October 6 and 10, 1944. Dad writes two letters home from Topeka Army Air Base, just having “got into Topeka 7:45” on the night of the 5th after a two week furlough. He writes that the furlough was “the best one of the three furloughs I had.” He fondly recalls “the wonderful time I had up there and…ma’s room service when I ate in bed. I’ll have to get my 1st Sergeant to bring my breakfast while I’m in bed…”
His train trip back from Albany to Topeka took “about 27 hours”. Dad writes that more soldiers are being sent overseas and “most of the fellows are getting their furloughs and the place appears empty most of the time.”
On the tenth he catches up on some of Anna’s news, writing, “I hope that by now everything is finished upstairs and that you have everything fixed up so you can settle down and enjoy a good rest after doing all the work that moving around no doubt must have required.” He tells Anna that he wishes “you won’t have any trouble with the refrigerator.” He also asks that she “Tell daddy that I’m glad that his accident wasn’t too serious.”
The highlight of his letter of the tenth is a long paragraph detailing a conversation that he and another soldier had with S/Sgt. Sabold who was at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked. At the time of the attack, Sabold was a private and a B-17 gunner. Below is the section of the letter as typed by Dad. You can click on the image below to go to a full sized image.
Dad wraps up the letter with “Best of luck mama and give my regards to Eddie and my little good godchild… God bless you.”