It looks like Gram or one of the runts was so excited to finally get a letter from Jack from Lincoln that they ripped the whole end of the envelope off and ripped off the side of the letter. The torn bit -- including the torn bit of the envelope -- was carefully tucked inside the letter, but I'm not going to feed it through the scanner.
Sept 20 1944
Dear Ma
Well here I am back at Lincoln but I guess not for long. We got here this A.M. about 6 but didn't get out to camp & off the train until 8:30.
We had a pretty nice trip all but for last night. We woke up at one end of the bunk and the next minent the other end, that kept up for about 30 minents. Some one said a brake was froze or some thing. Any way they woke us all up over there smart tricks, its just lucky it was a troop train.
We have been rather lucky we havent had much to do today had one lecture this after noon & another on this evening. They are just telling us what to expect & ect. It seems they aren't trying to kid us but put the straight truth at us. The nearer we get the better we all want to have the war end – but fast. They tell us we are to fly across & will get our ship here. I don't know where we are going or when but I'll tell you for sure no grass is going to grow under our feet. They tell us we get up tomorrow & start processing. I doubt if we will be here much if any over 4 or 5 days so they must be planning big things for us.
Well I can't think of any more to write so will write later.
Jack.
Sept 21 1944
Dear Ma
Ill try to write you a short note tonight so don't be surprised at it if its real short.
We have had a rather busy today going through processing. We had all the paper work this AM & when I got through I didn't know if I were comming or going. I got going around so much I didn't even know how to write my name. I did take 7.50 bond out a month so in the next 3 months you ought to start getting some bonds. Out side of that I was just the same old army routine. This afternoon we had a clothing check & I mean a clothing check. In fact to night I don't know what I have & what I haven't got. They threw things this way & that so I started in throwing also. In the end I didn't know what had happened. They put part of the cloths in one bag & part in another, I brought one down to the barracks & they kept the other one up there. I just hope what I don't have is in my other barracks bag.
We were issued all our flying cloths, parchute, harness & etc. It is all nice equipment & all new. We thought we would get a idea what direction we were going from the clothes but it beats me.
All in all they have been running us a round good and proper today.
I guess we get our plane tomorrow so we will start pulling guard duty. We will have our stuff in it & its up to us to watch it well I'll probable get the blunt end of the deal but don't blame me if you hear about your son sleeping on guard duty.
Well I getter close & get to bed
Jack.
His $7.50 bonds would be about $112 in today's dollars.
Sept 25
Dear Ma
I haven't heard from you since I got here but I guess it's just the mail going through here is slow. I thought sure I would get one from you today though I'll try again this P.M.
Well we were to take off this AM but a compass didn't check out so we didn't go. I suppose though that we will take off tonight. We have been laying around here just more or less waiting to leave in fact we could leave upon a bout a 2 hours notice. They have all our cloths again so we can't stay much longer with out getting more cloths. I hope this gets through but we are going East from here & will end up in Maine. It looks like we will be going to the European theater.
Say I sent 2 rolls of film home today, one has to be sent in to the Kodack company – it's color film. It's the one in the metal container the other one is one I took – in Alb. and Ard. Say did you ever get the other one developed. If you did I would like to have some of the pictures.
Its been cold here in fact I like to froze last night doing guard duty. We have had a fire in the barracks the last 2 days. I guess we can't kick too bad we griped enough about the heat.
Well I can't think of any more to write so will close now & don't worry.
Jack.
Around the time Jack was writing these letters, Operation Market Garden was happening around the town of Arnhem in the Netherlands. Operation Market was a massive airborne and glider mission, the largest in history, with 5000 British aircraft. Unfortunately, due to a failure in intelligence, the coordinating Allied ground operation (Operation Garden) met fierce German resistance, and the ground troops were not able to support the 10,000 tenacious, brave paratroopers who landed in the area. Sadly, 1400 of the paratroopers were killed and 6000 were captured in this disastrous campaign. Read more here from History.com or a more detailed description on Wikipedia. If you've read the book or seen the movie "A Bridge Too Far," you are familiar with Operation Market Garden.
By my eyeball, it looks like we are about halfway through Jack's cache of letters. Jack has been fully trained and is ready to ship. The shit's about to get real now.
Heck, I know the end of the story, but I'm still worried....
