This letter was quite interesting. My Dad spoke of trying to acclimate himself back in to the army after his furlough. Clearly, he enjoyed being home and may have “lifted” a picture of his girlfriend Rosemary, my mom, from his mother. It’s nice to see they were putting the “fun” in dysfunctional as far back as the 1940s! Incidentally, it’s interesting too see that my Dad was quite the marksman, he rarely talked about his time in the service and never bragged about it. His generation just didn’t do that. Unless it was shooting pool, bowling, or his track accomplishments, that was fair game to brag about.
By the way, the track in Andover that he talked about was at Phillips Academy whose upstairs track was wooden and downstairs track was dirt. Neither surfaces conducive to blazing times in his specialty, the 600-yard run.
Also, the Pat and George he mentioned were his sister and brother and it’s nice to see that I got forgetting birthdays from him.
U.S. ARMY AIR CORPS
Columbia, S.C.
January 29, 1944
Hi Dad,
Well, here I am again trying to adjust myself to Army life again and having a pretty hard time of it too. Well, since I’ve been here I’ve been to Chemical Warfare School, Camouflage School, and Automatic Pistol School, Colt .45. After pistol school we had to go to Fort Jackson, a big infantry camp, about 25 miles from here and fire on their range. Well, I fired and qualified as a sharpshooter with a mark of 79.4% as a total percentage, I got four bulls on the regular “L” target and the rest were scattered within the next three circles. We fired fifteen shots at a bobbing target the shape of a man and it turned on a swivel and every time it pivoted we fired and I got twelve hits, not bad, eh! Guess I’ll have to show you and George how to shoot when I come home.
The next time I come home John and I are going to take you and Jack on in pool and beat your pants off (or bowling).
Now about the time that McKenna turned in at Andover, I’m not sure but he broke 1:17. I think he did about 1:16.6 and I did around 1:17.3 because the track record was 1:17.4 and we both broke the record. It was a darn good time remarkable time for the track if you remember it. Don’t forget McKenna did 1:14.4 or some fraction of a second on the Bowdoin track and I did close to 1:15 so you can see he’s pretty fast although I think I can take him.
I’m glad Pat and George received the cards and money on time, I had completely forgotten about their birthday until the night of the 17th then I went in town bought the cards and forgot to mail them that night, so the next day I sent them out Special Delivery Air Mail hoping that they would receive them okay. I wish I was there to be at Pat’s Party it certainly must have been a swell affair.
By the way, if Mom’s looking for Rosemary’s picture tell her that I have it and that I told her I was taking it with me and she was even standing there when I put it in the bag.
Tell Jack that I’ll drop him a line in a day or two when I have a little extra time. I’m glad that the weather is still good and that you are working hard, the weather down here has been swell, it was so hot yesterday that I walked around without any shirt on and I still sweated, today was a good day but a little chilly.
How did Tufts make out with Andover? Did they win the meet?
Well, Dad, I guess that’s about all for now, take care of yourself and God bless you.
Your loving son,
Frannie
P.S. Give my love and best wishes to the rest of the family. I’ll try and write at least twice a week if not every other day, it all depends on how busy I am.
Duke of Dead Air 