546 2/14/1944 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin Lakeland Field, Lakeland, Florida Monday, February 14, 1944

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Received a nice letter from you a day or so ago. First one I’ve gotten since being here. Things are getting straightened around now and everything looks much better. Our restriction was lifted so can come into town anytime we please. We started working last week out on the base. There is an awful lot of work for us to do and not many tools to work with. At first we went to work at 7:30 and didn’t get through until 5:30. An hour off for lunch. That was to be for 7 days a week. Now we work from 8 till 3:30 then take some physical exercises. We also have one day a week off too. I’m still taking Mondays off. This afternoon 5 of us came into town. Played ping pong and are going to a show after while. I have a girl friend now too. Her name is Helen. She is a sophomore in Southern College here in town. She is 18 and very nice. Not beautiful, just nice. She left for Georgia this noon but will be back Thursday. The weather is still plenty bad. It rains one day and wind blows hard the next. Sand fills our barracks, beds, and makes our clothes a mess. There is a gymnasium here and our team has entered a tournament. We drew a bye for the first round so will play the winners of tonight’s game next week. Should be a lot of fun. Lakeland is about the cleanest town I’ve been to. It is also very pretty. There are lakes all over town. We are only supposed to be here fifty days and take off again. We are taking over everything the 40th Service Group was doing here. They have been here a long time. An officer told us that we did more work on the planes in the few days we have worked than the 40th did in over a month. We also got a report that we have next to the best service squadron in the country. There are a lot of swell fellows too. It’s about a week since I wrote last, but will do better now that things are settling down. Hope all is going okay for you there. With love, Jim