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


<- PREVIOUS LETTER June 21, 1944
Saidor, New Guinea
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Somewhere in New Guinea

As of June 21, 1941 [he means 1944 - Ed.]

Hello Ma:

      Well, nothing much has happened here lately which would be worth mentioning, except that we had eggs this morning for breakfast. The fuzzy-wuzzies [natives - Ed.] are building a large clubhouse for us. We are supposed to get five or six bottles of beer beginning the first of August per week. I guess that is what the club will be used for, besides gambling and ping-pong playing. In your last letter, dated June 4th, you asked me who was doing the driving on that trip up the coast to the native village. It was John Hutchins. Too bad about the false invasion rumor [about D-Day - Ed.]. When the real invasion news was broadcast, did they have the celebration all over again? I finished my motorboat and have had lots of fun riding it around the coast. We (it holds two) at one time went about two miles off the coast. It started to get a little rough, so we came back closer to shore. I never did get around to going fishing in it. Being an aerial engineer now, I don't get much time off like I used to. [This is incorrect. An aerial engineer is someone who assists the pilot during flights. In other letters, he says that he is either crew chief or chief mechanic. - Ed.] Has Daddy gotten used to his new teeth yet? Has Phus recovered from her operation yet? And did Kitty get a new job yet, and where if so?

      You asked me about the correspondence course in calculus. Well, as you know, I send my work on the subject back to the school in the States. Here, they are graded and are supposed to be sent back to me. Furthermore, I am not supposed to send in any more work until I receive the old papers back. But since I enrolled in that school, the Army has opened a branch of that school in Australia. All men in the South West Pacific Theater of Operations who wish to take various courses must enroll through this branch. Now then, since it has been over three months since I sent my first papers in and since I have not as yet received any of them back, I don't know what is happening. Maybe they cancelled all of the enrollments of those who were sending to the States. Or maybe all of the records are being transferred. But anyway, I am not as much interested in that course as I am in another which I am now taking. I enrolled for this course through the branch in Australia. "Aircraft Engines" is the name of the course. I am about half through now.

      Well, I mailed you some Yank magazines. There are about eight or nine and I think that you will find them interesting. I read the clippings about the British teletype operator who sent the false invasion news. Has your job become tiresome yet? But I guess the hours are better than those of the last job. Enclosed is a poem [no longer in the envelope - Ed.] which you might like. I don't know who wrote it. Well, that's all for now. Is Yvonne enjoying her summer vacation? So, until sometime in the not too distance future -

Earl




The 3rd Airdrome Squadron's enlisted men's club in New Guinea, 1944.



 
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.















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