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October 1944

Dear Folks, Boy is it cold! I'm wearing my heavy overcoat this morning. And they have a fire in the fire-place at the Officer Club. I'm waiting for Bob to get up so we can eat breakfast together. He's a new buddy of mine since he been at this field. He is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We went to town last nite. Got a hair cut my head cold now (ha) I got the blouse ok thanks heaps. Got paid yesterday, sent a bond home acknowledge same when you receive it. Well how is John Winn? He's a bad boy going around hitting people with glasses on! Have you got them fixed yet. Am glad Oletta went to Memphis with you. I suppose you did need some help if they dilated your eyes. Our bombardier just got his eyes examined & got 2 pair of Army glasses. He couldn't see a thing after they dilated his eye. I'm flying this afternoon. About my position on the plane. I'm one of the Pilots. They don't have Co-Pilots on a B-29. The other pilot is the Airplane Commander and a Capt. But just to make it simple say I'm a copilot. We fly the plane one at a time. On long flights one man will sleep while the other is flying. He's the Commander & I'm second in Command. Well I better eat now & get ready to fly. I may take a trip down South in another week to stay a week. I'll write about my Uncle if I have to. Does grandpa still like Havana Cigars? Well So long for now, Love to all Austin

Wednesday Oct 4, 1944 Hello folks, Just time to say how are you etc! I am going out to the flight line now. I'm going to Los Angeles Friday to drop a card down there. Our crew won the prize for being the best crew of the week & got a B-17 to take a cross-country fly where we want to go in the US. Lucky us! I'd liked to have come home but there are 11 on the crew & we have to go somewhere so all can have a good time. We will stay all nite there & come back Sat night. There is only one plane a week for the whole group. The group is divided into 3 squadrons & each squad has 2 flights, each flight has 5 crews & we were the one crew of the whole bunch picked. This little prize keeps everyone working trying to win. We are also the first to win the prize. The best squadron of the group wins free beer for everyone one nite. And the other two pay for it. Our squad won this too! Well I'll be going now. I may write you a letter from Los Angeles giving you some information about myself etc. Don't worry about buying me any present to send overseas - you know by Oct 15. Oh yes the Army issued me a wrist watch yesterday so I can send the pocket watch back. I may keep it a little while but see if I get my wrist watch back soon. I'll have to turn this one back in when I leave this base (just borrowed it). Love to all, Austin The pictures of John Winn are swell. I showed them to the rest of the gang & they sure laughed. He's real cute Oct. 1944 Tuesday 10th Dear Mother & All, How's everyone now? I'm missed writing to you. Guess you've noticed - since our crew is formed & we live together I'm hardly ever alone to do any writing - I need to write at least one letter a day & now I'm lucky to write every 3 days it seems. I got the pictures of you & I think they're pretty cute. You sure were all smiles weren't you! How's Olitta since her operation? Here's a picture I cut out of the morning paper. I'm flying this afternoon - we finally got started flying alone yesterday. Here to fore we have held other crews along with us giving them instructions etc. Was sure glad to hear David Lynn was home. Well I'll have to make this short again. I enjoyed the cookies very much. I got a lot from Dotty too since you sent them. She sent candy, cookies, peanuts too. I still have some. I'll write the letter I mentioned previously as soon as I get a little spare time. Love to all, Austin John Winn's picture is sure good. I have it up in my room.

1944 Friday Oct. 13th Dear Mother and All, It is certainly a beautiful day up here. Nice and Warm too. I'm flying this afternoon and tonite. I notice the date! It's been exactly 2 years today since I was sworn in down at Memphis. Boy there has been a lot of changes since then! How is everything around the farm? Hope you've had good weather for gathering the crops. I guess I better send for me a soldiers ballot so I can vote in this election. I got me a shoe stamp yesterday, have got to get a pair of shoes. The Quartermaster has just sold off the shoes that I liked so well. So guess we'll get a pair in town. I didn't go to Los Angeles. They needed the B-17s here too bad for training purposes so we have just given up the idea of taking that trip. We're having a foot ball game in Great Bend tonight. But I'll miss it as we are flying tonight. Have you got received your glasses yet? The little pictures you sent me aren't bad at all. I like one of them especially. I have it in my billfold. It's almost time for dinner now. Oh, I probably won't go far away until around my birthday. The insurance paper you received a while back is my government policy. It's not a new one, the only thing is I didn't have to pay for it until I was an officer so they started a new one on April 15th. It's $10,000 but the way they make the payments is by the month and by how old the beneficiary is. They try to divide the 10,000 into equal monthly payments to last the length of the expected life of the beneficiary. It cost me $6.60 per month. I can have it changed into a regular 20 yr policy if I like. But Uncle Bill and Daddy seemed to have more insurance than they could keep up so I'll think it over before I change it over. I got a letter from Harvey the other day. He's still in the dry cleaning business up in the Aleutians. Likes the job OK but says it's mighty dull up there. I wrote Mrs. Barnes a letter the other day also. What's Sister and John doing these days? Don't you ever go to a show in Ripley! How about the tent pictures that used to come to Three Points? Are they still going around or has rationing cut that out. Is John Bill Miller still at the Three Point store? Well I've just gotta go now. Will try to write more often than I have since we been here. Love to all, Austin

