Det. 10th Weather Squadron
47th Air Depot
A.P.O. 690
c/o Postmaster N.Y. NY
February 2, 1945

Dear Friends at Bryant,

Christmas Greetings and brief history of last year has finally caught up with my change in address. Ordinarily I can get a letter in fifteen to twenty days now that the folks have my correct number.

I appreciate your sincere wishes, but would rather have you send any of the candy to some one else. We are very well supplied here. the boys get their case of beer, three cartons of smokes this month, and we can get our ration of candy bars, cookies, fruit juice, soap and razor blades without much trouble. Only wish I could say this about the fellows who are on the other side of the hump.

Somehow the breaks seem to be with me once again. We have a beautiful office for our work and fine living quarters. Ah! Just wait till I tell you of our mess hall. The chief thing is the quality of both the work the cooks do with the food they have to serve and the K.P. service.

I won't go into detail about this as I'm afraid some of you might wonder how well off we are here. As long as it stays as good as it is there is not any excuse for the usual griping.

As labor is plentiful here in India, Uncle Sam is having much of the unskilled labor done by the "wogs." Some of them can understand quite a bit of simple English. They get the better jobs like serving coffee to our tables. On Sundays our tables (seating six each) are covered with clean table linen. They stay on a couple of days. They'd last longer if the coffee cups didn't leak where the handles are fastened on. But we don't let that bother us as it's still a lot better than using our own mess kits.

Our recreation facilities are marvelous. An outdoor stage & movie screen. Then there's the Red Cross canteen and recreation hall. Even have plenty of books to read for a while. Have record player and radio, ping-pong tables.

Unless I'm moved about as most of us are from time to time all I have [to] worry about is hot weather when it gets here and one of man's worst enemies--the mosquito (not the Rhode Island variety).

That's quite a bit of news in the short broadcast, yet I guess there is a lot you just didn't have or you just couldn't get enough paper to print any more. I know that Emery Cormier has made quite a record in Europe and that Dave Larson has been home and probably is married by this time as I saw that he was engaged.

Do you girls have room service in the dorms? Is the floor swept every morning, are your shoes shined daily, are your beds made for you,and do you have a girl to do your laundry[?] We don't have the girl, but this is the service I can get and do have from our bearer for a little over a rupee a week (thirty cents to you who haven't time to see the exchange tables). Gee but it will be tough to return to "Shangri La" and have to do all this except laundry for ourselves, but I'll bet I can pack things in record time when those orders arrive.

Well that's all for now.
Regards to all
Arthur F. Bowler '42
[Transcription ends]

A.P.O. 694
c/o Postmaster N.Y. N.Y.
July 4, 1943

Greetings to Bryant Faculty + Students,

A few days ago I received a V-Mail letter from the Bryant Service Club with news about some of the fellows I knew well. Who will forget B. J. Scuda of the Green Mountain State. I was wondering what had happened to him as I head before that he was missing. It was a fine surprise to learn that he floated around in one of those rafts, (similar to those that are made in my home town) and was picked up from an island two weeks later. Every flier who gets caught in some accident and manages to save himself and still has his nerve to fly again keeps the roster of fliers from declining.

Some of the news wasn’t so pleasant but even in normal times we must take the chaff with the wheat and at present there seems to be more chaff.

Anthony F. Bowler 1942.

P.S. Hit those exams, students.

A. F. Bowler, Jr.

[Transcription ends]

Det. 24th Weather Squadron
Mountain Home, Idaho
April 25, 1943

Dear Friends at Bryant,

Due to my moving about from one station to another your Easter present was a bit late for Easter, but it was a birthday gift as well as it arrived on my twenty-third birthday. May I express my thanks to the Bryant Service Club for making it possible for us to receive such gifts and I would like the person who has the knack for knitting [to] know that her handiwork is appreciated.

I’d like to tell you of our work here at Mountain Home and the activity on the base, but you know how things are. We are at a base that is at least thirty miles from the nearest mountains hence the mane Mountain Home, Although we are out on the desert in the wild and wooly West, we do have fine recreational facilities.

