July 24, 1945

San Marcos

July 24, 1945

Dear Mother:

I got your letter of the 17th and you seemed a little unhappy about not receiving any mail.  I don't blame you a bit and I guess I need someone to get me on the ball.  I guess I write a lot more to Mary than anyone else right now.  Well I will try to think of more to go in my letters and get them off more often.

Here is a good idea of just what kind of a climate we have here.  It rained today and it got so muggy that when I was standing in a breeze the sweat on my arms and hands would not evaporate.  After dinner I went to sleep for a couple of minutes and woke up with little beads of sweat all over me.  I guess it is just as they say at home, it's not the heat but the humidity.  I have no idea what the humidity around here is but it sure must be terrible.

Well I may be lucky because I didn't get a leave.  Bill Samput got his leave fixed up and now he is shipping out to go to Roswell N.M. for B29 co-pilot.  It seems that it happened to all the fellows who got leaves.  So maybe not getting a leave was a good thing after all.

Bill Samput is on the orders to go to Roswell.  So after knowing him for a couple of months more than a year we are parting.  Well we have had a lot of fun together and I have met his folks.  They were swell and I enjoyed my stays with them.

Let me tell you what happened this weekend.  I met a cop up at Addie Mae's house a week ago and he is a flying enthusiast more or less.  He asked me if I wouldn't like to go flying with him Sunday and I was more than willing to accept.  So Sunday he called the hotel in Austin where I was staying and said he was ready to go.  He has a car so we went out to an airport where he has had some in striation.

Well this is a long story but I have a lot of time.  He had told me previously that he had flown a year with the C.A.P. so I assumed he had several hundred hours.  He also said that he had flown AT-6s which made him a hot rock.  I had to get checked out in this cab which took about 8 minutes on the ground and in the air and then off we went.  

Well we got out to the point of take-off and he asked me to take it off, so I did but I thought it was rather strange that he didn't want to fly.  I took off and asked him if he wanted it and he took over.  We went flying over the city and after a while he got tired and asked me if I wanted to fly.

Sure I wanted to fly so I moved from a position of resting with my elbows on my big knees to where I could put my hands on the throttle and stick I hit the throttle and the engine quit.  Well old Timmy almost hit the roof.  He turned around, shaking like a leaf and said in a very halting voice that I had better take it.  So I grabbed the throttle and away we went.

Well from the way he flew and by his reactions I should have known more about his flying but I being an innocent pilot still accepted his word of 1 year with the C.A.P. flying the border.  Taking things for granted in an airplane does not work.

We came in and I shot a landing and then I told him to take over and shoot one.  When we got around to the final approach into the field he turned around and told me to follow him through which was OK by me.  But when he started to level out 100' up instead of 10' I really started to sweat and when the ship stalled out about 25' up and the bottom felt like it fell out I was really sweating.  I gave it the power in a hurry and we hit and made 4 hard bounces which would make your teeth rattle.

We taxied up to the ramp and got out and then I found out that Timmy wasn't such a hot rock.  He had exactly 3:15 actual recorded stick time and the rest was what he could pick up while navigating on the border.  Well let me tell you that the next time I went up with him I didn't take too much for granted and I stayed glued to the controls.  I guess you can learn something every day, even on Sundays.

Next Sunday I am going to take Addie Mae and her roommate for a ride in a Stenson 105 if I can get checked out.  I think I can so it will be a lot of fun but also rather expensive.  It will cost $10 an hour so you can see where the money goes.  "Bus man's holidays" are rather expensive.

Stenson 105

Maybe I shouldn't tell you my trouble but this climate is kind of getting me down.  I am losing weight rather fast and I don't quite know when it will stop.  Also I feel just sluggish and uncomfortable.  I only feel good when I am cooled off while swimming and only then do I feel well enough to have any fun. I hope I can get used to this climate but it is really the worst I have ever been in.  It leaves you without enough energy to live, in fact I find that I drag my feet unless I think about it.  That is getting bad when you can't find strength to lift your feet.

You probably remember the Bulova watch you sent to me more than a year ago.  Well that darn thing is more trouble than it is worth.  I have spent more on repairs for it than anything I own.  It is just not a hardy enough watch for what I am doing.  I have another watch so don't be surprised if you find this watch in the mail.  I have just l most the stem and will have to replace it.  I have too much trouble to have it around.