Sunday Oct 15, 1944 Dear Folks, How is everyone today? Sure is a pretty day up here. Has turned warm & nice! I intended to go to church this morning for sure but lazily stayed in bed until it was too late. They have service at 10 instead of 11. Yes, I got the trousers ok. Thought I'd already let you know about it. You sure seem to be making a good crop. Is John planting the wheat to harvest or just for hogs to eat in the field? I imagine though that he's harvested most of it. I see there is no wheat allotment next year. Boy won't be too long before 1945 will it. Holf of Oct. is gone. Hope you have gotten your glasses by now. Did the shots hurt John Winn much? There isn't much news to write about. I made about the best grade of all the pilots in our engineering exam. Don't know how I did it (96 1/4). Most of the enlisted men on our crew went to Hutchinson last nite. Today was a day off for us. Better go now. Love to all, Austin Wednesday Nite

Oct 19, 1944 Hello Folks, How is everyone today? Things around here are about as usual & quiet. We're having a Bingo Party here at the club in a little while. I didn't do any flying today. I practiced on the bomb trainer instead. I see B-29s hit Formosa, an island just off the Jap mainland, for the 3rd time in 72 hours. Oh yes, we had to put our preferences on paper the other day. Whether we wanted permanent commissions and stay in the Air Force after the war or get out as soon as possible after the war. I said when I first enlisted I'd just stay in as long as the war lasted so I said I'd get out as soon as possible although a permanent commission in the Army wouldn't be bad. I see they are having another hurricane down in "Cuba". My trip to Los Angeles never was completed. They needed the planes too much here for training and also the plane we were intending to use that day crashed a little way North of here that day. No one was hurt though. I still intend to make that trip to see my uncle and stay a week. May be two or three weeks from now though. We have a better flying schedule arranged now. We get a day off each week now where before we just got Sundays off every 3rd Sunday. This way we'll get two days off on the week we have Sunday off. And still get just as much done too because everyone doesn't fly every day we go to the flight line anyway. I guess I better go over and check the mail. I haven't heard from you today. We get mail twice a day though so maybe I have some mail out there now. I got a letter from Jack the other day. I wrote 2 letters to a couple roommates I had at Oshkosh. One letter reached the guy and he was in England in the 8th Air Force. the other letter was returned to me & marked "deceased". I guess he was killed in an accident because he was still in the U.S. He was a fighter pilot. I sure did hate to hear about that. I don't know where any of the others fellows from our room are though How's John Winn doing today? Guess he is the cutest little thing ever. You say he tries to talk a little! Yesterday I was on a flight of 7 hours high altitude formation camera bombing. We bombed Wichita, Tulsa Okla., Oklahoma City and also dropped 25 bombs on a bombing target. Fighter planes were scheduled to intercept us and we would have used camera gunnery on them but guess they couldn't find us. We went on our way unmolested. Well, I better get going about now. Hope the weather's fine for gathering the crops. We had steak for supper tonite. Also ice cream. The meals are reasonable here too only 50¢ 35¢ for breakfast. Tell all hello Love & kisses, Austin

Thursday nite Oct. 19, 1944 Dear Folks, Just a line of two tonite. I see big head lines "Phillipians Invaded" Looks like that's the direction we'll be going. I'd sure like to be stationed on the Phillipians. Also the Russians are beginning their drive from the East. I went to school today. Am flying early in the morning then I get Sat. of Sunday both off. We had a big football game this afternoon at P.T. 5 officers played 5 enlisted men. We beat them though by 2 touchdowns. Kinda got a little skin knocked off my arm It'll be O.K. Our Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Roberts just got promoted to a full Colonel. He was one of the boys on the Phillipian when the Japs invaded it then. He was in the 19th Bomb Group then & so we may get to go back there again. Just a guess. Am glad you got your glasses - Tell all hello. Have you seen David Lynne? Tell him Hi for me if you see him. Love, Austin

Sunday Oct. 22, 1944 Dear Mother & All, How is everyone there today? It's a pretty day here but I have the bad cold it seems. I got the Lauderdale Co. paper & have been reading it all over. Was sorry to hear you lost the big cow. Guess the others all look fine this year with so much pasture as they've had. You say grandpa is picking cotton! He'll never get too old to work it looks like. I got me a new pair of low cut shoes last nite in town. Everyone comes to town up here on Saturdays just like they do in Ripley. The papers & radio are full of news these days. You still take the commercial appeal don't you? How's Oletta getting along now? I got sister & her letters together the other day. Guess school will see starting again soon. I gotta go now. With Love to All Austin

