July 1 and 4, 1944, two letters from Dad to the folks back home. Dad is still in Topeka with the 270th AAF Base Unit. As it is the first of the month and a Saturday, “The place is empty since payday was yesterday.” Being that it is a weekend he has a lot of time to himself to catch up on correspondence. He even writes some of the letter on the 2nd commenting that “…I’m in the office by myself writing letters with the fan cooling me off.”
Dad writes that he took the previous day of and went golfing, scoring a 45 on the front nine and a 50 on the back nine.
He comments that he is glad to hear that his cousin Vincent was able to get a furlough and be home for his brother’s wedding. “It’s about time that those fellows started getting good breaks. Besides, I don’t think that you could very well keep Vincent away from a good Polish wedding. …By now Eddie Morawski, no doubt, is a married man and probably will be tied down to his house after the war.”
In reply to Anna’s guess that Dad could end up in India, he writes, “You’re about right about the Sacred Cows, but it could be anyplace around the Far East that I possible could wind up at. However, I haven’t heard anything more on anything.”
As far as the war news which Dad addresses occasionally, he writes, “The news sounds very good. My belief is Germany will surrender to the Allies sooner than let the Russians capture Berlin.”
He writes about an upcoming squadron party “…on the roof garden of the Kansan Hotel here in Topeka.” Not being much of a beer drinker, he comments, “…I probably will spend the evening drinking soft drinks and eating if they have anything to eat.” In his letter of the fourth he writes about the party, “I hardly drank anything. Six of us fellows ran across 6 WACS we know and went out and ate and rode back to the base with them. I was with the WACS first Sgt. whom I met a long time ago during our choir rehearsals.” To put his mother’s mind at ease he writes, “You can tell mama I am neither married nor engaged.”
Apparently other guys in his barracks are a bit less circumspect in their leisure time activities, as Dad details. “The jerk who sleeps above me…was in Topeka fooling around with the girls and tore the part of his foreskin where it…connects to the male organ. He was at the hospital having it treated and it sure made me laugh inside of me.” He also writes about another guy who “…used to go around with Stueve and me and was able to stay out of trouble as long as he stuck with us. Recently he went to town by himself, and has wound up in the hospital for about 3 days being treated for V.D.”
A WWII Army Air Corps poster to remind soldiers about the dangers of Venereal Disease.
He closes, “Seems as if that’s all from here on the 4th of July 1944.”