641 4/11/1945 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Wednesday, April 11, 1945

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Received Dad’s nice letter today. You don’t have to apologize for not sending more than a letter a week. The rate you have been getting letters from me, think you would quit altogether. I didn’t win any medals or trophies in Calcutta but had a nice time and did better than I expected. Got up to the fifth round before being eliminated. I had my clarinet repaired and it works fine. Could have sold it for two hundred dollars or better but didn’t want to part with it. We have had some terrible weather. High winds and awful rain. Got a real thrill reading the clippings about Gail Bishop. Hope I’ll get to see him after the war. Finally broke down and wrote a letter to Shirlee. It was just a few days short of six months. She is a swell girl and really should write. Had a date this evening but decided to write a few letters and go to bed early. The group had its anniversary the first of the month. Everybody had a wonderful time. Had a carnival going all day, a big barbeque for dinner, built a boxing ring and had fights in the evening and then had a movie at the theatre after all else was over. The P.X. and quartermaster furnished ice cream, coca cola and beer. We get ice cream in the mess halls about once a week. The Red Cross is doing okay. Sunday morning they served bacon, eggs, toast and coffee. Many evenings they have salads, ice tea and sandwiches. The manager of the canteen is a discharged English soldier. He has been playing chess all his life. Today I beat him. Felt pretty proud of myself. How are you two coming along with the game? Mother, the picture of you and Merion is very nice. Thanks a lot. I’m glad to have it. Saw in the paper that Seattle won a baseball game. Hope they do better than the pro football team. We have all cargo ships on this field. We had some boys on detached service that were working on the big bombers that were going to Japan. Would have liked to have been with them. Sorry to learn about Calvin Siequist. Hope he is at least a prisoner of war and will return safely. Don’t think the Germans will be doing much dirty work very long. Imagine Shirlee has joined the service by now. She will see what it looks like from the inside. It won’t just be going to dances, etc. It should do her some good. She might even come to India. The pictures of Eugene Qualls and Jim Shannon came too. Thanks for sending them. We have just a year left now. By the time we are due to leave, the war should be over or mighty close to it. At least, we shouldn’t have to come back overseas. Your mail and packages have been coming through fine and think everything is arriving okay. I enjoyed receiving Bernice’s letter. I’ll answer it when I write to Harold and Stella. Bet they think I’m terrible for not writing. The packages from Our Boys Service Club have all arrived. Think it is very nice of them to send the hometown boys the things. Wrote them a letter once but can’t ever remember mailing it. Christmas packages drift in every now and then. I haven’t received any though. They still might show up some day. We just received an okay to build a rest camp out at the river. The fellows can get three day passes and get out and just lay around. They will be able to swim, hike, hunt, go fishing or anything they please. We’re going to get another projector and have movies. In the evenings we will build a big bonfire on the beach and have a swell time. The men all like the idea and I think it will work out fine. We’re not going to handle very many men at first until things are all straightened out. After that, we should be able to take quite a few. Captain Beck left just after I returned from Calcutta. He is going to a swell base and it should be a good deal. He took down my name, address and serial number. He thinks that he might be able to get me transferred with him. That would be nice and would like it. It’s ten thirty and is raining hard again. Will put my rain coat on and go to bed. With love, Jim