1944 Oct. 24 Monday nite Hello folks, Surprised!! Well I was too - I went to town Sun nite & stayed till around 12 o'clock when I got back to the base a note was on my bed saying to be at Base Operations at 10 O'clock AM to leave for L.A. So here a am. We flew 7½ hours after already cleaning up till 12. So I'm plenty sleepy now - We leaving from Great Bend in the morning around 10 o'clock. Had a swell time here anyway if I am sleepy I just had 2 days off Sat & Sunday and then got this trip - Well I'll go now - Love to all Austin (11:30 PM mon nite)

Oct 25 1944 Dear Mother & All, Just 2 months till Christmas! Well I'm back from Hollywood & Los Angeles. Had a pretty good time. That trip finally did come as a surprise this time. We had just gotten 2 days off for the first time since I've been here. We had Sat. & Sunday off. Sunday Nite a guy (Bob Adams) and I had dates in Great Bend. For some reason we came home early (got here by 12 p.m.) And a note was on my bed to be at operations at 1 A.M. So I packed everything hurriedly & we were off at 2 A.M. 14 of us went in a B-17. We flew for 7½ hours & arrived over L.A. To find it all covered with clouds & also a fog. We made an instrument let down though & broke out of the fog right on the field. We got there about 9:30 am Monday Los Angeles time & stayed till 11 A.M Tuesday. Then took off for home on instruments again. We flew through clouds until we reached Albuquerque New Mexico then it was fairly clear the rest of the way home. The trip was non stop as she had 2300 gal. of gas on board. Got back here about 8:30 P.M. I've been going to school all day today. Hard to keep awake in classes. Am getting up at 4 AM in the morning so will have to close this quickly. Got a nice letter from you today. Am awfully sorry to hear the news about John. Maybe he will turn up somewhere when the war is over. Can hope for it anyway. The other news was just a surprise also. About Edna. I hadn't heard from her but about twice since I was home so guess she is getting married to Ben! Well we gotta go. It had now So Bye, Bye, for Now Love To All, Austin

Noon Oct. 28th 1944 Hello folks, How's everything now? I'm still so busy I can't find time to write much. Am going back to school in 5 minutes so will just send a note. I got a letter from you today. Oh, my skinned arm is OK. And my cold is too. We're having a big Halloween Party at the club tonight. Everyone comes in costume so it'll be a relief to get out of uniform for a nite. Have gotta get to school now. I have a snapshot of myself I'll send in the next letter. Don't have it with me yet. Love to all, Austin P.S. The Club finally got some stationery (HA) 1944

Sat Nite Oct 28 Hello Mother of All, Wrote you a note already once today but will run off a few more lines now as I was in such a hurry at noon. I'm at the Officers Club & now it's all decorated for Halloween. Corn stalks, black cats, witches and all. Will be a big party & a dance here tonight. I got that snapshot to send you. (Ha) That's a "Wishing Well" I'm studying by. Our crew got all changed up today. We are the flight leader of our Squadron you know so they ordered that the best men be in the lead planes as we will be leading the rest of the planes to & over the targets. We are getting a new engineer, navigator, & bombardier. We sure hated to lose our engineer. He was a Sgt and we're getting a 2nd Lt. now for an engineer. I guess everything will work out OK after we get used to the new guys. The guys sure did hate to leave this crew. I think most all of them are anxious to see our crew. Capt Cook the Airplane Commander & Flight Commander is such a swell guy I'm waiting around until 7:30 & then Kuhns & I are having a steak for supper. I have tomorrow off. Monday I'll be at the liaison officer & will be down at the flight line in a jeep checking with the planes to see if they are in flying commission & keeping the operations officer informed as to plane expected to be not flyable later in the day etc. How's the baby doing now? Sure sounds like you're getting that crop out on time. Let me know when any of the folks hear from Waits, Jack, or any of the boys. I got a letter from Harvey today. Well hope everything fine there. Love to see, Austin Tuesday nite (10 pm)

Oct. 31, 1944 Dear Mother and Sis, Well I just got up to eat supper! (HA) I've had such irregular hours lately I don't know when to eat. I was Liaison officer yesterday. Started to work at 1 P.M. & worked till 4 A.M the next morning then have been to school all day today beginning at 7:30 this morning. So when School was over & P.T. I went to bed without any supper & slept till about 9 PM. Just had a big juicy hamburger with onions & coffee. We got paid today. I'm sending a bond along in another envelope Acknowledge receipt of it when you get it. I guess everyone is busy around home now. The weather is nice up here now. Not very cold. Guess I better stop along here. Tell John Winn hello! I got a letter from him that Olitta helped him write (HA) How's "big" John doing these days? Sure plenty of ducks around here - Wish I could go hunting too - Love, Austin