From this letter we can see how the enlisted men were entertained but also how Roy's experience, as a truck driver rather than pilot, was unique. He seems to be an observer a lot of the time, in this case of some other men's assignment to accompany a portable wireless set to Bolton College. Between hauling, Vaudeville, and the Blue Devils, Roy is kept busy.
Dear Miss Custer:
Is it warm up there? I'll say it is worse than warm down here. It's hot. We have had some of the hottest weather I ever saw in the last week or so. I will soon be tanned as dark as some of the n-----s down here. Not that bad I guess. I do not mind that part of it a bit but this heat almost melts me. One good thing about it is that the nights are not quite so warm, but I expect they will be warm enough too before long.
I brought in a wrecked ship today from about twelve miles out the country. No one was injured in the wreck. There have not been any fatal accidents for some time now and I hope there will not be any more. I used to have a steady detail of hauling here on the Post and seldom got away from camp except once in awhile when they were short of drivers or something of the kind, but for about ten days now I have been getting out more. They took me off the regular detail and now I am doing more outside work.
Monday a week ago I hauled the Park Field to and from Memphis where they played the Camp Pike team and were beaten 4 to 3. Another day last week I hauled a portable wireless set over to Bolton College and spent the day there. I took the set and three men over in the morning and brought them back in the evening. Bolton College is about fifteen miles from here. It is closed now but we four boys got dinner over there and it was great.
Last Sunday I spent in Memphis again and had a very nice time. Took dinner with some folks there and then we went for an automobile ride. They are working things at the Garage now so that each driver gets one Sunday off in three, or near about that. Did you ever hear of Granville of Ziegfields "Follies"? He was quite a vaudeville artist and dancer. He is a Lieutenant here now and organized a minstrel here several weeks ago. They gave a show here at the "y" two weeks ago and another in Memphis. They also played at Covington and at Millington last night. They had a very good show. Granville, himself, is half the show but there also some very good singers and players among the enlisted men here.
I weighed myself Sunday and weighed 191 pounds, more than I have weighed for several years but I think this hot weather is going to bring me down. Mother thought I looked good in the picture and I am getting stout it seems, but I hope I don't keep on gaining.
I have asked several boys here about Camp Green leaf but no one knows just where it is. I am still anxiously awaiting something or some orders about leaving here, for I am getting anxious to go over.
Did I send you a little pin in my last letter? I know I intended to do so, and it seems I cannot find it now. I do not quite get what you said about the picture. I mean what you said about your brother and the "poor subject", but anyway I am going to look forward to receiving the picture in return.
I suppose you have heard of the French "Blue Devils" have you not? They are Frenchmen and veterans of the war have been invalided home and are now touring this country. They are coming to Memphis next Sunday. I would like very much to see and hear them but as I was away last sunday I shall not be able to go see them. Perhaps all this stuff about our doings here does not interest you but as I am a poor letter writer I can hardly think of anything else to write. If you do not care for it please do not fear to say so. Ha, Ha!
The Government is building a new Hostess House here at the Field and it looks as if it were going to be a dandy. The Y.M.C.A. is going to run it and is to be a home as stopping place for friends of the boys. Friends or members of the family who wish to come to visit them.
It is getting near "tattoo" and "lights out" so I'll close. This letter is long enough anyway, I believe.
Very sincerely,
Roy
May 22, 2010
May 17, 2010
Park Field May 15, 1918
Though this letter mostly talks about the weather, it does include details of Aero Squadron life. Roy describes a baseball game between Park Field and another camp and also mentions his disappointment that he can't fly because the Army requires pilots to have at least a high school education. Also notice that he has begun addressing Stella as "my dear friend" rather than "Miss Custer."
My Dear Friend:
I haven't any doubt but that, as you said, you are having very fine weather up there. So are we having fine weather but today, I believe, was the hottest day I ever saw. The sun was almost hot enough to roast a person this afternoon. I told a southerner here about it this evening and he said: "Oh you ain't seen any warm weather yet. Wait till July and August." So if this is not warm weather I wonder what the hot weather of July and August is like.
Have been working very steady for several weeks. Worked the last two Sundays and Monday evening was out till one A.M. The Park Field Baseball team played the team from Camp Pike at Memphis Monday afternoon and I hauled the Park Field boys home. They got permission to stay in town till eleven oclock so it made me late in getting back. Camp Pike is an infantry camp over in Arkansas and they beat us 4 to 3. Park Field had them beaten 3 to 1 until the last half of the ninth inning when a Camp Pike made a home run and took the game away from us.
