652 8/18/1945 Jim Erwin to Sadie Erwin

Jim Erwin 497th Service Sqdn. 44th Service Group, APO 487, NY Saturday, August 18, 1945

Sadie Erwin Box 44, Enumclaw, Washington

Dear Folks, Things are going on as usual again now. We all had the day off when Truman officially announced the war over. Everybody is still working eight hours a day, six days a week. There is a big meeting going on in Calcutta now. They are making plans on what the men will have to do. We expect that they will cut the working hours down to half or more. We’re servicing two Troup Carrier Groups. They are to quit flying Monday. ATC [Air Traffic Control] is leaving also. The only planes that will be left will be CNAC [China National Aviation Corporation]. They are American planes and pilots working for China. We have nothing to do with their planes so looks like our jobs are nearly finished. The MPs were building themselves a new day room and their CO told them to stop. Said that the 44th was leaving in ten to thirty days and they would have anyone of our eight day rooms. This might be a lot of baloney but we hope he is right. Our Group has really built up the place in the last year. If we move, want to be going home and not just to another field or another theater. We do have a good chance of being back for Christmas though. Payday I’ll send both you and Dad something. Hope both of you have nice birthdays. Think Dad’s was yesterday and yours, Mother, is the sixth of September. Wishing you both a happy birthday now. Our band sounds better all the time. We’re playing for an officer’s party tonight. Have four nights booked already for next week. Three nights here in the Group and Saturday night for the nurse’s dance at the General Hospital. We’re to play at the hospital every other Saturday. I’ll be getting six dollars a night. Will get paid tonight but not quite that much. We have four saxophones now and I’m doing very well, like it as much and perhaps more than my clarinet. If we do return in a few months, I will have plenty of time to get clothes, make some trips, rest up and be ready to start school next September. It’s going to take a little while to settle down. Trying to see all the places I’ve been away from for so long is going to be a job. I want to go to the cabin, Sunrise Park, would like to see Copalis again and aren’t we still planning on a trip back East? I certainly want to. Are you folks still planning on it? Hope you have seen Beth by now and that she has been completely cured. It was nice that Aunt Lilly could be with you. She is wonderful. Hope we can all have a day together after I’m back. Brownie probably made a little money off of fixing the road but no doubt that it really needed it. Doesn’t take long for a road to go to pieces. Was nice of Mrs. Swain to remind me to make a speedy return. Don’t worry, I’ll be back as fast as the Army says go. I haven’t written to any of my sisters for a long time. I really love them all and don’t want them ever to get mad at me. Every day I intend writing to them and just don’t get it done. They have all done so much for me and I haven’t ever done anything for them. What a bum I am. We’re supposed to have a Group chess tournament. The winner would go to Calcutta. There is only one boy in the Group that would give me a bad time and think I could beat him. Now that the war is over don’t know if they still intend having it or not. Don’t think I’d care to go anywhere very far right now. The fellows have really built some nice things. Three fellows made washing machines, many have electric fans and there are five or six lawn mowers in the area. New fellows can’t get over how lovely our day rooms are. Say that they are even nicer than many in the States. Having all these things, we don’t care to just leave them for somebody else to enjoy and us sitting out in some muddy old field without anything. When we move, want it to be all the way. As soon as the hours are decided on and a theater policy, the band wants to get on Special Duty to Special Service. We won’t have any details or formations to attend. Will have all day to practice and can play every night. We aren’t too happy to play late several nights a week and then have to report for work early in the morning. The Colonel is in favor of us getting on Special Duty so don’t see how we can miss. If we do go home, the band can play and have a good time on the boat. Will close again for now and will write again soon. With love, Jim