Homeward
San Francisco, Camp Chaffee, and the train east · October 1945
Orders from Hamilton Field, California, sent him to a redistribution center in western Arkansas. October found him still in San Francisco for a few days first — getting used to the States again, clothes cleaned and pressed before the last stretch home. On the 4th he left by train for Camp Chaffee — he spelled it “Chaffey” on the page — to report on the 8th. Somewhere on that crossing he ate chow at 12:30 in Tucson, Arizona, and scratched a short note on the way.
Hello Folks, Still in San Francisco. Having a pretty fair time. Getting used to the States again. Have my clothes cleaned & pressed before I get home if they aren't already 'clean.' How's Johnie Cake? Well we stop for now. Just a hello note. How's your throat, Mother? Love to all, Austin
Hello, I'm leaving S.F. tonite to go to Camp Chaffey, Ark. By TRAIN. I Report there Oct 8th - See you soon! Love Austin
Hello Folks, Traveling thru Tuscon Ariz. Its 12:30 & I'm Eating Chow now' Best Wishes to all Love Austin
Historical note — Camp Chaffee and homecomingHamilton Field, north of San Francisco, was an Air Transport Command and port-of-aerial-embarkation hub. Camp Chaffee (now Fort Chaffee), near Fort Smith, Arkansas, processed many returning soldiers at a redistribution center for separation or reassignment. Train routes from San Francisco east often crossed Arizona; Austin’s Tucson note is a meal stop on that journey, not a new station. The wartime letters in this manuscript end on that homeward track — from Cherry to Miami Beach to the Marianas and back toward Tennessee.
He had enlisted in the autumn of 1942, won wings and bars in 1944, and flown B-29 combat from Guam through the spring and summer of 1945. The boxed letters remain his voice; the green notes only try to keep the map and the calendar straight.
See you soon, he wrote from San Francisco. For the family at Cherry, that was the sentence the rest of the war had been aiming at.