Well I shall send these pictures of the Samputs and me.  They are not too hot but they are all right.  You can get an idea of what they look like.  They are typical Texans if there is any way of telling.

Well I hope I am forgiven for not writing because I think of writing much oftener than I do.  

With love

Austin

July 18, 1945

July 18, 1945

San Marcos

Dear Mother:

I really don't feel like writing but I guess you are wondering what has happened to your little wanderer. I'm sorry I don't write more but it seems to be just one of those things.

I had intended to write Monday night but I got side tracked.  I probably have written that I have a pair of swim fins but I don't think I told you that I also have a pair of underwater goggles.  You know with the combination you can have all kinds of fun chasing the little underwater creatures.  If you are quick enough you can catch pollywogs and things like that.  But as I was saying I got side tracked the other night.  We decided that if you can see those fish underwater why not try our luck at spearing them; so we made some fish spears.

Goggles have come a long way, thankfully.

We went down to Sub-depot and borrowed and begged until we had what we wanted.  We made the spears out of steel rods and made brass heads for them.  We put detachable long handles on them and had a lot of fun making them collapsible, so you can put them in a hand bag.  We just had a lot of fun.  Now you know why this letter is late.

Well I guess you know I am still spending my weekends in Austin.  Addie Mae and I really have a lot of fun together.  We go out Saturday night and go dancing or just go to a show or something.  Sundays I go up to their apartment and they cook dinner for me.  I lay on the sofa until dinner is ready with my shoes off and with a T-shirt listening to the radio after a really wonderful meal, they can really cook, back to the sofa I go and listen to the radio some more and go to sleep while they do the dishes.  Boy! what a life, almost like home.  Maybe you had better look out before you lose a son in the process.  It's funny though that I can have so much fun and just feel about them as I do any other girl.  I doubt if I shall ever get married.  I have more fun finding nice girls that can cook and have big soft sofas in the front rooms.

Just because it's funny.

Well we have to fly this afternoon.  They are kind of  half hearted by putting us through the AT-7 transition school here.  We are to get 10 hours a month in these sparrows and maybe get checked out. We go up and shoot landing and go out of the area to do single engine procedures.  There is not much to flying this plane but landing it is a horse of a different color.  The controls are so touchy and the least bit of movement has a terrific effect on the ship.  Also we are supposed to make wheel landings and a good wheel landing is a bouncy landing.  In fact if you can land in 3 bounces, you are considered a hot pilot.  I am not yet a hot pilot.  They are a lot of fun to fly for a change, but the time doesn't mean much as far as we are concerned.

It is time for dinner but I don't feel much like eating.  Breakfasts don't agree with me too well and make me feel groggy.  About dinner time I feel like I have rocks in my stomach and not hungry at all.  Maybe it is because I don't get much exercise.  However I drank a couple bottles of beer last night and that may be the cause.  I was just thinking that the next time Pop rather jokingly asks me if I want a beer I will take him up on it.  I don't really like beer but you acquire a taste for such things just to be sociable.

I was going to send you some pictures but the young ladies in Austin want to see them for some reason so you will have to wait a few more days.  How mothers suffer.

I heard the "Pops" Saturday night and heard them say it was the last one this year.  I guess I was halfway scheduled to be there rather than listening 1500 mi away.  But I suppose you couldn't do everything but I could close my eyes and visualize things.  Maybe I can get home when they are out on the Charles.  That could be fun also.

It seems to me that Pop is rather busy.  I just wonder what is becoming of all the money.  Maybe he is salting it away so he can retire but I'll bet he has got some scheme up his sleeve.  As for me I am going to buy a big car and an airplane after the war and the way it seem stop be going I will be out of a job very soon.  I hope so, so I can get back to B.U. and flunk another accounting course.

So William is an old Foran man.  Well I guess he can tell you just how the thing works which is a lot more than I could do.  My knowledge of Foran is limited to what happens when you twist this and that knob and why this and that happens when this and that do-dingest goes wrong.

I am afraid my letter is getting long and boring besides I ran out of ink.  Maybe I had better call it quits and go eat anyway.  I have got to write some more letters but I haven't got time.  My mail piles up, I have to write to Lenny, besides Esther and Mary and Pop always like to hear from me, besides all my other fans around town.  Maybe I can get a private secretary to mimeograph them off.

