Orders South
Great Bend and the Caribbean · January 1945
Christmas leave ended. Austin was back at Great Bend by 10 January. Capt. Cook and most of the crew had returned; the East was still under bad weather. He bought bonds with his check and mailed them home, then sent a foot locker after them. Within a few days the letters left Kansas for warmer air — more overwater flying after the December Cuba trip, and this time the route ran through West Palm Beach, Cuba again, and Puerto Rico.
Hello Mother & all, How's everything around home? Got back here O.K., and as I predicted everyone else was gone - I'll be around a few days tho. We didn't have a very good connection on the phone did we? Capt Cook and most of the other fellows got back OK. 2 of our gunners weren't here yesterday but they are probably here now. They had some bad weather in the East, I've gotta go out to the flight line now & see what's going on. Capt. Cook is in charge og all the fellows in our Sqdn. now while we're here. How's John Winn? Bye now Love, Austin P.S. I got my check after I got back here so I just bought Bonds with it & mailed them home yesterday.
Historical note — Great Bend, January 1945Great Bend Army Air Field in Kansas was still the 19th Bomb Group’s training home. Crews finishing B-29 work there moved next to a staging field and then overseas. Censorship already limited what Austin could say once the airplanes left Kansas. “Do not write me at this address. Use my old one” appears again in mid-January — the same rule he had used from Cuba in December.
By the 14th he was writing from “another base,” getting up at 3:30 for flying, and enjoying weather warm enough that some of the men swam. A week later Great Bend was snowed under — eight inches and still falling — so the detachment stayed south. Miami Beach in the afternoon; bananas and coconuts on a Puerto Rico porch; lunch once more at an officers’ club in Cuba. Twenty men made Memphis weather and winter clothes a poor bargain.
Hello Folks, Well I'm still here. The weather is so bad back at Great Bend that we can't fly in there. The snow is 8 in. day & still falling. This afternoon we are going to Miami Beach swimming so its kinda a vacation also. Only trouble is everyone is running out of clothes to wear again. (Ha). This is my third nite here at this field. On the way down we stopped at West Palm Beach for 2 nites & then to you know where. I was in Cuba again also for a little while I ate lunch at the officers Club there. […] In P.R. we had bananas & coconuts just out the door. You could stand on the barracks porch & pick bananas. I have a coconut I'm planning on sending home. […] All of us are sitting at the table writing while waiting for our orders. Tell all hello Love, Austin
Historical note — last overwater work before stagingCaribbean and Florida fields gave B-29 crews long overwater hours the prairie could not: celestial navigation, hours out of sight of land, and the same Gulf and Florida Straits stand-in for the Pacific used in the December Cuba deployment. Place names stay vague on the page. “You know where,” “P.R.,” and a Cuban officers’ club lunch were as specific as censorship allowed.
At the end of the month a pilot broke a leg. Austin worked “another deal,” sent two more foot lockers home with shells and leftover gear, and hoped to rejoin Capt. Cook’s crew once they got overseas. The next letters would be written from Kearney, Nebraska — the staging stop on the way to the Pacific.
Hello Folks, Just a note tonite. Have been busy all day. The letter I wrote you the other day! Well just dis-regard it now for I worked out another deal anyway. A fellow had to break his leg so I got to go anyway. I'm hoping to get back on Capt. Cook's crew agter we get over. I'm sending 2 more foot lockers home. Guess you'll have some fun looking through them. In the small one I have some little sea shell which I hope won't be smelling too bad. […] Love to all, Austin
Historical note — toward overseas movementBy late January 1945 the Marianas — Saipan, Tinian, and Guam — were the main bases for XXI Bomber Command’s B-29 offensive against Japan. Groups that finished combat crew training in the Midwest staged through fields such as Kearney, Nebraska, drew final equipment, and flew west. Austin’s chance to go with the departing package came when another pilot was grounded. Cook’s crew would follow; for a few weeks he would ride ahead of them.