Based on the letters of Earl Philip Reinhalter (1922-1953). Edited by his son, Earl Philip Reinhalter (1950-).


<- PREVIOUS LETTER January 30, 1943 (letter)
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
NEXT LETTER ->


Saturday - Jan. 30, 1943
Hello Ma:
      Well, nothing exciting has happened here in the past week or so. Our assigned airplane (a B-26) is temporarily "grounded" because it has bad gas tanks. This work has to be done in the hangar by men specialized in this kind of work. So, in the past week, while waiting for these men to fix the tanks, our crew had nothing to do. Today, they finally hauled it away to the hangar. To pass that leisure time away, we either slept, played cards, read books, or just sat around the bonfire and talked. In bad weather, we just climbed in the airplane and continued the same, doing nothing. Monday was a bright sunny day, so my entire crew except two (they played cards) went to sleep in the shady woods nearby just after lunch. We woke up in time for supper at 5:15 P.M. I don't think that we left anybody asleep back there when we went to eat. Maybe we did. Yes, the B-26 bomber is familiar, as I worked on the first one at Martin's.

      Wednesday, I went to Myrtle Beach and here I ate supper and then went to movies.

      It rained Thursday, so after lunch, I didn't go back on the "line," but came back to the barracks. There wasn't anything much to do, so I went to bed at 2:15 P.M. that same afternoon. I missed supper, as I didn't wake up until 6:30 that night. Then I got dressed and went to movies here on the base at 8:15 P.M.

      There isn't much going on here at Myrtle Beach in the winter time. Movies is about the only thing. (No skating.) It is said that in the summer the population is about 40,000. But I probably won't be here then. It is rumored that we will leave here within three weeks. I don't know how true this is.

      I received Phus's letter and your letter this week. Yvonne's drawings were good. I already had heard of that crash in Columbus.

      When you get that honorable discharge paper from Mr. Drager, you can have it framed and hung in my room with the other stuff. Don't send it to me because it might get lost or ruined in the mail. [This apparently refers to his former membership in the Maryland Minute Men (also spelled Minutemen) civil defense organization. Not to be confused with the current-day anti-immigrant group. See photo and patch below. - Ed.]

      In a couple of your letters you said that Marian Tiemann joined the W.A.A.C. I thought that they wouldn't take married girls. Did Kitty ever continue ice skating?

      In regards to my car: Daddy can use the tires before they become dry-rotted. I think that everything else is O.K. I drained the radiator before I left. The car doesn't need grease or oil as long as it isn't running. I believe that is the only thing which will go bad is the battery. I haven't gotten those pictures developed yet.

      Well, that's all for now,

Earl




Earl as a member of the Maryland Minute Men civil defense organization in September
1942, two months before his enlistment in the U.S. Army. This appears to be in front
of his house at 4408 Frederick Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland.





This patch is from the family archive.



 
NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK!

The Kindle book includes the letters; all 23 issues of the unit’s wartime newsletter “The Squadron Pulse,” which was originally edited by Leonard Stringfield; all 12 issues of the “Pennant Parade” newsletter that Stringfield published while sailing home after the war; complete text of the U.S. government booklet “Pocket Guide to Australia,” which soldiers heading Down Under were given to read; more than 200 photos; pre-war and postwar family history; and over 700 explanatory endnotes.















<- PREVIOUS LETTER   HOMEPAGE   NEXT LETTER ->








ElectricEarl.com

This page established: November 11, 2018             Last updated: February 23, 2023

© 2018-2023 Earl P. Reinhalter. All Rights Reserved.