4/29/45
Dear Bud
Received your swell letter this afternoon and was very glad to hear from you.
We're not doing much right now, still flying and going to ground school. We're on a radar crew now and almost finished here.
We went out to the air to ground gunnery range the other day and hit a target. We were flying 3 ft. off the ground. It stove the whole nose in, wrecked the bomb sight, and tore the antenna off the bottom. As a result of it we lost Batt for our pilot and now we've got a First LT. as a pilot. He's a son-of-a-gun Bud. We're all trying to get Batt back now.
We might get Staff before we leave, here's hoping anyway.
Thanks a lot for the pictures, I'll try to send you some
soon Bud.
I go to the show once in a while Bud; but not very often.
They cut a couple words out of your letter Bud. Where you
said, "ever hear of _____" and "it's a lot nicer here than
_____".
Maurine is swell and so is every one else Bud. We all miss you more every day Bud. God I'd love to see you again. It's going on three years for the both of us now huh!
I figure I've got three hundred and fifty hours in B-24's Bud. Wait till we get through; I might be where you are or in the C B1 before long, here's hoping. I'm fed up with this chicken s__t, I've killed 2 years over here and it's about time I got over there. What do you have for ribbons Bud?
We get paid tomorrow and I'm going to have some big pictures taken, send mom some flowers for Mother's Day. Anything I can send you Bud?
We went to the show and saw "Patrick the Great" with Donald O'Conner Bud. Pretty darn good though.
Well Bud, this is about all for now. Write when ever you can and if there's anything you ever need, just let me know.
Take it easy and here's hoping we see each other soon.
Your loving brother, Bob
Note: LT. Battenberg (Batt) escorted Bob's body back home for the funeral.
Keep the shinny side up and the dirty side down!
Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer
