After a few letters I found where my Dad wrote to his Mom, it seems only fair that he penned one to his Dad, too. This letter certainly has a more serious tone than the ones he sent to his mom. Knowing that his father’s work was seasonal, it seemed to bother him to have to borrow money from his father despite being only 19. It’s also apparent how much he’s looking forward to coming home. Most of his letters now are really focused on his daily activities and no longer on track results and football scores. Too busy to be homesick? Maybe. Also, I love his references to “seeing moving pictures” as opposed to film or even video. Remember, televisions weren’t in peoples’ households for another ten years.
U.S. ARMY AIR FORCES
Friday, Nov. 12th 1943
Hi Dad,
How’s tricks? I hope that everything is okay and that you are still working. I received the telegram money order yesterday but I had another tooth filled last night so I didn’t have much time to write because when I came home or rather back to the barracks my tooth bothered me so much that I went to bed but it’s okay now. So I want to thank you for sending me the money, it certainly came in handy; I think that in a week or two we’ll get paid for the month of October. When I do get paid I won’t send any money home unless you really need it because I want to save as much money as I can for that ten-day furlough that is, if the army doesn’t change it’s mind about it but if you really need it don’t hesitate to let me know and I’ll send you the money.
Well, now that that’s taken care of I suppose you’re wondering what I’ve been doing the past week. Well, I’m now living in a barrack having moved out of the tents last Sunday and I’ve had a pretty busy week. We went to the pressure chamber twice this week to see if we could stand the altitude of 38,000 feet; well, the first time we went up to 30,000 ft and stayed there for fifteen minutes and then worked our jaws and yawned coming down so that we wouldn’t hurt our ear drums. The second time we went up to 38,000 feet and we stayed at 30,000 ft for an hour and then went up to 38,000 ft and stayed there for fifteen minutes then we followed the same procedure coming down that we did the first time. Well, I passed those so that means that I’ll be able to fly but there are still quite a few things more that they can’t tell about down here on the ground that my wash me out of the flying part and that is namely air-sickness but I think I’ll be able to fly okay.
We’ve been having a lot of lectures and seeing moving pictures on first-aid, we had one all morning and we’re going to have one all afternoon too, so you can see how they stress first-aid.
The other day we went out on the rifle range and fired twenty-two’s; we fired at small airplanes that moved at a speed of 400 ft per minute and I hit seventeen out of twenty-five, that’s not exceptionally good but it was better than some of the fellows in my group, some of them only hit ten out of twenty-five so I didn’t do too bad.
The chow here is pretty good but the only trouble is that we don’t get enough. Since I came in the army I’ve built up a h— of an appetite and I never get enough to fill me up besides the regular meal I usually eat about six slices of bread. The food is cooked good but there just isn’t enough of it, but on the other hand I’m still probably getting more than some of the boys over there. I just hope that I move up to the main field tomorrow or rather Sunday then I’ll be here for six weeks of school and that means I may be home in about seven weeks but if I stay here it will delay my starting school and also my coming home, which I am looking forward to every day.
Well, dad, I guess that’s about all for now, be good take care of yourself and God bless you.
Love,
Franny
P.S. How’s the air raid warden’s job? What has George been doing lately? Give my love and regards to the rest of the family.
Duke of Dead Air 