of the gang and I am sending them to you.  You can look them over but I want them sent back.  I think you will be interested.

I hope you didn't miss the letter yesterday but I just had to thank the girl for those pictures and the letter.  I guess you understand.  Angela Fiorelli is the girls name and you will find her in the group. {The girl on the right in the second picture} The picture came out so good a letter was the least I could do to show my gratitude.

We are always looking for surprises out here in the form of packages with candy and cookies.  If you send anything, don't make it too good as I will get about 1/8 of it.

With love;

Austin

  

Jefferson Barracks

Missouri

June 19, 1943

Dear A.P. (Do you like that better than Pop??)

You put A.P on the end of your last letter so you will get that until further notice even though I like Pop better and I may forget.  

How's the potato business?  I should think that the farming is booming but the buying and selling about stopped.  This seems a little late to be still planting potatoes.  William told me a little about what you were doing and I wish I could be there.  I sure liked driving that tractor and I think potato planting could be fun when you can sit on that tractor and let the man behind do all the work.  That is really hardly the case it seems.  That tractor driving and the little hard work I did sure toughened up my hands.  Now they are peeling and all the hardness is leaving them.  We get no chance to use them.  If you read Mother's letter you can find out a little of what I am doing.  It is really tough and put muscles to work that have been sadly neglected.

How is the radio school coming?  Do you realize that I haven't a copy of the code out here and I have almost forgotten it?  Your better put that in the next mail.

Tell me something about the farming.  Tell me what's going on at home but especially make sure that a letter comes every day from someone.  You really miss mail and word from home when you get into such a different country and so far from home. Tell William to have patience and tell Mary I would like to hear from her.

One thing I didn't tell Mother was that yesterday we went on our first 5 mile hike.  We walked along the outside fence for quite a ways and I was surprised to see the difference in the country.  We also saw a pair of mules that Missouri are famous for.  There really is not much to a 5 mile hike taken in the way we took it.  We just walked a very slow pase (sic) along the sides of the road.  As it took us more than 3 hours you can see we did not hurry.  My feet did not hurt at all.

You ought to have a pair of shoes like I have.  They are the most comfortable thing you ever saw.  They are always a little large to give you plenty of room and although they don't look too hot and don't take a polish too easy I would rathe wear them than the Civis {Ciwis?} you wear.

Our whole issues is worth in bulk about $100 but piece by piece a lot more than that.  We have 2 pair of shoes, 6 pair of socks, 3 sets of light underwear, 1 set of heavy woolen, 2 tan uniforms, 1 dark brown, that looks like my old R.O.T.C. uniform, 1 heavy coat, 2 sets of work clothes, a shaving outfit, 3 towels, a rain coat, 4 hats of different shapes sizes and use, 1 gas mask, a flight jacket, and other stuff I can't think of. {ed note - For pictures and descriptions of the standard issue, see this website }The gas mask is quite a thing.  Send a camera and I will show you.  You should see the gang when they have them all on.

I forgot to write and tell Mother that all my clothes were not sent home.   They were my sport coat and undershirt, and some handkerchiefs.  I will send them as soon as possible.  I don't know when that will be.

Tell William that I am not supposed to send any service insignia home but as lots do I may send them home until I have to wear the uniform that it goes on.

It's lights out so

Sincerely Yours,

Austin



{For more information on the training program used by the Army at this time, see the first 6 pages of this article.  Not a lot of details, but it does give a few more specifics on the types of lectures he might have attended as well as what he should have expected from his commanding officers.}