July 19, 1944

Dear Mom:

I hope you won’t be too disappointed when you receive this letter. It has to do with my coming home.

You will probably have received my telegram before you get this letter.

About a week ago a list came out with 10 fellows’ names on it who were supposed to return to cadets. My name was one of the 10. We were given a chance to either accept or refuse reinstatement in cadets. I accepted. Well for some reason or other my name and another fellow’s name were left off the special orders when the shipping notice came out. Our First Sergeant tried to find out what the trouble was. They said they couldn’t say. Well that left me out of cadets. I wasn’t too sorry because that gave me a chance to get the delay en route to B-29 school at Lincoln, Nebraska. That was when I called you up and told you to send me the money. I received the money okay the following morning. Well, on Monday when the list of fellows in B-29’s came and they were told they were shipping Tuesday, my name wasn’t on the list. The First Sergeant called again to find out what the trouble was. They checked down at Personnel and said that it was an error but that it was too late for the orders had already been cut. So, I have to wait for the next shipment to Lincoln. I am the only B-29 gunner left in the 7^th. All the other B-29’s left yesterday afternoon at about 4ish P.M.

I don’t know how long it will be before I ship. I am not even sure that I will get a delay. Everyone has gotten one so far. The 1^st Student Squadron has just graduated, so I don’t think it will be too long, maybe a week or two. I will send you a telegram when I know that I am coming. I aim to wait until the last minute this time. The medium and light bombardment gunners are still here so I am not completely alone. I have been running around with a Buck Sergeant from Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a while, so I guess it won’t be too lonesome. There was another fellow whom I was paling with from Detroit, Michigan. We were planning on going to cadets together. He finally went without me. He is Captain Miller. The Sergeant is Bruce Conrad. They are two swell fellows. Conrad is a Bendix turret man. That is a B-26 Marauder turret. Medium Bombardment, Miller was a D. E. turret man like myself. Conrad has been in the army 26 months. He is an engine mechanic, on fighter planes. He knows his stuff to. He took a course on maintenance at Bell Aircraft in Niagara Falls, New York. He has worked on the line repairing, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-40 Curtis War hawks, P-39 Bell Aircobra’s, A-34 Brewster Buccaneers, P-51 Mustangs and a mess of other ships. He was an engine maintenance instructor at Lincoln Air Base for 18 months. Lincoln was to be a fighter plane engine and maintenance school before the B-29 took it over.

They are both married and each has one child. Their wives are very nice looking girls and their babies are really cute looking. Miller went to Cortland Field, Alabama. It’s a pool where you get on the line training. He will stay there until he can get into pre-flight. Conrad doesn’t know yet when he will ship.

Our First Sergeant is a swell guy. He is a washed out cadet. He washed out in his final check ride in Primary Flying. If he had passed he would have gone on to Basic Flying. He is a very intelligent fellow, a college graduate, and he is the swellest Frist Sergeant I have yet to see. All the fellows say the same for him and some of them have been in the army for quite some time. Once in a while we go out and have a few drinks together. He is only about 24 or 25 years old.

Well since graduation we haven’t done anything but lay around. Most of the Squadrons get K.P. and Ordinance detail as soon as they are done. We haven’t done anything except keep our own area clean. There are still about 100 men left in our squadron. So far all we have to do is clean up the area in the morning and afternoon and we can go back to bed.

One of the fellows, Dan Snyder, from Morristown, Pennsylvania said he might stop down or else call up and explain the situation to you. He and I had been planning on going home together. I had just decided to buy my ticket when I found out I wasn’t leaving. I wasn’t going to call Sunday because I was afraid of something like this happening. I don’t know why I did; it would have saved a lot of trouble and disappointment. I am pretty sure I will be home sometime within the next month or so.

I am now a one striped “General.” A big Private First class. When I get done at Lincoln I will probably be a Corporal. When I go to O.T.V. I will probably get Sergeant. At least that is the way it has been in the past.

I have plenty of time to sun myself now. I will probably be nicely tanned by the time I get home. The sun down here is terrifically hot. I have only been out a few times and I have a fair tan now. There are only about 15 fellows left in my barracks now. It sounds like a morgue now compared to what it was.

I am going to enclose a letter I wrote last week. In it spoke of returning to cadets you can disregard that part.

I was terribly sorry to hear about Catherine Zup’s misfortune. Marie asked me to write to them. I don’t think I will though, because it would be just like me to say the wrong thing. I am going to get a sympathy card and send it.

Well I guess that is all for now. I’ll write again soon. There isn’t much to talk about now except loafing.

Give my love to Dad, Marie, and Bootsie.

Your loving son,

P.F.C. Joe