September 5, 1942 - Raw Deal Working Here

Saturday Evening

Dear Mom + Dad,

I’m still plugging away at this darn night shift. I’m rather tired again tonight. It seems about every third day I get worn out. However, I think things will be rather quiet tonight and I may be able to catch a few hours sleep. We can’t have any emergencies brought in as we are filled up tonight. When I want to sleep I have to go in the linen closet, lay a blanket on the floor grab a pillow and doze off. Before we were filled up I could lay on the beds but that is impossible now.

I’m beginning to think we are getting a real raw deal working over here. A few of the boys from my outfit tried to get passes and were denied them. We get our passes, if any, from the station hospital now as we are working for them. However, some of the boys from the regular detachment here got weekend passes. Then they have the nerve to send in a request for more men from our outfit. Evidently they are over here just to fill in while the station hospital boys are out on pass. It sure makes your blood boil to have to take a beating like that. If this keeps up and we can’t get any time off, I for one am going to see some of our officers and investigate it. You don’t mind working here if you are needed but when you have to put up with a raw deal it’s a little too much. Even if I do squawk probably nothing will come of it, but at least I’ll get a little personal satisfaction. They wouldn’t even give one of our boys a pass until 11 o clock tonight and he works days and is off in the evening. Isn’t that pretty sad. I’m going to apply for a weekend pass next week and if I don’t get one I’m going to know the reason why.

Nothing new has developed in the realms of our outfit. I sure hope they make up their mind soon to ship us out. I need a change of scenery.

I still haven’t heard anything further on my air corps deal. If I could have sent it in straight instead of having to go through military channels I would have had my examinations all ready. As it is now it will take about 2 months before I even get my exam.

Another thing I’m getting gypped out of is the ration money I had coming from my furlough. I have $6.60 coming but I haven’t seen hide no hair of it. It has gone through and it is up to finance, there is nothing I can do. It sure is sad the way things work around here. Do you wonder why I want to leave?

So you are now on your vacation for sure. You’re lucky! If I were home now I’d just be beginning to think of going back to school again. On well, here I is out on the desert, and there’s a war to be won so why worry about it.

I guess that does it for now. Write and tell me about your vacation.

Love
Bob