Letter to Wilfred R. Franson
U.S. Army Air Force
Charleston Army Air Field, South Carolina
30 March 1944

1505 S. Broadway
Urbana, Ill.
30 March 1944

Dear Bill —

On Baby Snooks' [radio] program tonight they said that every year Americans drink enough coffee to float the Normandy [SS Normandie]. At one time I wouldn't have believed it, but that was before I met you.

Have you seen this week's Saturday Evening Post? There's an article about the future of the Great Northwest, including Boeing.

Today I got my wristwatch. He couldn't fix it, but I didn't think he would be able to.

The main event of the day was getting two letters from my husband. He writes wonderful letters. I don't see how you could get 3 from me in one day. I write every day, and mail them at the same time, so that you'll be sure to get one every day. I leave them in the mailbox downstairs every morning. Maybe the mailman doesn't mail them at the same time. I could keep the letters till the afternoon, and go to the post office on the way home.

Bill, what about the job? From what you say, CNT is out. Is there a college in Charleston? Yes, there's one mentioned in that little book you sent.

What do you think about the C.A.A. [Civil Aeronautics Administration]? The inspector there might know about something in my line. (If there is an inspector.) I'd like to have some prospects before I quit here.

I haven't seen the doctor again, but I shall.

It's after 9:30, and by the time I have a bath, it will be late.

Bill, I hope we can be together soon. I miss you more all the time.

          Your ever-loving wife,
          Vera
  

I'm enclosing 2 clippings.

I love you, dear.

  
Notes by RWF:

Wilfred R. Franson and Vera Howe Franson met at the beginning of 1944 in an airplane hangar at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois; and married 25 February 1944 at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Among other common interests, both had been hobbyist small-plane pilots before World War II, and each had been a member of a small club which owned a plane: Bill in Oregon, and Vera in Wisconsin.

At the time of this letter, Bill is a U.S. Army Air Force instructor in celestial navigation for pilots, recently reassigned to Charleston, South Carolina. Vera is a civilian instructor in celestial navigation for Army pilots in the ground school at Chanute Field.

Bill has only a rented room in Charleston, versus the current apartment Vera still has in Urbana. Since she doesn't want to commit them to an apartment in Charleston until she can secure a job there, this letter shows Vera's ongoing concern with securing employment for herself in Charleston before she moves.

Bill lived in Oregon and Washington during 1938-1942, and had been working in Seattle on Boeing's B-17 bomber program when he gave up a draft-immune job and enlisted in the Army Air Corps.

  
© 2014 Robert Wilfred Franson