With love

Austin

How would you like to come to Texas?

October 13, 1944

Roswell Field

Oct. 13, 1944

Dear Mother:

I just received the first letter that has come directly from home and not come via Luke Field.  I am writing this letter at noon on the first day we have had any spare time since we have been here.  we are going to get 12 hour passes and feel swell about it.

The way it works is that you work 7 days and get a half day off on the 8th.  Aren't we lucky!  I don't know if they are rushing us through or this is a regular schedule.  All I do know is that 12 hour passes once a week are something new to me.

Here is what my address means if you think it can help you to remember it.  It is not very complicated as far as I can see.

Rank             Name                  Army Serial No

Student Officer Class 44 (year) - 4(semester I guess) I (class of grad.)

Roswell (town post office)  New Mexico.

As you see I am in I class which should graduate on the 18th of this month.  If I had gone from Luke upon graduation with no gunnery or anything I would have been in G class and graduating now from Roswell but as it is I am 2 months behind my class as is 60% of all the fellows here.  Very few have come directly from an advance school to this field.

Yes I feel lucky to be flying instead of riding as Ralph will have to do.  Even so look at the time I have had, and still will have to put into this before I will have full control of my operation. No one in my crew including the co-pilot will have put so much time into his training.  Bombardiers and Navigators put in about 4 months after pre-flight and we put in almost 8 mod.  In fact before I leave this school a successful airplane commander I must know how to take the place of any crew member and perform his job satisfactorily for flight operation. I must be a pilot - copilot - engineer - radio operator, navigator, bombardier and know how to operate all the guns.  That is quite a job for one guy to learn in 8 weeks or less.  After that I will have to be both mother and father to the crew.  This job looks almost too big for me to handle.  Well I guess the end of 8 weeks will tell if this school is any good or not.

Speaking about Radios etc. we are getting a swell radio course here.  If I ever fly over our home I am going to salvo all my radio equipment on the back yard for use after the war.  We have all kinds of radios and equipment.  We can send and receive on any frequency in the United States except he Standard Broadcast band.  William and maybe Dad would love to tinker with what I have to play with.  The only trouble is that I don't low half enough about it to work it right.  You know you can be up in the sky lost a hundred miles from here and turn on some swell music from Roswell and a little needle will tell you right where you are and you follow the needle while listening to Benny Goodman and in no time you are over the town of Roswell.  Or you can turn on some good music in Chicago and follow a little needle and be in Chicago in 4 hours.  Radio really is wonderful.  Radio is a lot of fun especially when you begin to wonder what happens when you do this or that.  I even think I could get interested in it my self.

You can tell Pop I am taking code again and just passed a 6 word check by the skin of my teeth.  I need practice but not the kind that comes in the mail.  -.--    ---  ..-     -.-    -.    ---   .--

Well I must get ready for P.T. and then I can have the afternoon off and do what I please.  I start to fly tomorrow so I am hoping for the best in the way of instructors and patience.

With love

the not so hot pilot        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.

January 27, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson, Ariz.

Jan 27, 1944

This is that Christmas seal you sent in my Christmas packages.

Dear A.P.

I am writing this letter in a little spare time I have before supper.  I haven't written for some time so I guess it's about time.

Flying isn't going too hot right now.  I don't know just what is the matter other than I haven't caught on to landings well enough to solo.  Several days I could have done it but the good weather has broken and cross wind landings here are messing up the works.  I now have 10:32 hours and that is 1:32 hours more than I have to have.  I have 56 landings and that is a lot more than the minimum.  On a whole I am very disgusted with myself.  Something is wrong and I should be able to take care of it. 3 of the fellows have soloed all ready.  I should have by this time but I guess I will just have to see what happens tomorrow.

We have a pretty tough schedule out here but it is not monotonous.  Each week we either fly first and go to school first and the next week we will do the opposite as last week.  This week we have classes in the morning along with P.T. and Drill.  We fall out for drill at 6:50 and drill till 7:30.  Then we have P.T. until 9:00 or later usually later so that we get in the barracks at 9:30.  Our classes start at 9:50 and last till 11:15.  We then have dinner and report to the flight line at 1300.  Between 1300 and 1700 we get an hour or more of flying and in between time we walk wing times and amuse ourselves in any way possible.  Sometimes they have classes and flying skills and such things as flight patterns, order of maneuver in flights.  They are usually very interesting and very helpful in flying if you can remember all that is said.

