638 1/30/1945 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Tuesday, January 30, 1945

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, I have all your letters here so will start off by answering all your questions. Hope Kyles have heard from Junior by now. Having him in the infantry probably worries them enough. The armies have been doing some awful hard fighting in France so he probably hasn’t had much time to write. Let’s hope that is the case. Have been wondering about Eugene Qualls myself. He was in pretty bad shape the last time I saw him. Had been in an automobile accident and been hurt up in the woods. Didn’t know if he was in the service or not. There must be a lot of snow up in the mountains or you have been having a lot of rain. The river really must be high. You will have to take water along after this for your tea. The stockings you sent for my birthday came through okay. Thanks very much. I like them a lot. The funny papers are still coming too. I really look forward to getting them. Imagine you were asked and accepted to be librarian for another year. It certainly takes much of your time. Was nice of Waino to give you the gas stamp. People don’t get much gas these days so every stamp means plenty. I was really unhappy to hear about Hammi Montgomery. He was a swell fellow and had many friends. Let’s hope that it will be the last from home. Schweikls must feel relieved every time they get a letter from Marvin. He will certainly be glad to get out of the South Pacific. Haven’t heard of anybody that likes it very well there. Maybe the war will end soon and all can return home. Bud must have been thrilled to hear Cully’s name over the radio. We pick up a radio broadcast each morning from the States. They give the hockey scores. Have been listening for them to mention Cully but they haven’t yet. Everybody listens to every news broadcast that comes on. The Russians look like they can’t be stopped. We look for the end in European theatre any day. Then another year should find everybody home. Thought they had a War Minister here on the field but they don’t. There is a boy on the base that has meetings. I received Bob Christensen’s address but haven’t written to him yet. I just have not written to anybody. The letter from Elizabeth yesterday made the sixty-fifth one left unanswered. I have started many times but never get them finished. This is a start so perhaps I will continue. Our athletic program is going along fine. Capt. Beck just returned from Calcutta and brought back nine musical instruments. We need more but it is a very good start for a band. There are really a lot of boys that can play. We are going to have tryouts soon so are hoping to have a sharp band in the near future. One of the fellows has to type out some reports so will have to finish this with pen and ink. My typing isn’t very good anyway. He just finished so I can continue. Dad said in his letter that Ralph Olmsted had sold out to Fred Hallack. Is Walt Davis still at the shop? Who did Swains sell out to? Is there much business at the store? I still want to take a poke at Cliff some day. Every time I think of him, get mad. I enjoyed getting the clippings of Gail Bishop. He certainly should get on an All-American Serviceman team. He must be one of the nation’s leading scorers. He will probably return to school after the war and play more basketball for Washington State College. I want to go back too so will see a lot of him. The radio station just got mixed up. Music was playing along and then they picked up a telephone conversation. What a laugh. They will probably make some comment on it in a minute. Gladys wrote and said that a lot of things had to be done to their house and that they would most likely get rid of it this coming spring. Maybe they will go west and settle down. Think they both want to do that anyway. Cully doesn’t like the way the club is being handled there either. The package of funny papers that you send takes about two weeks to get here. Sometimes they get ahead of each other but not very often. The government is very anxious for us and the people at home to use V-mail more. I don’t like to use it and don’t enjoy getting letters sent that way. Most of the fellows feel the same way about it. They don’t come any faster. The army has set up about eighteen stations for men to be discharged after the war. I think it will eventually end up that all the men will return and be discharged at the same place they were inducted. That way, not much money will be dished out for transportation. Then too, the men will all be back near home and not a problem for some other community or state. Paul Morgan wrote me a letter just before going to sea. He seemed happy about going. Maybe he will be happier to return. He should see plenty of water anyway. I found out just where Henry DeJong is stationed. He is quite away down from here. Not too far up from where Cliff and I went on furlough. If he has all those missions in, he will be heading back to the states in a few months. Would like to see him sometime though. Maybe he will get some time off and come up. You gave me two numbers for Henry. One was for his group and the other for his squadron. If they would be just the reverse, he would be right here with us. I’ll go over and see if some of the planes in the group here ever go down there. Might send a letter down to him. You have asked about the weather a number of times. We have seen most of the seasons now so know a little about it. Now the days are just