So you think you must go to work soon. Well, I wish I could go to school again even if it does mean work which it did not mean to me when I did go to school. They are accepting applicants for flying from enlisted men now but each man must have at least a High School education in order to be admitted and as I do not have that I could not get in. I understand there are to be six men from each Squadron to go to ground school where they will be taught Wireless telegraphy, all about aeroplanes and air conditions. This will take about three months after which they go to flying school and are taught to fly and after completing this they are commissioned officers. I sure would love to learn to fly but so long as the regulations call for a High School education I can not make it, it seems.
Did I thank you for the box of candy? If I did not, I want to do so now. It was fine. You said nothing about a picture, so I must remind you of it again. Won't you send me one. Please. I am going to send you a little pin I got in Memphis, but I'll tell you if you are superstitious about such things I'll sell it to you for a postage stamp. How's that? Ha, Ha! There is nothing else I can think of, so I'll close.
Sincerely,
Roy D.
My Dear Friend:
I haven't any doubt but that, as you said, you are having very fine weather up there. So are we having fine weather but today, I believe, was the hottest day I ever saw. The sun was almost hot enough to roast a person this afternoon. I told a southerner here about it this evening and he said: "Oh you ain't seen any warm weather yet. Wait till July and August." So if this is not warm weather I wonder what the hot weather of July and August is like.
Have been working very steady for several weeks. Worked the last two Sundays and Monday evening was out till one A.M. The Park Field Baseball team played the team from Camp Pike at Memphis Monday afternoon and I hauled the Park Field boys home. They got permission to stay in town till eleven oclock so it made me late in getting back. Camp Pike is an infantry camp over in Arkansas and they beat us 4 to 3. Park Field had them beaten 3 to 1 until the last half of the ninth inning when a Camp Pike made a home run and took the game away from us.
So you think you must go to work soon. Well, I wish I could go to school again even if it does mean work which it did not mean to me when I did go to school. They are accepting applicants for flying from enlisted men now but each man must have at least a High School education in order to be admitted and as I do not have that I could not get in. I understand there are to be six men from each Squadron to go to ground school where they will be taught Wireless telegraphy, all about aeroplanes and air conditions. This will take about three months after which they go to flying school and are taught to fly and after completing this they are commissioned officers. I sure would love to learn to fly but so long as the regulations call for a High School education I can not make it, it seems.
Did I thank you for the box of candy? If I did not, I want to do so now. It was fine. You said nothing about a picture, so I must remind you of it again. Won't you send me one. Please. I am going to send you a little pin I got in Memphis, but I'll tell you if you are superstitious about such things I'll sell it to you for a postage stamp. How's that? Ha, Ha! There is nothing else I can think of, so I'll close.
Sincerely,
Roy D.
May 5, 2010
Park Field May 5, 1918
In this letter, Roy seems to be reassuring Stella of his friendship by joking that he has "neither died nor gone to France, nor [has he] forgotten [her]." He also indulges in a little flirting by referring to the picture he sent her as "a poor one or rather the subject was a poor one" and asking her if she could send one of her own. After all, "they say a fair exchange is no robbery, though in this case it may not be a fair exchange."
Dear Miss Custer:
I have neither died nor gone to France, nor have I forgotten you as you said you were wondering when you received my last letter. No, I am still at Park Field and think of you many times but being quite busy I do not have much time to write letters. So please do not think that I forgot your "casual acquaintance" for I am sure you would be kept quite busy reading letters if I were to write each time I thought of you.
I suppose you have received the picture I mailed you a few days ago. I mailed it the day before I received your letter and you ended your letter by saying that neither pen ink nor writer were of much account. You did not mean that did you? Or must I tell you that you were wrong, for I know you were.
I worked today but was in Memphis last Sunday and had a fine time. I went in Saturday evening stopped overnight at the Y.M.C.A. and went to Church Sunday morning and accepted an invitation to dinner and had a fine time. I certainly did enjoy it. I was expecting to be on the way to France by this time but am still here and may be here for a month or more. It looks that way to me, anyway. But I do wish they would ship us over, for I am anxious to get into it.