As at most bases there are Post Exchanges, a thereafter or two, a gymnasium for P.T., and a fine Service Club for Enlisted Men. We have a fine dance band which is made up of part of the regular military band, but it is the best G.I. dance band I’ve heard in months. As we are about fifty miles from Boise, there are times when we can go there and twice a month two buses fill of the fair sea come out to the desert for dances at the Service Club.

How are things going this year at Bryant? Are there many more changes in the teaching staff? I suppose the College is about “ninety-nine and forty-four hundreds percent” girls now with all the man power either digging for bombs, flying planes, or plotting weather charts. It looks as though I’ll be moving out of U.S. again as more and more women are getting into my line.

It hardly seems that over two years have gone by since I left Bryant, but in two months I’ll have been wearing brown for two years. Ratings have been rather slow in my group in face after eighteen months one gets awful tired of writing the same rank beside his name. I trust you’ll pardon this bit of gripping, but you know the old saying “A fellow can’t be a good soldier if he hasn’t something to squawk about”.

Perhaps I’ll be a soldier yet. After twenty one months of service I manage to fire on the range and I don’t mean fire a range as I did several times when cooking last year. I won’t tell you my score – it’s not polite to brag – they too I don’t I don’t want you to think I am lazy for if I remember right I had very little patching to do on the targets I aimed at. From the remarks of the other weather buds it looks as though I’d better stick to slinging a psychrometer and not volunteer for the infantry. A. F .B.

Thanks again for the Easter present and all the other packages.

Sincerely
Anthony F. Bowler

Have you heard from many of the boys of the classes of August 1941 and 1942. I know about Alfred Rockwood and about where he is. Dave Larson is in the Seabees somewhere. If you are having any bulletins on any of the fellows I certainly would like to know what is going on.

Well in about two minutes I can take the ______ gas mask off and go to chow. You see about every Tuesday they spray gas around and see how many fellows are caught without their masks. Of course, to my way of thinking, I don’t believe in regular routine gas drills any more than routine fire drills in a school. For testing purposes the surprise method seems to be practical. Of course, if a fellow is caught without his mask at the time he may get some for of duty to that he’ll remember when Tuesday comes but he certainly won’t forget how – the tear gas makes him cry.

[Transcription ends]

Bryant Service Club
Bryant College
Providence, Rhode Island

Dear Friends,

I have recently received the carton of candy which you have sent me. I certainly am pleased that whoever is responsible for sending the pleasant surprise boxes remembers that I don’t use smokes. Where we are the boys can buy all the smokes they want at a bargain, but it is not so easy to find candy bars like those we used to get in the States. Most all the boys like the peanuts as the sugar coating is not too hard and does not chip teeth like some hard coatings would.

To me the package was like receiving a birthday gift as my birthday is on the twenty-second of April. I trust that in the future some time, perhaps in the fall I will be able to thank the Club in person, but only time will tell.

I’m using an old typewriter and it won’t spell for me as well as those machines at Bryant used to. I’ve put on about twenty pounds since last February and am feeling swell. Wish all the boys could have the kind of service they assigned me to, but you know once in a while a soldier gets a few breaks. Guess I better sign off now.

Best of luck to all.
Arthur F. Bowler, Jr.
[Transcription ends]

4th Weather Squadron
Harding Field, La
December 23, 1942

To Members of Bryant Service Club,

Thanks for the two boxes of candy, both of which arrived in fine condition. It pleased me very much that some one remembered that I don’t use smokes. The candy doesn’t keep well here. It’s a good thing the boys all like candy or the roaches would get it before I could eat much of it.

I had a pleasant furlough a few weeks back and saw most of the teachers and can see what has happened since last Christmas.

I guess all of us in the service appreciate being remembered this year at the Holiday Season when so many of us are so far from home. We’re all hoping that we will be remembered again next Christmas, but not sent to military addresses.

Wishing you all a Victorious New Year and hope you keep up your good work.

Yours truly
Cpl. A. F. Bowler, Jr.