April 4, 1944
Dear Mother & Dad,
Oh, how I
miss the
I finally
got a gadget that I’m sure mother will like, it’s a cross made from plexiglass with an Australian coin beaten down till its
smooth, mounted in the glass and engraved. As soon as I get it packed I’ll send
it on. It has an attachment to pin it on, but I don’t especially like it so if
you want to take it off by all means do so. It may look a little dull but a
little cotton is all you need to polish it up. It was made by an Australian.
It’s not mush but I thought you might like it.
Hope I don’t
sound too morbid in this letter folks, but I’ve reached the point where I’m
likely to do a little “bi***ing” pardon the language
but that’s the way we feel and there is certainly nothing genteel about our
manners anymore. I didn’t spell that word right but you get the idea. There
really isn’t anything the matter with any of us but we just have to let off
steam now and then.
I’m still
waiting for the pictures that I had taken in
Honestly
trying to write is getting to be a job in itself. There just isn’t anything to
write about. I even have trouble writing
to Helen and I know that I shouldn’t feel that way. She is so darn faithful
with her letters, I just don’t like to write when there isn’t anything to write
about cause I start complaining and I promise you that I won’t do it more than
once every six months, I don’t like to hear others complain and I don’t want to
have you all say that I am.
I’m sure
glad to hear that you are all getting around and seeing people and things. It’s
really about time you know, and they all sound like such swell people, seems
like I’ll have a lot of people to meet when I get home.
If this
letter smells, blame it on me. The main water pump has busted and we haven’t
had any water to wash in for days and there won’t be any for five more days. Just one of those things.
Pardon me
if I just ramble on but that’s the only way I can think of things.
Have I told
you about the new shack that we are living in?
As you know, Capt Yancey is quite a handy man with tools, so we took our
time when we moved to this place and built a house. It’s really the nicest one
in the area. A real bungalow with all the trimmins. It’s about 26 feet long and 15 feet wide, at
each end there is a raised section 8 feet long that we sleep on and the middle
is our living room. It’s all screened in
and has a nice all weather roof. Its way
up on the top of a mountain so when there is a breeze we get it. Fortunately we
are right along the pipe line, so we found us some pipe and an old shower head
so we have a real honest to goodness shower when there is water to be had. You
really don’t know what a boost it gives a fellow to live in decent sort of a
shack. The view is really something, back home people pays thousands of bucks
to go to the mountains and don’t have a view that can touch it. I’m trying to get some pictures to send you
all. Of course the beauty has worn off for
us. All we do is cuss it. But we can’t
deny that it is really a swell sight. Guess I don’t have to tell you how much I
miss my sweetheart. If there ever was a
lucky guy I’m him, to have such a sweet and lovable wife. I know that you are all looking after
her. She always tells me how she enjoys
her weekends with you. Just see to it
that she doesn’t get low in spirits, as long as I feel that she is feeling ok I
don’t mind being away from her too much.
I haven’t
been doing much flying lately, gets sort of tiresome after a while and at present
there isn’t much need for me to go along. So I’m just not playing my luck too
far. At the present rate I’ll have flown more than 75 combat missions by June
and that ain’t hay for a ground officer. All I can
say is that I like my Zeros better in pictures than though the window of a
C-47.
My health
in case you are wondering has been good. The heat plays hell with me once in a
while but generally I’m going along in good shape.
You may be
wondering about the talk of us coming home after 18 months, don’t put too much
stock in it. I’ll get there when they
are ready to send me and not before. That’s the way I want it anyhow. We can
see over here that it’s not always a wise plan to send men home just because
they have been away for 18 months. As
long as my health hold up and there is a job I can do,
I’ll stick it out. Personally I am very
much irritated at the Japs and won’t mind a bit if I
have to stay and help get rid of the yellow bastards. Those are my sentiments.
Just a
reminder, there are elections coming soon and a lot hinges on the results. I imagine that you are still riding the old
elephant, and I can’t say that there is anything wrong with that, but
there is only one guy who is capable of running the show on that side. Don’t let me hear of you all backing that Boy
Scout from
Well I
guess I’m just about out of news, etc. so I’ll sign off for now. Give my regards to everybody. Take care of yourselves.
All
my love,
Walt