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

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

December 10, 1944 (2)

Roswell Field

Dec. 10, 1944

Dear Mother:

I have decided to clean up my desk here and I guess if I get rid of some of my unanswered letters I will have a good start.

Last weekend my friend from Dallas and I went to El Paso to see the bright lights for a change.  We were so tired of Roswell we decided to take the first bus out of town and go to the nearest big city.  It so happened  that it went to Texas so that is where we went.  It really is fun to take off and go just anywhere that the bus goes and leave all worries behind.

I remember that a couple of years ago I used to want to do just that.  The trains would go by or the busses would go by and I was fascinated by their passing.  I used to wonder just where they went and wished I could be on them and go until I was somewhere else.  When you have no strings attached and all the money you need you can just pick up and go.  No one cares where you go and you are on your own to see the world.  I'll bet you would like to do that.  I'll bet you would like to pick up and go and leave everything behind.  Why don't you?  After all your children have grown up and don't depend upon you, or at least they shouldn't.  Why don't you take a trip and leave cares behind and let tomorrow take care of it's self?  It really is a lot of fun and you do get a chance to see the world.  After you get back home looks like heaven and the next week looks like a new adventure, not the same old grind.

We had a lot of fun and met a lot of people most of whom you wouldn't care to meet again but you have your memories of a good time and you can always tell your grand children about one more city and one more trip you have taken.  You know you can only be young once and you will never get younger.  

I can't really tell much about the city in a letter because I am full of little stories which would fill several letters.  I guess we ran into all the characters in town and had all the fun ourselves at least we were in on a lot of it.  All you have to do is just look around and the fun will come to you, you can't sit in a hotel room and look for it but you must go in search of it.

For example we were just looking for something to do in the hotel, looking at the beautiful lobby and in general seeing what there was to see about a hotel when we came upon a very noisy ballroom.  In fact it was the "Crystal Ballroom" of the hotel.  When we tried to get in where they were dancing the usher stopped us and he wore an Optometrist's Convention button.  By looking very unhappy and lost in the big city he listened to our story and allowed us to go in.  We had crashed the first barrier.  Well we were inside and looking very unhappy while the old men and wives danced by, looking rather silly cutting up the way they were when a very beautiful young lady (must of been one of the old boy's daughters) came up to me and asked if I wished to dance.  Well who am I to refuse a lady?  We danced for awhile and when the music stopped I brought her over to where my buddy was standing and introduced him.  He kind of asked in a joking way if her mother approved of her dancing with young 2nd Lts.  I guess she nearly died laughing but when she calmed down we asked what was the big joke.  Well she proceeded to point out "her mother".  He was a young Air Corp man with Captain's bars on his shoulders getting a big laugh out of us.  We did hasty "good nights" and made a hasty retreat out the door.  She had danced with me on a bet I guess but we enjoyed the incident and they seemed to have so we had as much fun as they laughing about it.  Now that is one little story and we have lots more but look at the space I have taken.

We also were looking for something to do when another very attractive young lady and mother stopped us and asked if we would swap some gasoline stamps for a bottle of "Scotch".  Well we had no stamps but asked her what made her stop us.  Well she said, someone had told her that officers got all the gasoline they wanted and were always ready to swap it for some unobtainable "Scotch".  We very gently informed her that officers did not get all the stamps they wanted.  She was on her way from Phoenix to Georgia and was stuck with no gas.  So what do you think about romance in a big city.  I guess O'Henry would have a field day right now if only he were alive or, if only I were a good author.

I am going to spend a few days in Dallas when our leave comes.  Sam has invited me to his home and I am not one to refuse good Texan hospitality.  I am beginning to like Texas because no matter where you go someone is ready to show you around and open his house to you which is another story.

We are starting administrative school here.  We have finished flying and they are awaiting orders to our next base.  I could have been on my way home now but I would have had to volunteer to go in a shipment to Florida.  They leave here the 12th and report at Tampa on the 27th.  Even so they will not be home for Christmas and that is what I am waiting for.  School is over on the 23rd and we may be able to leave then.  School might get over sooner so here's hoping.  This school is just a pain in the neck and used primarily as an excuse to keep us here.  We use it to write letters and read books so not much is gained or lost on either side.  Each class is about 20 min long instead of the required 50 because the officers realize what goes on.  Although the intentions are wonderful the results hardly warrant the feeble efforts.

I am reading another book this time a historical novel by F. Van Wyck Mason called "Stars on the Sea".  It is about the Revolutionary war in New England.  It gives a pretty good account of what went on in Boston and in Newport R.I.  I have just got started and it seems like rather good reading.  You will probably get it along with the rest when I get home.

Well I have wasted enough time and ink on nothing at all so I will sign off.  I am sending a Jap 1/2 shilling which I got form a soldier down in E.P. It came off the body of a dead Jap he claims which is another odd story. Boy am I really full of them.  Please put it away so I can have it as a reminder of something to tell when it gets cold and the fireplace is making an idle tongue wag.

With love

Austin