August 28, 1945

Aug 28 1945

Dear Mother:

Saturday I got your letter from Maine post marked the 14th.  It had taken 10 days to find me.  That doesn't say much for postal service.  I don't know if any more letters will come that way or not but I will look for them.

When you wrote about that camping trip I just wished I could have been there.  Boy I would have had more fun getting wet and then dry again.  I would have been just one more male to run you ragged but I would have had a lot of fun.  When you go camping you have to run into a little rain or something or else it takes all the fun out of getting soaked.  But I guess my point of view is not quite like mine on such matters.  I wish you would write some more about the trip because I got quite a kick out of picturing the thing and I am getting a vivid imagination.  Anyway Pop must have enjoyed relaxing for a day or two.

I suppose you are all wondering just when I get out of the army and all.  Well to tell you the truth no one around here knows very much about us and information is rather hard to find.  They have three lists of men to be discharged in the next 6 weeks but they are from groups A and B which the army has set up.  I am in Group H which will be the last bunch to get a choice.  Last Friday we signed a statement as to our preference and I indicated that the earlier the better but that may be many moths away.  We don't fly B29s anymore but get our time in the AT6's which makes me very happy.  We get 4 hours of ground school now on the B29 and cruise control of the B29 but it is just to keep us busy and have no great value to me.  They are continuing training principally for the fellows who have indicated their wish to stay in the post-war Air Corp and there seems to have been quite a few who wish to stay in.  Financially $240 a mos is a lot more than any of us will be making of a good many years.  However the longer you stay in the longer it will take to get started over again.

Mary writes once or twice a week and to me it seems that everything is all peaches and cream.  I guess she has been taken into a society much to her liking.  I am really so glad that she is happy away from home for a while.  Maybe you feel that you have lost a daughter now but never fear because home always looks good.  Even I after 2 yrs look at Stoneham as the place for me and as soon as I am free again I will make tracks for 15 Wilson Rd.  It is too bad William and Esther can't drag themselves away for awhile and see how the rest of the world lives.  Maybe you don't like the idea but remember you were away from home for a year when you went to school.

We have had the most wonderful weather down here for the past few days.  Starting last week it got really cool, enough so that we slept under blankets or sheets.  It rained a couple of times and then we began to get warnings of the tropical storm headed this way.  The storm never got this far but we were in the area of strong winds and it has just been swell.  We have had a cool breeze all day and the nights have been wonderful.  It is too bad you and Mary could not have been here to see what Texas can be like when it tries.  In fact I am a little surprised myself.  I had no idea it could be so nice and cool.  I hope it stays this way for awhile.

Yesterday I looked at a chart that gave distances from one place to the next and noticed that I am aprox 2010 miles from Boston.  That is a lot farther than I had thought.  But when I get travel pay home it will amount to about $160 plus meals etc.  Not a bad price just to see some more country.

This is an early morning letter.  I got up special so I wouldn't have to write last night.

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

September 20, 1944

Luke Field

Sept. 20, 1944

Dear Mother:

Luke field is again my stomping grounds and I might say I am none too pleased.  I might just as well be a poor civilian as to be what I am now.  We are again back on the 9 and 2 schedule which completely ruins the day if you have other formations to meet.  Each meeting they give out details and I got one today for next Sat.  I and 6 others will make an inventory of the PX Saturday night and Sunday morning. 

Now of all the times for an inventory they picked the best.  In the past they have been on Wednesdays and during the day but now they want us to do it on the one night a week we have free and the only morning we have to sleep.  It was a job formally done by the civilians but is now done by 2nd Lts's for whom because of an oversight by higher ups, they have no flying jobs.  2nd Lts are now taking over jobs formerly done by W.A.C pvts and feather merchants.  Boy if that isn't a case what is?

I'm not the only one dissatisfied with the way things go because there are 60 of us doing jobs done before by W.A.C.'s and non-commissioned ground personnel.  It sure makes you feel swell to know that you are ready to do something worth while in the war effort by be sidetracked into a grounded job even while they are screaming for replacements in the theater of operations.  It sure makes you feel good to see brand new P51's, P47's and P38's leans on this field ferried by WASPS while qualified Army pilots fight to get a mere 4 hours a month just so they can collect their flying pay and each one would give his leg to just have a chance to fly a P51.  Somewhere someone fumbled the ball and we at the bottom are the ones on the short end.  But I am resigned to my fate and will hold out to the end.

I forgot all about Mrs. Week's dollar.  You can send it along right away if you wish.  Please have her put her name on it so I won't send it in an odd moment.  Please don't encourage too many people to send money as I will have no place for it.

Well if that box is ready you may as well send it.  I guess I am here for a few more weeks and even if not I guess it will catch up with me.  Maybe if you send it they will decide to send me somewhere else.  It will be time to wear winter clothes in Arizona in 2 mos but next month they put them on in Calif so I guess the sooner I have them the better it will be.  I hope the shirts fit all right.  I don't think I have changed much since I left.

I have sent Mary a birthday gift and it should arrive long before this letter but if it has not please write me.  It was sent Air Mail form the store.  You know I had no idea what she could want.  She seems so self sufficient that I imagined she had most all she wanted.  Anyway I kind of thought that what I sent would go good with her nightlife at school.  Now please don't have to write and say it's not there because what I have just written may create a wrong impression.

I will have to close and go to supper.  Erma Blaisdell is a lot better and expected to have none of the ill effects of her malady.

With love

Austin