AAPO #825 % Postmaster

New Orleans La.

V1 Bomb. Cmd.

5-20-43

Sweet Lady,

Although I wrote you last night I have been thinking of you all day so I thought a note on my new portable typewriter which I just drew as a piece of field equipment might be welcome. One cannot write in ink here, the paper is usually so wet and the ink smears plus the perspiration getting on the paper makes a typewriter almost mandatory. I thought of you when I got it knowing how badly you wanted one to do your letter writing. I am going to cast it up on one of the planes. I don’t know what the chances are. My hunt and peck system is already improving, don’t you think.

Started furnishing my house today. One of the fellows leaving sold me a chair and footstool, table, and wicker chair for the sum of five dollars. They are all ready for the junk heap but it will give me a place to sit and read in the evenings. I can get the squadron to fix them up a little. Gab was down and is taking an interest in my furnishing of the house and wanted to know where his chair was. If mine doesn’t break down before he gets here I told him that he might sit in it once in a while. He had better hurry for I don’t know how long it will last. I remember the couch in the sitting room you see. Of course that did take a little time didn’t it. Of course I don’t get this till he leaves which will be a couple of weeks yet so my anticipation is great.

It has been raining hard on and off all day today. The rainy season is setting in for fair.

I took the gentle hit from the cartoon you sent me about the wedding anniversary and shall do my best on the matter. Getting it to you will be dependent on catching a plane going up. What would you like sweet? I have really had no time to get into town yet for a look see but some of the Hindu shops seem to be open again. Don Wackwitz was in for a night and stayed with me. He is in La Paz Bolivia (13,000 feet) and they have some nice things down there. I saw some sheep skin rugs that I know you would like. They don’t look like sheepskin at al or maybe it is a different kind of sheep. About six bucks apiece and just the thing for a room like we had upstairs on the hall floors. I will try for a couple and let you pass muster. In short it will be wonderful for that ranch house sometime (with cow).

Your letters have been very scarce so far but I know that you have been up to your ears in work. Never the less I yearn for them and look forward each morning in expectation.

I am having a horrible time in understanding my wash women. She grins says yes, spits out a line of Jamaican, then I grin and say my piece then she does just as she pleases. She is loyal and honest though from what General Lyons says. Bertha is the name and she says that the Colonel and she will “pull together goodly” what ever that means. She does do nice work though and you have to changes clothes so often here. They only charge one buck seventy per day but they work at a snails pace. My striker is sick in the hospital now and things are not so well put but he should be back in a week. My foot locker has not shown up yet but I guess it is a little early yet. I hope to be able to get in a little leather work in the evenings and should be able to get some leather in Guatemala whenever I am there. My posts are in Guatemala, Panama, and Peru and Ecuador. The only one that is not isolated and has a city or town of any size is Guatemala. I have been inquiring about the shoes and will be able to get the info from the squadron commander at GMC (Guatemala City). They say that the sizes do not run true. An out line of that dainty little foot would help me I am sure, but neatly to size. As I remember a 4B is your size. What a foot. You and Cinderella. But then it is not the feet that I love best anyway.

I am aching to sink my teeth in this outfit and to put it on a basis that will do credit to everyone. I am so anxious to make a success of it, to make it outstanding. That is a large order I know. I have a youthful Colonel as next in line. He is smart, affable, and a swell guy. He and I seem to talk the same language and have the same ideas on how things should go and I am sure that he is going to be a big help. The rest I do not know well yet. The trouble is he is due to leave camp before long but I will hold him until we get set. I need two men from up there very badly but will have to bide my time a while before working on it. That is Louie Hughes and George Dany. Both will be hard to get but they have exactly what I need in certain spots here. One man cannot do it alone and any commander is dependent on his key staff men, where mutual respect exists and who have drive and aggressiveness. The tendency here is to get laggardly and close is good enough. That is at there outlying stations where conditions are pretty rugged. It will take leadership more than anything else and I sure hope that I have it. We will find out. Don’t mention about them to anyone as yet. I wouldn’t want Nick or Charlie to think that I was going to start robbing them. In fact I will have a well qualified replacement to offer at the time. Those men cannot stay in the TC forever. You don’t know how badly they are needed in these tactical out-fits. The Gulf Coast certainly has a fine collection of good men alright. I know it now more than ever. Just wish me luck honeybunch for your support is all that I need to do anything. I will always remember you that day at the Glendale airport when I was taking off for Frisco to try an head off my little trouble that reared its ugly head out there. That was more help to me than you will ever know. Instead of giving me hell (which I deserved) you stuck right with me and seemed to under-stand my inner feelings.

I must close up now for awhile but will be back with you before long in another letter. Loads of loves and say hello to Irene for me. How is her son?

Edwin