The field doesn't have mile long runways but they are pretty near as long.  It is somewhat longer than 3 miles around the field so it would make the diagonal about a mile long.  We have plenty of room to come down and have a long taxi at the end.  You see we use flaps and this cuts down the landing space as well as the speed.  Flaps increase lift a lot more than decrease speed.  You see we use only 10 degrees of flaps and the maximum is 30 degrees.  There are 3 auxiliary fields placed about 5 or 10 miles from the main field and it is here that we do our landing and later do stages.

Ryan Airfield

The whole set up is ringed by mountains that rise anywhere from 1000' to 6000' above the floor of the valley.  These mts form the boundaries.  These mountains are not so bad as you might think because they are very visible and as long as no flying is done in foggy weather there is not danger of running into one.  Of course your engine might fail when you are over that way but you should have enough altitude to stay out of them.  In fact they suggest that you fly over the valley rather than over near the mountains.

Taken from here.

We are going to be let out for 2 hours tomorrow night to go to town.  I will get a little chance to see what the world is like again.

Well I have to get about my business so until later.

With love

Austin.

Hope I get the watch soon!!!

January 13, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson Arizona

Jan. 13, 19434

Dear A.P.

I just got the letter you sent on Jan 2 and I noticed that it took quite a while to get here but some of that was in a re-route to me here.  I guess mail will take the same time here as any where out in this direction.

I hope you have got the card I sent back in that direction so you know a little about what goes on here.  Those little planes have a lot of pep and are something to fly properly.  Right now I can't fly worth a darn and even though I had time at C.T.D. I am having to learn all over again.  I thought I would be a hot pilot when I got here but the opposite seems to be the case.  I do everything wrong or seemingly so.  Even though I can do turns and climbs and banks and everything I can't do them well.  I don't know if that is normal or not.  I guess that 1 hour and  46 minutes is not too much on a ship like this.  They certainly are a lot different from one of those Cabs we flew at C.T.D.  When you do a maneuver in a PT22 it takes a lot of skill and smooth handling.  However it is really a lot of fun and I guess I am coming along pretty well.

We are pretty well taken care of here in the way of reading matter.  I used to get a look at "Time" when ever I went to Los Angeles, on that long stretch between Santa Ana and the "big town" but no I don't know if I will have time except in the weekends and then we will be getting open post and may not then.  We are required in a way to keep up on world affairs although we never get a test or anything on it.  Once every 2 weeks we have to go to the barber and to get there we have to go through a "War Room" where all the latest maps and military information is available.  As you go through something is bound to draw your attention and from then on one thing just leads to another.

Some one had better get busy on the watch because I will need it in several weeks when I do some solo work.  After we have 9 or 10 hours we are supposed to solo.  We have to keep our own time and there is no time piece available in the rear cockpit of a trainer.  The Swiss watches seem all right to me.  Some of the fellows have them and they seem to stand up O.K.  In fact they seem better than some of these American made.  Well see what can be domes and let me know what the results are.

We don't have code any more.  It doesn't make a heck of a lot of difference to me if I take it or not while on this post.  We will get it later on and I know that I can learn all over quickly all I forget here.

I don't know how much time you spent in this state but I guess you couldn't have experienced a worse dust storm than we had last week.  It was Texas dust they say but to me it made no difference.  It came in everywhere and got on everything.  It came so thick you couldn't see 100 ft and how it blew. The wind must have been 40 m.p.h. or more and you can bet we walked around half blind while we were out.  Inside although it didn't blow it looked like cigarette smoke.  You can bet we spent some real rough days trying to sweep it up and have it fly instead of sweep.  There was no flying of course. What would Mother say if some day she should come home and find 1/2 an inch of red dirt on everything?

Tucson Dust Storm 

I have got to get studying now so I can pass a weather exam tomorrow.  By the way we are having classes in Engines and Weather for awhile.  I will write my schedule in the next letter if I remember.

With love

Austin