Thursday,
April 18, 2016
Dear Lyd[1],
Yesterday
was a profitable day the second package from you arrived and two from Walter
& Marion[2].
Those shredded wheat biscuits are wonderful – try to include in any future
boxes you send. Ritz & other crackers usually arrive as crumbs suitable for
breading veal cutlets, but those shredded wheat things stayed nice & whole.
You can consider this as a request for a package. On one of these nice warm
afternoons, with one of my precious (3 a week) bottles of beer, those rolled
anchovies will be a wonderful compliment. Canned beer would be a good thing to
send if you can find the stuff.
In
the last two weeks I got quite a few missions tucked away & I’m ahead of
anybody else on my crew. The number’s 21 now[3]!
Maybe I’ll be home for my birthday.
Did
I tell you I saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa? Seeing it from a couple of miles
away in the air is not quite like a visit to it of course. Only because I knew
it was near a large square building (the Baptistery) and a large round one (theBasilica) could I pick it out and they were in a large enclosed field. The
closest I’ve flown to Rome was far enough away that I wasn’t sure that I’d
spotted the Vatican or not, but the Victor Emmanuel monument sticks up like a
sore thumb.
The
nice thing about your letters is you ask specific questions so I can at least
fill up a sheet or so just answering when I runout of things of my own to say.
The catch is I seldom have a letter handy when I’m, writing one. I fly most of
my missions with my regular crew. Theoretically we fly once every four missions
but navigators in between are always flying with someone lese as an odd-ball so
our missions add up to 35[4]
sooner.
We
have a “post office” but it’s only open at mail call (about 4p.m.) mail is sorted
alphabetically so you just go & pick yours up (or talk somebody else into
going down & getting it for you) & you can buy stamps then too.
I
wrote Mae Gravelie a thank-you when your letter came[5]. I
didn’t know whether late’s better than never, but I did lose her address in my
many changes of bases the last month in the states[6].
Love Bob
[1]
Three letters were in one envelope that was postmarked before the date of the
letter. It is probable that the letter was sent in its own envelope.
[2]
These are the packages mention in letters two months ago. Brother and sister-in-law..
[3]
Number of missions flown before being rotated out of combat.
[4]
The Eighth Air Force based in England started with a 25 mission count, but crew
losses force them to raise the number. Different units did have different
counts.
[5]
Robert’s need to write a thank you note is mentioned in another letter.
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