Keywords

WWII;Arthur F. Bowler, Jr.;David O. Larson

Rights Management

All rights retained by Bryant University

Transcription

[Transcription begins]
UNITED STATES ARMY
AIR FORCES

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]

Download
COinS