Letter: 11 Jan 52 Dearest Louise Jay & Jan --
It seems to be getting colder by the minute. My hands are stiff so please excuse the uncoordinated hand writing. I've been busy a[s] heck on another project. We're building a bigger & better "Cottonpickers Club". I've also had to complete an inventory and book work for my personal equipment section. It's a pretty night tonight. Clear as a bell. Probably get a goodnight greeting from bed check charlie tonight. The latest casualty report includes another man from 51-B. Lt. Lagoyda was killed last week. He's the guy who gave us a ride home with our groceries at Chandler once and the[n] we'd invariably run into his wife at the grocery store and she'd ride us home. He was shot up by MiGs and made it back to the field all right but crashed while trying to land. I'm getting tired of all this and will be glad when I'm finished with it and can be back with you and my twirps. I'd hate to see the things that are happening to the poor miserable children her, happen to Jay & Jan. Poor kids are really pathetic. They're underfed, underclothed and homeless. I went into the orphanage and some of the kids were pathetic. We brought some clothes into them. It was cold and there were about a hundred kids in a building without a fire in it. I had heavy boots & two pairs of socks on & my feet were about frozen. The kids were bare footed for the most part and at the most had a pair of enormous G.I. socks for their feet. Some of them are cute little tikes but the most are pathetic, runny nose sick kids. They sang us Christmas Carols at the top of their lungs in English in appreciation of the clothes we brought them. I'm glad this hasn't happened to America. God prevent it from happening. I've just spent 20 minutes listening to "Radio Moscow & Radio Peking". They can certainly sling a load of propaganda in a short period of time. According to them we're a bunch of "Capitalistic Dogs", "War Mongers" "Aggressors", etc., etc. They tell us that we are loosing the war and that our officers do not report the correct number of casualties and that our material losses are tremendous. They tell how nice it is in they're prison camps. Wine, women and song to all who surrender. What a bunch of phonies. I get a kick out of listening to it. It's all ridiculous and it could be seen through by a child. I guess they think we are stupid. Ah well 25 more missions and to hell with the whole mess. I'll have done my part. I'll be through with the whole stinking, rotten mess. Let some one else take my place here. Maybe if enough people get a taste of this mess we can prevent it from happening again. It's going to be good to get back home. I think I'll eat the first handful of Iowa I set foot onto. It's been nearly 5 1/2 months now since I last saw you. It seems more like years. God let me be with you again. I miss you. I've got the early morning weather reconnaissance mission so had better get some sleep. I'll be off at about 7 o'clock. Just before daybreak. That means I'll have to get up about five. It's...[last page missing] Copyright (C) 2000 Norman E. Duquette |
Got my 75th mission today. It was a beautiful but cold day. The
weather has been lousy since I got back from R&R on the 8th. I had a
good rest, plenty to eat, showers and got loaded a couple of times. It's
much warmer in Japan. We had a good time on a sight seeing tour through
the Imperial Residence in Kyoto & silk museum there. I bought some
material for you that I thought was rather pretty.