September 12, 1944: Dad writes one last letter home from Topeka before heading out on his furlough. As Dad tells it, his furlough “…will last for 15 days plus 4 or 5 days additional for travelling time. …I’ll be straggling home around the early part of Saturday morning or at any rate it will be on Saturday. I can smell the Polish baloney from here….I’ve arranged my furlough so I can spend 3 Saturdays and 3 whole Sundays with you people….When you receive this letter, you won’t have to bother answering it as you can give me the answer to it on or about the next day after you receive it.”
Dad’s furlough plans include spending “…a lot of time at home outside of perhaps going to RPI in Troy and finding out what qualifications a fellow must have in order to get into that school. You probably heard about the GI Bill of Rights wherein a fellow if taken into the army was 25 the Govt. will provide him to a certain extent for his education. I believe I will take advantage of it. That is why I am taking the Physics course from the USAFI at Madison, Wisconsin in correspondence form.”
He reacts to the news that Billy Lubinski is home as well. “Glad to hear Billy is home and, no doubt, I’ll get to see him. I certainly was surprised t hear he is stationed at Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Hqs of the Second Air Force. I wonder if he knows any of the men and officers whom I know up there. I agree with Billy that he must be having a darn good break The Second Air force is a wonderful setup.”
Dad makes reference to a letter that he received from his brother. “…I guess he likes the speed at which the War is going on in Europe. No doubt, mama is glad that they’ve captured most of the Calais coast from which those robot bombs were being launched. It was a harmful but indeed a silly weapon to use but it just goes to show you that Germany must be in a terrible condition if they had to depend on robot bombing.”
Dad wraps up with “That’s about all from here.”