May, 1942: Jack arrives in Seattle & Bo's birthday

(If you missed the introduction to this blog, you can find it here)

We begin on Jack's 19th birthday, when he mailed this postcard from Seattle to his older sister Florence, nicknamed Bo. He had just arrived to work as a welder to repair the ships damaged from the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Miss Florence Eutsler
Hulett Hall
York Nebr. 

Postmark: May 14, 1942

 

It reads: 

Dear Bo

I got your and Mag. cards today & thanks a lot. May be if I get a check I can go you one better for your Birthday. Say when are you going home & now may be I can help out a little if you let me know. Say kid if there is any thing you want, after about 2 weeks or till my first check; let me know & I'll see what I can do. It looks like I'll be making between $180 to 280 a month just depending on my welding. & will be able to send ma some money. It has been rather cold here & damp but may be I'll live. I hope you really show those kids at college what some of us Eutslers are made of. Well so much for that. What are you planning on doing next year & etc. Write me and let me know may be we can get together or something & let you go on to school. Well I have been getting a lot of sleep latley about 4 to 6 hours a day so I am always sleepy. Well write soon. 

Jack
4026 Brooklyn Ave
Seattle Wash.

Note: "Mag" is most likely his older sister, Margaret, nicknamed Tuck. It could also be my mother, his future wife, also named Margaret, who he called Maggie. I am not sure when Jack and Maggie met; but they were together by mid-1943.

Two days later he mailed this one to Bo:

May 16 1942 

Dear Bo

Well I am writing you to find out what you want for your birthday. The skys the limit and you can have what you want.  I made $12.72 + 6¢ cents an hour for GY [grave yard] last night so you can see I'll have a little money. I'll get around $70 for this weeks work and will get paid on Friday so answer me right a way. You can have some money or I'll send you some thing from here. I haven't been working very hard but have been putting in long hours. I am learning how to weld all over again, what they taught me in Vegas was all wrong. But I'll be making $7.43 a day while learning.  Just ate breakfast and I'm getting ready to go to bed (12:00 noon)  I got a letter from Ma but she didn't say much as usual. Well I hope you are really knocking them over at college. Us Eutslers have it in us but don't know one nows it, ain't that right kid. Now listen Florence Emma if there is anything you want just let your little brother in on it and will see what we can do about it.  Well I'll have to close now and go to bed so write soon. In fact write on the same day you receive this. Inclosed as you all ready know is a self-addressed envelope. 

[unsigned]

Notes: 

• He was making decent money, especially coming off the Great Depression, and especially for a 19-year-old. He mentions making $12.72 + 6¢ an hour during his graveyard shift. This is 202.35 + 95¢ an hour in today's dollars; $70 for the week's work is $1112; and $7.43 a day is about $118; He mentions expecting $180-$280 per month, which is about $2,861- $4,450 today
• Bo was attending college at York College, York, Nebraska. Her 22nd birthday was coming up at the end of May. 

A couple days later he writes Bo again:

May 20 1942

Dear Bo

I got your letter and reply to mine and was disappointed. If someone wrote me and told me I could have most anything I would have gone higher than 2.95 I would have hit the $100 mark or something. Well kid I am sending $10 and want you to go out and blow it.  I got a letter from Wayne and he told me about everything and how his pocketbook was getting along so I sent him $5. He has been doing much except running around. 

I got a letter from Mrs. Goodwin & a letter from Ma today. She didn't have much to say but was glad to hear from her anyway. She said she may go to York, boy that would be swell I think. Tell Tuck and Jim I said hello and will write as soon as I get a chance. I'll close now and write soon.

Jack.

Notes: 

• $10 = $159 in 2020
• Wayne is his uncle on his mother's side
• I'm not sure who Mrs. Goodwin is

I wish we had Bo's reply to Jack after he sent her the birthday gift, but we do have this one back to her a few days later:

May 28, 1942

Dear Bo

Well I got your letter this morning and that first page really builds a guy up. Well if you need any more money to go home on or just need any money right me or if you don't have time just send me a wire and I'll send you what you need.  Boy out here we really know we are at war, as we go into the gates at night we have a machine gun staring us in the face, and it isn't just for looks either. I noticed that all the Marines have belts of teargas bombs. I saw a submarine come in yesterday and also saw it while I was in the yards this morning. 

Say Florence would you like to come here and work & make some money or would you rather go to school, if you want to come here I will furnish all necessary money to get here and get started. But if you start to school you will have to go until you are through and I don't mean the summer.

Ma wrote and said she had heard anymore about going to York so she probable won't get to go. I got a letter from Wayne but he didn't say a whole lot, he just told me what he had been doing and that's about all.  Say tell Margaret & Jim to write and give me their address & I'll try and write them. Boy to write every body keeps me busy because I only have about 2 hours a day to do it in.  Well I close now & you better write soon. Don't forget what I said about any money. Jack. 

A week later

May 30

I'm sorry I did send this but forgot to. How did you come out on the election.

Next up: There's a gap in the letters, and we jump to letters from February, 1943. I guess no one saved the letters during that period.

Introduction

My dad, Jack, was part of the Greatest Generation, aka the O.G. Antifa. 

Jack was drafted into the Army Air Corps in 1943. He was finally accepted after being denied a couple times over a minor medical issue.  He served in the 351st Bomb Group of the Mighty Eighth Army Air Force through the end of World War II. 

A dozen years ago I came into the possession of Jack's cache of letters home to his mother and his older sister. They've sat on my closet shelf, waiting for me to share them, and I decided now is the time. I hope that my activity on my other blog project, Little Sister Resister, will diminish come January 20, 2021, and I can devote more time to this project.

One of my major regrets in life was not recording or writing down Jack's stories about being a ball-turret gunner on the belly of a B-17 over Germany. He didn't speak of his experiences for many years, and then a fountain of stories spilled forth. He died in 2002, and his stories died with him. But his letters home remain, and though he was not able to tell about his air attack missions in his letters, they give us a snapshot into the life of an airman. 

My idea for this blog is to share his actual letters, along with giving some context with regard to his and his family's life as well as to the war itself. 

We'll start with his letters in 1942, when 19-year-old Jack was working as a welder in the shipyards of Bremerton, Washington. From there, Jack will get his basic training at a few bases in the western United States before shipping overseas for combat. 

One note about the letters: the letters are still in their envelopes, and I've arranged them in chronological order according to their postmark. It may not always be in chronological order as to when he wrote them, but most likely in the order that my grandma and Auntie Bo would've received them. I'm transcribing every letter, as Jack's handwriting is really hard to read. I'll transcribe him with his spelling and punctuation. 

Thanks for taking this journey with me!  

May I introduce Jack's Cache. Here are his first letters home.