I’ve been away from the project for a few days. Rest assured, all is well. I’ve just had other projects and priorities hit me that drew my attention away. Where were we? Oh yes…
April 8, 1943. A letter from Stanley (stationed in Ephrata, Washington) to Dad. It looks like Stanley has been busy too. He notes, “I am writing this letter in bed. This is the first chance I got to write in 4-5 days – it is 10:30 P.M. right now.” He says that their duty has been moved “from headquarters to squadrons”. On top of that “our Sergeant Major wound up in the hospital the second day we got at squadron. He got a dose of something. He went out with the wrong girl… he won’t be back for about 4-8 weeks.” 4-8 weeks? Wow that must really be something. I guess he must have slept through the Mickey Mouse movie.
As far as the pace of work, “We have been working like hell. We have to do everything. I finished a flight payroll for men who flew during March. Some quarreled they did not get paid, others want this and that… Everybody wants everything at once. The last three days I tried to start the regular payroll. On Monday I worked from 8 A.M. to midnight checking pay cards. Tuesday worked from 8 till 10:30 and Wednesday from 8 to 10:30 P.M. Today I quit at 8 P.M…. If you ask me, everything is sure screwed up. Well, tomorrow I will start payroll and see just how far I get.”
Stanley also tells of a letter he received from Buffalo, NY that was addressed to a Stanley J. Murawski. It was addressed to the soldier in Alliance, Nebraska and had bounced around “3 times to Salt Lake, Santa Monica, Calif., and several other places” before finally being delivered to Stanley A. Murawski. He says he wrote a short note, enclosed the letter and mailed it back to the folks in Buffalo, ostensibly to end the cycle of it being forwarded around and around.
Stanley gets around to answering a few of the items that Dad had brought up in a few of his letters. Most importantly, “In regard to furlough, everything in the office is so screwed up and besides you have to be in the Army 6 months before you can get one. If I am still here I will try to get one for the middle of May or early part of June.”
He signs off, “Well, it’s pretty late now and I didn’t get enough sleep for the last three nights on account of working, so will I close until I write again.”