1944 - Page 33 of 37 - WW II Love Story, Letters from Buddy

1944 October 24 “I should never bitch about anything anymore”

10/24/44 Italy

Hi Toots:

This is a little better. We have an American mill now, and I should make a few less mistakes.

I took inventory a couple of days ago and found I had essentially no winter uniforms, so I went out and bought some. I sure did knock a hole in the pocket book, but it is always a worthwhile venture. I have three new pair of greens and 2 old pair. I also have bought four shirts, unfortunately with the new g.i. low neck, but the tailor is retailoring them to use with a tie. I have two old ones also. I bought a couple of very large pants, and the tailor is making them into a flying messboy jacket for me. Sketch is at right. They are nice for evening, and more comfortable than a blouse.

Snooks, the new boss is nuts. It sure is an improvement. There must be something wrong with the set-up, but I can’t see what it is. I shall at least enjoy myself for a while. I think he is leaving in a month, and that should leave the om in a very nice position.

What a riot. We have a WAC sgt about Nena’s age in the office. She used to be a steno in the steel works, and is taking a most motherly outlook on the colonel and I. (Incidentally, damn good worker and looks like a horse).

You have been duly looked and marveled at by the local staff. Sometimes I wonder how the hell I hooked a gal what can make the boys whistle.

I sure am getting used to the luxuries of city life in a hurry. Don’t worry about me—there’s nothing I lack but you. Last night, I couldn’t sleep because our band was still playing. We have shows four nights per week, dancing the other three, and a big dance every once in a while. The woman’s shortage makes dances a tag affair, but the music is good. We have a bar at which it is possible to buy almost any drink one wants other than whiskey, and we get a bottle of whiskey rationed per month. In addition we get beer at the rate of five cans per week, and it is nice and cold and served in big, long, tall glasses. Food is generally good and beautifully served. Frankly, I wish to hell you were here for we could have a hell of good time with all the free dances etc.

If Gen’l Mac and his lads keep up the good work, maybe they will finish over there before we do here! War is a peculiar business.

I’m glad you liked the little scarf. It was bout the only nice thing I could find. It is real Italian silk, so consider it part of your Xmas present. There are a couple of other things which will stagger in. I’m having Pop buy you something which isn’t very expensive or esthetic, but I think you’ve wanted it for sometime.

I have a whole pot full of stuff I’ve packed up which I shall try to get the censor to approve soon. It includes labels, money, etc. Although it is worthless junk, it will be nice to see the candy wrapper of the first candy I had in four months, etc. I just hope I get home soon enough to remember the stuff and write it down.

That’s about it for now. I shall probably think of a million things to say as soon as I get home from the office and don’t have the mill handy. Keep up the letters. They help a hell of a lot. Actually, I’m in such fortunate circumstances I should never bitch about anything anymore. The enclosure represents a purchase I made on a trip. It is interesting as the stamps represent a tax paid by the vendor to sell the stuff, and a take paid by me to buy same! The really have a system of extracting the dough over here.

All my love, Cy.

Later—Got a new room—good view of mountains, Bath (tub), bowl, wash bowl, & 2 desks plus normal furniture! What a war.

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1944 October 28 “waiting for the weather to clear so I can take-off”

10/26/44: The U.S. defeats the Japanese in the battle of Leyte Gulf, leaving the Japanese navy powerless, clearing the way for the U.S. to prepare for an assault on Japan.

10/28/44 Italy

Hi Honey:

This is just like old times. Here I sit at the ops office waiting for the weather to clear so I can take-off. We came down here yesterday for a little business trip, chiefly to acquaint me with all of the people I shall have to work with in other headquarters.

The boss is a hell of a lot of fun on a trip. The ANC contributed a lot of beer last night, and Davis had a bottle of bourbon. Boilermakers are good in small quantities, but I have long since learned that they are potent as hell. Strangely, I had very little to drink, and feel wonderful this morning as a result. It is comforting to learn that I am getting old enough to say “no” before developing a first rate hang-over.

It certainly does seem natural to be reading tech orders, and deciding which gadget shall be put on what type of airplane. The past six months have not been wasted though, for I have learned how an Air Force operates (and it is a complicated political system if I ever saw one), have learned a lot too about the people in the various headquarters, and have apparently done something to re-establish the Stafford reputation.

I talked to Biv for a few seconds. He was on his way to another place for a few days. He has some cute pictures of Liz and the brat. Liz has put on some weight, and the kid is bigger than hell.

That is about all I can think of for now, and this is another one of those damn screwball makes of machine. It makes more noise than a teletype machine, and it is impossible to type faster than about 30 words per minute, at the best.

I love you, Toots. Your one and only , Cy.

Enclosures are for scrap book—Stuff on back bought for other officers. As you can see, we are well taken care of. C.

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1944 October 29 Unsatisfactory Reports

10/29/44 V-mail, Italy

Hi Toots:

I wonder how many mistakes I’ll make this time. I hate to use a mill with a bastard keyboard for it breaks good typing habits I’ve spent a long time developing.

We must be living right in this section now. The new chief of staff, a general, dropped in unexpectedly a few minutes ago. The was boss was reading my Mark’s ME Handbook, I was analyzing some UR’s*, Biddulph was writing a report, and the WAC was filing a while pile of stuff. Any other time, we would have been sitting around with our feet on the desk shooting the well-known bull.

