July 17, 1944
Somewhere in New Guinea
Hello Ma:
Well, there isn't much doing here lately worth mentioning. The other day, I flew down to another base in a bomber. It took about 45 minutes each way. When we took off, I put on my parachute and "Mae West" life preserver. Although we were only flying at a few thousand feet, it was plenty cold. It was the first time that I had "goose pimples" on my arms since I left Australia. Passed a few planes on the way. When we reached our base, our landing gear would not fully extend to the "down position." It was the type of landing gear which retracts in to the engine nacelles. After we circled the field for a while, we finally got them down. We landed and picked up about twenty sacks of mail. On the way back, we passed a place at which it had just finished raining. We saw below us a rainbow which was, strange to say, a complete circle. It was sure queer looking. After "buzzing" my home base, we landed. The trip as a whole was uneventful.
The other night, we had a visitor who had just transferred to an outfit which is stationed on my base. The boy was the son of Mr. Dayhoffe (if that's the way you spell it). Daddy used to buy his motorcycles from his father, remember? [James (“Jimmy”) Dayhoff (1894-1945) operated The Dayhoff Company motorcycle dealership in Baltimore. Classified ads from the time list J.H. Dayhoff at 232 South Broadway. His son Stuart (“Stu”) Dayhoff (1922-1972) was mentioned in local postwar sports reports about motorcycle races. Stu was also mentioned in the August 25, 1944, letter. There is more about Jimmy Dayhoff on page 13 of the May-June 1945 issue of Indian Motorcycle News. The Reinhalter interest in motorcycles goes way back. See photo below. - Ed.]
Received a letter dated June 25th and some clippings from you. I told you in a previous letter that I had received the 12 notebooks.
Do you remember me telling you about me working on a colonel's airplane? Well, he and one of my friends plus some others have been missing for about ten days now. They took off in a bomber one day and headed north. That's the last seen or heard from them. Maybe they'll be rescued if they crashed on land. A bomber very quickly sinks when it hits the ocean. [His August 25, 1944, letter explains what happened to them. - Ed.]
Received a letter from Mrs. Roussey. Fred has moved to a new base. I don't know whether he is still stationed in the Hawaiian Islands or not? His letters are now headed "Somewhere in the Pacific." [Fred Roussey served in Saipan. - Ed.] Mrs. Roussey says that Gus Fetting arrived in North Africa sometime in May, I believe. George Harmening is in the Marine Air Corps, also somewhere in the Pacific. [He was on the Gilbert Islands. - Ed.].
Hope you received some pictures which I had sent you some time ago. Also, the Yank magazines. Well, this isn't very much to write, but there isn't anything to say anyway. So, until later -
Earl
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