August 16, 1943
Hello Ma: |
Received your letter and a Martin Mercury [a newspaper published by his former civilian employer Glenn L. Martin Company - Ed.] today. I passed the small edition of the Sun paper along to some of the other Baltimore boys. [Editor's note: During the war, The Baltimore Sun published a small "service edition" that readers could send to soldiers overseas. It was a four-page portion of the Sunday magazine section, sized so that it could be folded and inserted into a regular envelope. The stories were mostly human interest in nature and having to do with local neighborhoods that homesick soldiers enjoyed reading about.] There are about fifteen Baltimore boys in my squadron. I read the A.D.T. magazine. [This was The ADT Transmitter magazine, which was published monthly by American District Telegraph, forerunner of today's ADT alarm system company. See below for covers of all twelve 1943 issues. - Ed.] Tell Yvonne that her airplane drawings were good. In your last letter you asked me what I wanted you to send me. Well, if you still get those Flying magazines, I would like you to send them to me. Incidentally, I use #620 films in my camera. The other day, one of the boys bought a boomerang downtown. We spent a good part of the afternoon throwing it around the middle of the airfield. I did pretty good with it, as I had to duck a few times. I went roller skating the other night for the first time in this particular town. It has about the worst floor of any rink that I have been to yet. I hope that you can read this letter as I am having a little difficulty in writing it. One of the boys had a little too much to drink and was staggering around inside of my tent. Right at the moment, he is wandering around outside in the pitch dark and is singing and yelling, at what I do not know. It's rather comical anyway. I gave [John] Hutchins two of those pictures which you sent me, the two on which he appeared. [Posted with the May 6, 1943, letter. - Ed.] He gave me pictures of two of his sisters. Well, is Yvonne glad that school is starting again? I submitted my application for O.C.S. and am awaiting developments. Between 20 and 25 boys in my squadron are applying this time. I haven't been going to town lately at all. I spend most of my time sleeping and am usually in bed before 8:00 o'clock, except one time last week when I got home at 4:30 A.M.; but that's another story. I had a day off last week and got up just in time for lunch after sleeping about 16 hours. Well, that's about all that I can think of just now worth mentioning. In fact, I didn't have anything much to say when I started, but I did manage to fill up two sheets. So, until sometime later -
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Earl |
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