right. The weather is clear. Have only had about two days of rain in the past three months. The nights are cold and damp. Fog rolls in about ten in the evenings and stays until about ten in the morning. Soon the nights will start to warm up. Then it will start getting awful hot both day and night. Then a few months later the rains will start. It will then be all heat, rain and mud. That is when so many fellows come down with the malaria. Even when it is raining, everybody sweats. There just isn’t any relief at all. They have promised to have ice cream and ice real often this summer so hope they hold up to it. There aren’t any mosquitoes at all now. We are supposed to use our nets anyway but hardly any fellows do. There are still rumors about us moving. This place is really as nice as could be expected so would just as soon stay here until our turn to return to the states. If that will ever show up. Moving is always plenty of work and then nothing is ever fixed up. The lines have moved ahead a long ways since we first arrived up here so could be possible that we might move up a little closer. If we do leave, think it will be into Burma. While I think of it, please send to me the two sets of suntans I sent up to you from Florida. We will need them this summer. The summer uniforms we get here are all made in India and aren’t good at all. if you send them now, have a chance of getting them by the time it gets warm. Bill Gossard wrote a nice letter to me. Will try to answer it soon. Was very nice of him to write. He thinks that Miss Morgan is a very special girl. Can’t see it myself. Heard from her the other day. First time in two months. I haven’t written in three so don’t care. Maybe she will soon see that I don’t care if she writes or not. Did you mail the camera and one roll of film Mother? You mentioned something about it but don’t remember if you had mailed it or not. Cliff received two rolls of film and we know where we can borrow a camera so maybe in the near future you will receive some pictures. A boy told me how to reroll some 35mm film to use in a 127 like mine so if you can get that size film, please get a hold of it. There shouldn’t be too much demand for that size. Were you ever able to get the hub caps replaced? Hope the thief that was loose in town has been caught. Things get stolen here once in a while but I have yet to have anything taken. Jack sent me some clippings taken while he was going to deep sea diving school. He has really gotten an education out of the Navy. Says that he is tired of welding though. He will be glad to get into something else after the war. Would like to get into some type of business and wants me to go in with him. I want to go to school so don’t see how it will be possible. How was the shower at Armstrong’s. Did Vivian receive a lot of nice things. She wrote a short time ago. Will have to answer that letter too. She might have her baby by now. If so, hope they are both well and doing fine. That kid will get spoiled. Andy Sund must have a bad case of malaria to get a discharge. Fellows here have had it many times and they aren’t even sent back to the states. The Sgt. that gave me the boots has had it four times. He was sent out on detached service and we don’t expect him to return. We at least hope he doesn’t. The shakeup in China must have done some good. Things are looking good. Last Sunday some colored boys wanted me to go for a ride with them in a jeep. We rode and rode. Got as far as where the new road was just opened up. Next Sunday we are going to leave early and try and drive up the road a ways. The pictures I enclosed in my first package were of the place we stopped at coming across. Not the picture in the newspaper. Somebody must have taken them out. I made it through the dental inspection okay. Should hate to have teeth fixed over here. The dentist runs the drill by a foot wheel. No, I never wear my glasses. Did for a while last summer but haven’t since. Don’t seem to need them. My eyes might be better. They aren’t any worse at least. Did Richard Fredericksen get placed into the infantry? So many of the boys did that were going to army schools. Jane should be with Bob now. Maybe they will get along better this time. Would be too bad if they couldn’t now that they have a baby. I went through De Ridder every time I went to Lake Charles to see Helen. The town was small but looked fairly nice. Now that I’m out of the shop, it is true that Cliff and I don’t see much of each other. We both are in the tent at different times. I usually see him in the morning and most of the time that will be all. It seems that I’m always going somewhere or doing something. I have been going with a Red Cross girl. She is on leave to Calcutta for a few weeks now so have been getting a little sleep. Usually pick her up after the Red Cross club closes in the evenings. That is at ten o’clock. Makes it a little late. Don’t mind that a bit though. You know me. The days are so lovely here now that nobody likes to go to work. The roads were terrible around here at first but slowly they are getting repaired. Just about the time they all get fixed, we will probably move. With the instruments Capt. Beck brought up from Calcutta they put in some spare parts for instruments. I will be able to fix my own horn now. It really needs some work on it too. I haven’t been working hard but always doing something. Will try to write more often. This has been a poorly written letter. With a little practice, maybe I will be able to type again. With love, Jim