The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-02-01

Mr.. and Mrs Preston Boward, Ha-
gerstown, Route 5, arrived at the
Army Air Forces Redistribution
Station No. 2, Miami Beach, on
January 90, after completing tour
of duty outside the continental
United States.
Sergeant Boward, who flew 81
missions on an A-20 as armor-gun-
ner in the European Theater of OPP
erations, winning the Air Medal
with one cluster, was expected to
remain at the station about two
weeks, much of which will be de-
voted to rest and recreation.
Below is a letter, recently re-
ceived by Pfc. Robert NJ burst, of
the U. S. Marine Corps, stationed in
the U. S. A, son of Mr.. U. L. burst,
from his brother, Pvt. Lewis L.
burst, who is overseas with the 9th
Infantry Division Mr.. burst, him
self a veteran of the Spanish
American War and active in the af-
fairs of the local post of the Veter-
ans of Foreign Wars, has four sons
and a son-in-laW in the Armed
Forces. In addition to the two
mentioned above, Arthur is a staff
sergeant in the Air Corps in Ital;
French is a staff sergeant in the
Air Corps in Australia, while the
son-in-law, F. T. Boczkowski, is in
England Here is the letter:
Inside Germany,
Nov. %, 1874
Dear Bob
l received your letter the other
day, it was over a month reaching
me. Well am still very much OK
and getting few on the side just
for the hell of it.
It sure was a naked feeling hit
ting the beach from a landing craft
on last June 6. But we were loaded
for bear and could blow hell out of
anything, which is just what we
did I had three close calls with
the old bearded gent. Brother l
am going to take care of this 80
grand" in shoe leather In other
words, l am going to hit the fox
hole on the triple instead of the
double.
You should have been around
when we flushed a hundred odd
ferries out of patch of woods. It
sure was a good feeling to see
Jerry bobbing on the front sight,
just for security reasons, for Jerry
is a pretty tricky fellow. The butt
stroke is sickening sight but real
ly effective on super men"
We had about a foot of snow a
few days ago to make things more
miserable and if a guy is not cam
oufaged just right you can see him
for mile. You know what that
means-stay low if you want to
live
l saw the bombing of St. Lo
when Jerry got the works from the
boys in the air and brother it was
really pitiful to watch At the
time I was dot, dash man and real
ly scared to death. From that day
we kept Jerry Keeling, never CIV
ing him a chance to recover.
These "buzz blinkettes," as we
call them, are something out of this
world They are enough to make
an habitual drunk stay sober a
hundred years, just seeing them
roar overhead. Man! Oh man! do
they put knot in the old bread
basker, sweating them out when
they fall short
Well the World Series didn't faze
me any for l never heard a single
game the whole time. 1 guess Art
Ia brother in the Air Corps was
on the ball tho.
The sights l saw will always
stick in my memory like bad
dream
Well tomorrow Thanksgiving
Day. is the day of plenty and it
brings back memories of year
ago when I was riding the high
seas on the Queen Mary on Thanks
giving Day. So you see a fellow
can get around in 365 days.
Have you seen my wife on any
of your visits home? l am anxious
to know how you like my selection
and our son Junior, who is now al
most six months old. (Pfc. bursts
son was born after he left for over
seas service). I suppose she and
mother are sweating and fretting
while waiting for letters from me,
but the business on hand makes
writing opportunities few, short
and far between and stationery is
not always to be had.
! Well its getting kinda late now