October 5, 1943. A letter to Dad from Joe Damusis. Dad met Joe while he was at Savanna Ordnance School during the last two weeks in February 1943 and they have kept in touch since. Joe has just returned back to Pendleton Field, Oregon from a furlough during which he traveled back home to Brooklyn. Joe says that as much as he enjoyed the furlough he’s “glad to be back at work….”
While on his way home, Joe ran into another mutual friend by the name of Herb Cushman. Joe saw Herb on the station platform from the train during a stop in Grand Island, Nebraska. Joe writes, “it didn’t take us long to get together.” Herb “is stationed at Grand Island and he is in the Ord Sect of Hq Sqdn. His father is a full Colonel now, and he is working in Washington, D.C. Yep, it was quite a coincidence – something that happens once in a lifetime.”
Undated Photo of a hangar at Grand Island. Image Credit: www.flygrandisland.com
Joe laments to Dad, “Gee, Tony, too bad you couldn’t be in this Group Headquarters with us – I’ve met some of the swellest guys out here….we’re all like brothers – why even our officers are human beings, Yep, Tony, I can actually say I want to go over with this bunch of guys, and with this Group.”
He goes on to get Dad up to speed on the “latest addition to our ‘Daisy Patch’…a live porcupine which is a…mascot of one of our Service Squadrons.” Joe also mentions that they have “dogs galore” including “six healthy puppies”, and even a few kittens. Joe boasts, “Animals know a good organization when they see one!!!”
Joe wraps up his letter, “In English I’ll say God be with you and in Lithuanian I’ll say ‘Su Diev.’”