Do you remember how Baldy and I used to send UR’s back to the squadron engineering officers because of misspelled words and failure to use exactly the form called for in appropriate regulation? Well, I’d give five bucks to see one like that now. I have read about 2,000 of them, and the people who write them now don’t even speak English. The caliber of our engineering officers is way below what it used to be when yours truly was in the racket. Of course, that sounds like a repetition of the age-old “the younger generation is going to hell,” but it is true. I come across ones made out by Willy, Cannon, Devine, and some of the others I trained, and the difference in clarity, logic and wording is striking. One report, though, really was outstanding in its simplicity and engineering accuracy. Instead of the usual line of drizzle, it simply said, “Busted cylinder caused engine to burn. No recommendations.” I am preparing a big poop sheet on how to write unsatisfactory reports so that they will mean something; apparently the kids writing them think an imbecile is getting them, or they wouldn’t try to put over some of the hooey that is in them.

My room is gradually getting fixed up. I bought a potted plant a vase to put same in yesterday, and today I was able to obtain a 150 watt lamp bulb, so that now I should be able to study at night instead of sitting around the club room shooting the bull.

Jackson, my former ops officer, is back in the theater after a trip home. I think it is a god damn shame to take a kid who has been over for better than two years, went through the hell that was Africa (and that ain’t no foolin’), flown 85 missions, and then send him back into combat with all of the bastards back home who haven’t been in it at all. Incidentally, recently published statistics show our XII AF has dropped more tons of bombs than any other, even if we don’t ever get any publicity.

I love you, Marfy, Cy.

*Unsatisfactory Reports. “As with supplies, successful maintenance depended greatly on a two-way flow of information between the field establishments and ASC headquarters. The primary source of information about specific technical difficulties was the Unsatisfactory Report (UR). Flying units submitted UR’s on defective equipment, procedures, and forms to the ASC, which either advised appropriate remedial action or arranged for necessary research on the problem. The huge growth of the AAF and the introduction of myriad items of new equipment produced a tremendous increase in the number of UR’s submitted. From a total of 10,480 in 1941 UR’s increased to 169,521 in 1944 and 164,155 for the first eight months of 1945. Because it became impossible to answer each UR individually, and in order to attain the widest dissemination of information as to possible remedies, the ASC began in February 1944 to issue a semimonthly Unsatisfactory Report Digest which listed specific failures, cited the number of reports received on each failure, and suggested remedial actions.65 Important information came also from technical inspectors who were to be found at all echelons of the AAF down to the base level. Their inspection reports proved to be of great value in correcting deficiencies of a broader nature than those which appeared in the UR’s. Special conferences on maintenance problems at ASC headquarters and in the field contributed additional information of value in the formulation of over-all policy. General reports distributed by ASC served to bring to interested agencies helpful suggestions based upon a common experience with maintenance problems. Source: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/VI/AAF-VI-11.html

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1944 November 4: Our new WAC is a honey

11/2/44: Europe: The liberation of Belgium is complete.

11/3/44: The Japanese launch more than 9,000 hydrogen balloons with incendiaries attached, sending them on westerly winds to North America. Fewer than 300 of the balloons will reach their targets, but one is found and detonated in Oregon, killing a woman .

Japanese balloon bomb, snagged on tree in Kansas

11/4/44 V-Mail, Italy

Hi Snooks:

I haven’t written for a couple of days, as I haven’t felt so well. I picked up a slight case of sore throat during the last week, and it is just now going away. As usual, no mail today. It will all get here in one big spurt. It always does.

Arthur Dixon and Bill Mallory just got back from leave in the States. I haven’t had a chance to talk to either of them yet, but they assure me that it hasn’t changed a hell of a lot during the war. One of these years maybe I’ll get to check up on it.

I haven’t been able to find my pet Italian grammar for a couple of weeks. I found it this morning. I loaned my raincoat to a guy a couple of nights ago, and when he returned it, it looked as if it had been the one Sir Walter Raleigh put down for Queen Liz to walk on. I tossed it in the tub last night to let it soak. This morning, I found my grammar in the side pocket, swelled up like a dog—dead for three days. It is now drying out, and I hope to be able to use it again someday. I’ve got so many books over here it will take ten years to study them all.

British Royalty, Colour illustration, A chivalrous Sir Walter Raleigh places his cloak over a puddle so that Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain can keep her feet dry, Circa 1600 (Photo by Bob Thomas/Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Our new WAC is a honey. She ain’t purty, but she works like hell, doesn’t have much to say, and takes shorthand. The latter is something I haven’t been privileged to use since I was at RCA. It sure is nice to be able to say, “Take a letter.” I think we will keep this one.

The Italians in this part of the world consider themselves very superior to the southern Italians, and they are in many respects. But one thing I don’t care to see is a man who has nothing, is given something, and then turns around and acts superior to the donor. I’m afraid there will be much less love lost in this part of Italy than down south where they may be poorer,but are much more hospitable.

Lunch hour is over and I have some letters to get out.

I love you, lug. Cy

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1944 November 7: My own boss

11/7/44: FDR is elected to 4^th term as President/Harry Truman is VP

11/7/44: Italy 5 P.M.

Hi Toots:

It is my day off, so naturally I am at the office. It is good to be busy again, and I sure am. But I am, as usual, my own boss.

I have gotten some dribbles of mail and will scan through and see if there are any questions I should answer.

Ouiji board is nuts—at rate I’m getting home, we’d better not have a boy born in 1945!!!

I spent an hour today looking for a Christmas present for Mother. I’ll keep looking and find something.

So you’ve taken up radio repair? Maybe I should let you work that end of the business.

Kitchen table sounds good. Would like to be mixing up salad on same now, although I’d have trouble keeping my hands off of the cook.

It’s funny as hell how many good pilots flew a hell of a lot, went home, and are back for more—and how many slightly yellow ones manage to stay home for years and years.

By all means get to see Marge and Louis. They are a couple of my favorite cousins.

I am returning the clipping you sent me, as you requested. I obviously can not comment on same.

Tell the animal it better get over being loving before I come home.

Love & kisses, Toots, Cy

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