640 3/17/1945 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Saturday, March 17, 1945

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, It’s been such a long time since I’ve written any letters don’t know whether or not I can. Your mail has been coming through very nicely. The funny papers are still coming regular. The Courier Herald takes sometimes five months. Your package with candy, gum, camera and film arrived. Cliff and I took some pictures last week. Will send you the negatives when we get them printed. I don’t remember what questions of yours I’ve answered or what I have told you so will write everything that comes to my mind and hope that it isn’t duplicate. Capt. Beck is getting a bad deal here and is transferring out. Everybody thinks he is swell except a few of the higher-ups. The major at Calcutta who is in charge of all of Special Service in this theatre likes Capt. Beck and said he would get him a good spot regardless of what type of report was turned in on him. The Capt. is certainly getting a bum deal from this group. I believe I asked for the summer uniforms. Would also like to have a hair brush, a couple of those little wire jobs that hold your shirt collar down, some socks and more drawers. Think you can do that? Please send more Saturday Evening Posts also. Have enjoyed reading those that you have already sent. I’ll breeze through your letters now and see what there is to answer. Warren Jensen will probably be in the Pacific somewhere. Might even get over this way. No I don’t see Cliff very much anymore. it seems that every evening something is on. Three times a week we have basketball games in the evenings, have bookkeeping class three times a week. Have to go off base twice a week two nights a week to pick up the Hindustani teachers. I have a ping pong team that’s around this neck of the woods and am on the Red Cross cribbage and bridge teams. They talked me into playing in the band so that takes up more time. You can see these are a few things why I don’t see much of Cliff or write to anybody. I’m going with a different girl now after laying off the women for the past month or so. Did I tell you that Phillip Duplenty is on the base and had a talk with him? I knew of him but don’t ever remember seeing him around town. He is an M.P. I have been playing chess practically every day and love it. Helen sent you folks a set for Christmas I believe. Have you learned how yet? Our weather is really getting hot in the daytime. The evenings are still cool so is nice sleeping. The mosquitoes are slowly coming to life again so looks like we will have a long buggy season. Had my teeth cleaned two days ago. The dentist was surprised to see that I didn’t have any false teeth and that they were all there. He said very few people these days still have all of their teeth. A few weeks ago I was chasing a boy through the area and hit a cable. The cable split my lips in four places and chipped a lot of enamel off of my teeth. Everything is okay now. My teeth are okay and there aren’t any scars on my lips. Sure looked sad for a few days though. I sent you a couple of presents for Mother’s Day. It goes through the Army Post Exchange. Will send you something, Dad, for Father’s Day. This group was formed April first in forty three. Last year in Florida we all celebrated the anniversary and we’ll be doing the same this year. We’re having a carnival, games and a big barbeque. Should be a lot of fun. Hope the Bensons like their new place. The other house was cute but it is true that it is much too small. Are they buying this other house or will be renting it? It is a little farther from you but a good block closer for the girls to school. The pictures of Bernice and Sandra are lovely. Little Sandy is going to be a darling. Helen sent me some pictures of their family too. All the girls have nice healthy, good looking children and are all grateful I’m sure. We have some men on the field that are in a weather forecasting squadron. Could be possible that Calvin Sugrest is in it. I’ll ask one of the boys when I see one. Think it’s too bad that Johnny Buck was taken into the Army. Think that was a bad mistake. He was doing much more for the war than he’ll be able to do as a Private in the infantry. Sorry to hear that Andy Sund is still in the hospital. Malaria isn’t a pleasant thing to fool around with. The boys here don’t realize what effect it can have on a person and so consequently don’t heed the necessary precautions. Sorry I didn’t mention getting the silver money. I make all the fellows homesick by going around flipping one of the coins in the air. They all say, “boy, that’s real money.” There is an All-American Tennis Tournament in Calcutta. All the groups and outfits here in India were asked to have playoffs and send some men down. I hadn’t had much practice so hadn’t intended getting one. A Sgt. came around and bragged to everybody how he was the best. I decided to beat him. I did in the finals. I will get a cup. A colored boy came in second after this Sgt. didn’t show up to play him. We are leaving by plane tomorrow afternoon. We will be down there for a week. Capt. Beck and a Lt. are going too. They are really good and should go a long way. I have tried to fix my clarinet but can’t do it. Think I’ve done more harm than good. I’m taking it with me to Calcutta and see if it can’t be completely over-hauled. It will probably cost about forty to fifty dollars. The reason I haven’t sent any money home is that I still owe from my furlough. I spent close to, in fact it was over, three hundred dollars. There were four of us and I spent the least of any. Maybe I’ll get caught up some day. Think it will be a good idea for me to get married if I ever get a good job. It will take a woman to keep my money. Sorry to have not written sooner and hope to write again soon. Think about home all the time and hope this war will end soon. With love, Jim