Easter
dinner. Made three gallons of ice cream at Weezie's tent. Ate so much,
couldn't eat more. Sarkar likes Mom's and Grandma's photo better than
my sister Kate's or cousin Gret's.4 Apr 45 - Got 100 watt bulb. Berky, Manwell (another buddy) and I went to Dacca in morning, when it doesn't smell so bad, to do shopping. 7 Apr 45 - Want home folks to get Glenn Miller's record, Adios. 8 Apr 45 - Took indoor night picture. 9 Apr 45 - Asked for flower seeds, some sheets. Ants finally find our cache bag so must move bag every day. New songs arrive there a month or two late. 11 Apr 45 - Went boating in a one-man life raft this morning. Boyd inflated his and we launched it in a mud pool across the rice paddy. We do almost anything over here to liven our lives a little. 12 Apr 45 - Big shower blew over some tents. Finally ditched our tent. Note beautiful cloud patterns at sunset. Issued high-top combat boots for walking out of the Hump in case of a bailout. Infection in right ear being fixed by flight surgeon. However, I do know that our buddies are sixty-four miles from Berlin tonight and I'm praying that it will soon end with a minimum of life lost. 13 Apr 45 - Roosevelt dies. Most fellows over here don't like the idea of President Truman. (?) Think of calling our tent Don't Fence Me Inn. 13 Apr 45 -[a 2nd. letter of the day?] Ear gettin' better. Tent not leaking yet. 14 Apr 45 - Retreat ceremony for FDR's eulogy. Lost 5 pounds due to hot weather, loss of appetite, down to 169. I have to laugh at this bearer of ours. He gets a big kick out of putting pressure on my wrist with his thumb and then looking at the white spot which forms when he takes it away. He can't see it on his truly brown skin, so it is novel to him. Just had to go out and bat down our trusty tent. She's held pretty well through about three good storms. They have heavy thunderstorms ( the kind you get there about every five years) every day over here. Boy, oh boy, it looks like it's going to cave in tonight for sure. What a wind! Well, I'd better shut this up and put it away before it gets too wet for you to read. 15 Apr 45 - Glad family made it to camp. Boy, I'd give a lot to be up there fishing and doing a lot of rowing. I used to have more fun just pulling those oars, no kiddin'. This night writing is sure a strain on the nerves. You light a couple candles and the whole bug population takes it as an invitation. 17 Apr 45 - Bearer found a bunch of Pittsburgh Post-Gazettes in a trash barrel. I looked through them, enjoying especially Cy Hungerford's cartoons. 18 Apr 45 - No. 19- � to Kunming-8:45-Pilot Capt. Westbrook 19 Apr 45 - Had three hours of sleep in the past thirty-six, so you know I'm not in the writin' mood. 20/21 Apr 45 - No. 20- � to Kunming-10:10-Pilot Weisbruch, Copilot Koones---R.O.N. Kunming, then R.O.N. Myitkyina, Burma---swam in Irriwaddy River--Major Williams took original plane back to Kurmitola on 3 engines while we took another C-54 back 20 Apr 45 - [Letter begun in China] Dear Folks, That was a very brief note I wrote last night. I was too tired to write much but since then I've had nine hours of sleep and a flight over here. Just finished eatin' the usual--scrambled ekesess. Everyone works in China. Just saw three little girls about 8 or 9 years old pushing a gas drum over the taxi ramp. Old women that look to be about sixty or more, dig dirt with picks and shovels. For carrying loads, the Chinese use two-wheel carts with a small pony for motive power. Once in a while a pony will get scared and run like the dickens and then the poor Chinese driver has to chase after and catch him. It sure is a funny sight. The weather over here is something like your late September. The sun shines down while a cool breeze makes it pleasant. Last night, back :"home", I saw the movie, The Animal Kingdom, which was OK. Before that we saw Ministry of Fear. For the first couple months overseas, about all you see are shows that you've seen before in the states, but after a while all of them are new. 21 Apr 45 (same letter) Well, we stayed overnight. Last night I saw I Can't Help Singing with Deanna Durbin. It was pretty good for its kind. Nice technicolor. We just had our eggs for breakfast and are out in the plane gettin' ready to take off. I have to keep a radio log, so I'll be busy till after we get in the blue. My main job in flight is calling in our position every so often and getting weather reports for the pilot. Radio is very tricky on the Hump. You might be a thousand miles from a station and pick him up well, and another station thirty miles away you can't hear at all. Airborne.---Well, we're upstairs now and I can look down and see the "good earth" of China. I'll have to check in soon so I'll get this transmitter tuned up. Burma.---Just landed in Burma. This is a country where you can really do some hunting and fishing. Lots of jungle. Sunday 22 Apr 45 - [same letter] We stayed here overnight also. Got about ten hours of sleep. After breakfast we went down to the Irrawaddy River and took a bath and swim. Boy, the water was really cold but very invigoratin'. First time I've been swimming since out at Reno last August. After the dip, we had lunch. Canned chicken with noodles, peas, fruit cocktail, sour cabbage and pineapple juice. Really good. We're loafing around the plane now waiting to take off. I'll finish this off back at the tent. Sure hope there are a few letters waitin' for me. I wouldn't be afraid to bet there are. We have a white and black dog on board now. A buddy of the engineer gave it to him as they were being shot here. We'll take her back to India with us. Nice friendly dog, she is. In flight. The dog is taking her first plane ride in her stride. 23 Apr 45 [same letter] - Now I've had my sleep so I'll finish this off. The big news is this: I got four letters and ---three boxes. The boat really didn't sink after all. Two from home and one from Peg (sister-in-law). Everything is strictly all right and will provide many an evening snack. Thanks very much. I'll get to answering Ray Kysel (friend) and Gret now, Say, please thank Mr. Wollerton very much for the cashews. They are very good. I know! Appreciatingly yours, Bob 23/24 Apr 45 - No. 21- � to Luliang-9:25-Pilot Alfred L. Lang 25 Apr 45 - No. 22- � to Luliang-9:45-Pilot Weisbruch, Copilot D.C. Boyd 26 Apr 45 - I saw Chinese women with bundled feet yesterday. Their feet weren't much bigger than their ankles.They walked like peg legs or on stilts, very stiff. 27/28 Apr 45 - No. 23- � to Chengkung-10:15-Pilot Oppenheimer, Copilot John Savage, Engineer Hymie Levi  29 Apr 45 - No. 24- ‡ to camp near Chittagong on shore of Bay of Bengal-Call sign GG-4:55-Pilot Wilkeson-Met with village leaders who discussed war situation-saw small jungle chicks. 30 Apr 45 - I didn't get to church yesterday because I went on a little trip. It wasn't over the Hump. I was at a nice beach on the Bay of Bengal! (George George Jungle Indoctrination Camp) but didn't have time to go swimming. I did have some watermelon from the boss of the native village. After there, we went to another place (DumDum airfield near Calcutta) and had ice cream for supper and then came back here. Little jungle bird died on the trip. Today I made myself a pair of shower shoes from an aircraft inner tube I picked up in Burma. After you are overseas a while, you acquire a "scavenger eye." 30 Apr 45 - No. 25- � to Chengkung-9:05-Pilot (Vance D.?) Pinkerton-Copilot Jones |
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