Monday, August 2, 1943. Stanley is settling into things at Cut Bank and has time to compose a six page letter to Dad. He is writing in the dayroom so the letter is hand written as opposed to the usual typewritten letters that he normally sends. Before getting into the content of the letter, it is worth noting that he is writing on base letterhead. The letterhead that he is using is kid of unique, not only does it depict a bomber, but there are also images of what appear to be signal towers or radio towers on it.
Cut Bank letterhead from Stanley’s letter to Dad dated August 2, 1943.
He writes that the weather gets so hot during the day “your feet actually burn under you”, but at night is it so cold that “it forces you to sleep under 2 blankets… and when you get up it is sort of cold.” He does say that the scenery makes up for it. “In the evening when the sun hides behind the mountains the haze comes over the ground and looks misty, then the mountains look blue grey and clouds above look pink and boy it sure looks nice. It sure is funny to see snow on the mountains during the month of July and August.”
As far as his work, he says that “I sure got what I wanted – a chance to make the payrolls out.” It seems that when he was at Albany Business College he had some training in the area and now he has “more than I wanted,” but he writes, “I really enjoy making them.” He does mention that he is training other men in the office to make the payrolls, most notably a PFC clerk that works for him.
He relays the news that “an administrative inspector came around and inspected all our records and told us our squadron was the best of all the 4 squadrons… I sure was gad to hear that all our hard works wasn’t for nothing.” One other thing he notes is that all but four men in his squadron have taken out the $10,000 life insurance policy, “almost 100%”
In his previous letter he mentioned that they have a tamed badger on the base. In this letter he mentions that they also have a Golden Eagle as a mascot. “It is just a baby about 2 months old and it has a wing spread of a total of three feet or more. …Someone in town gave it to some sergeant and now we have it. It has a tint of yellow or gold in it together with brown.” Stanly notes that it likes to perch on the telephone. “We take it off and before we know it, it is on the telephone again.”
As he wraps up the letter he extends his hope that dad gets his furlough soon and reminds him of a regulation that provides that even if a soldier is home on furlough he is allowed to mail letters for free as long it is indicated that they are military. He closes with a comment that “We may stay here till the end or middle of September.”