The picture is a poor one or rather the subject was a poor one, but anyway, let me know if you receive it, and also if you have one of yours won't you send me one, please? They say a fair exchange is no robbery, though in this case it may not be a fair exchange. Nevertheless, I should be pleased to receive one in return.
You said Kenneth is at Camp Greenleaf, did you not? One of my tentmates was up there last week on a cross country trip with a lieutenant. They were gone for about a week and did a lot of traveling by airplane in the interests of the Liberty Losin Memphis barely made her quota. It seems to me Memphis is not as patriotic as it might be. There are a lot of slackers in the town. Did you hear what Claysburg did? They more than doubled their quota, and I am beginning to feel proud of the little town. Mother wrote me they had heard from a cousin of mine who is in France and has been in the front line trenches several times and says he would not miss it for anything. I wish I were there. Only one thing gets me and that is the thought that it might end before I get there.
I'll close and hope to hear from you soon. Don't forget the picture
Sincerely,
Roy D.
(This is one of my absolute favorites, all because of this line: "So please do not think that I forgot your "casual acquaintance" for I am sure you would be kept quite busy reading letters if I were to write each time I thought of you." Effusive, compared to the rest of the letters.)
Dear Miss Custer:
I have neither died nor gone to France, nor have I forgotten you as you said you were wondering when you received my last letter. No, I am still at Park Field and think of you many times but being quite busy I do not have much time to write letters. So please do not think that I forgot your "casual acquaintance" for I am sure you would be kept quite busy reading letters if I were to write each time I thought of you.
I suppose you have received the picture I mailed you a few days ago. I mailed it the day before I received your letter and you ended your letter by saying that neither pen ink nor writer were of much account. You did not mean that did you? Or must I tell you that you were wrong, for I know you were.
I worked today but was in Memphis last Sunday and had a fine time. I went in Saturday evening stopped overnight at the Y.M.C.A. and went to Church Sunday morning and accepted an invitation to dinner and had a fine time. I certainly did enjoy it. I was expecting to be on the way to France by this time but am still here and may be here for a month or more. It looks that way to me, anyway. But I do wish they would ship us over, for I am anxious to get into it.
The picture is a poor one or rather the subject was a poor one, but anyway, let me know if you receive it, and also if you have one of yours won't you send me one, please? They say a fair exchange is no robbery, though in this case it may not be a fair exchange. Nevertheless, I should be pleased to receive one in return.
You said Kenneth is at Camp Greenleaf, did you not? One of my tentmates was up there last week on a cross country trip with a lieutenant. They were gone for about a week and did a lot of traveling by airplane in the interests of the Liberty Losin Memphis barely made her quota. It seems to me Memphis is not as patriotic as it might be. There are a lot of slackers in the town. Did you hear what Claysburg did? They more than doubled their quota, and I am beginning to feel proud of the little town. Mother wrote me they had heard from a cousin of mine who is in France and has been in the front line trenches several times and says he would not miss it for anything. I wish I were there. Only one thing gets me and that is the thought that it might end before I get there.
I'll close and hope to hear from you soon. Don't forget the picture
Sincerely,
Roy D.
(This is one of my absolute favorites, all because of this line: "So please do not think that I forgot your "casual acquaintance" for I am sure you would be kept quite busy reading letters if I were to write each time I thought of you." Effusive, compared to the rest of the letters.)
May 4, 2010
What are these places? Well, I'll tell you.
Reading through the letters I've posted so far, you might notice some unfamiliar place names. I'm here to help. The first letter was written from Claysburg, Pennsylvania, a town near Blue Knob. It was home to the Claysburg Air Force Station until 1961. The Air Force Station was demolished in 1974.
The subsequent letters were written from Park Field, Tennessee, which was, at the time the letters were written, an Army camp 18 miles outside of Memphis. It began as an aviation training facility in 1917 (the year Roy went there) but is currently known to the military as NAVSUPPACT Mid-South (much nicer than Park Field, is it not?).
More tidbits to come.
The subsequent letters were written from Park Field, Tennessee, which was, at the time the letters were written, an Army camp 18 miles outside of Memphis. It began as an aviation training facility in 1917 (the year Roy went there) but is currently known to the military as NAVSUPPACT Mid-South (much nicer than Park Field, is it not?).
More tidbits to come.
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