Gee Ma, I wanta go HOME!

"I want to just hit lightly on ...how well the Army took care of us., and I really appreciated it...because we were deactivated on December the 20th.  I was in California.  Word came down that the base commander should provide aircraft ...get the WASP as close to home as possible, and I thought, well, that's not too bad.

The base I was on, they assigned a BT-13.  There were two of us...one going to Philadelphia, one to Pittsburgh.  Fine deal, two second lieutenants.

...I didn't have any money.  After we cleared the base I had a quarter.  And I thought well, that's no problem, the Army will take care of us, after all it's only five days till Christmas.  They'll be generous.

A classmate said, "Well, I owe  you ten dollars, so here's ten dollars." So, I left California with ten dollars and twenty five cents.

We got as far as Las Vegas. First stop...and for some mysterious reason, most of these BT's just had to be grounded.  And the two lieutenants said, "See ya later!"

I lived in OPS (Base Operations), I slept in OPS, I ate donuts till they were coming out of my ears.   I took the twenty-five cents, changed it into nickels, and I spent my time putting it in ... "Mom, I'm in Las Vegas. Could you send me fifty dollars?"  "Mom," I was somewhere else, you know, I forget where, "could  you send me fifty dollars?"  She says, "I sent you fifty dollars."  I said, "Well, I didn't get it."

My mother spent over three hundred dollars... Christmas Eve, I didn't get any money and I'm in Akron.  So...I called my mother...the last nickel.  The ten dollars was long gone, and she says, "I can't help you," and I say, "we have an aunt here...we don't talk to her, but... do you think---- for the sake of the war..."

So, she put me on a bus. 

Anyway, that's my story.  It was nice talking to you. Good luck & happy flying!