Letters: May 21, 1951

        Received another two letters from you today--maybe you did go to the Postal Authorities on this mail situation like you said you maybe would do. Whatever it is the mail is coming quite regularly of late and it’s the only thing that makes this Korean police action somewhat bearable.
        I’m proud of you Barbara. For your good marks and for your interest in cultural things. Now that may sound trite and a little silly but I assure you I mean it because you have written about plays and operas plus, I guess, your selection of some of your courses which aren’t, I believe, required. And I don’t think you would say such things just to be filling up space in a letter. So I think you’re kinda sharp.
        Today it’s raining like hell. It started just as I finished my mission so mine was the only flight. Our flights, or missions, average around two and a half hours and we fly over the lines looking for gooks. When we see any we contact fighters and then sit back and watch the fun. If we can’t get jets on then we contact our artillery and still have fun. What a stupid war. No sense to it--no rhyme nor reason, at least to us. It’s just one line of men against another line of men with a rice paddy as the prize. And there are an awful lot of goddamned rice paddies in Korea.
        Glad you finally got down to the family for a day and I hope you had a nice time. And thanks for not telling them about me being in Korea. I’ll buy you a mink if you want.
        Yesterday two things happened to me that were more or less eventful. Got four shots in my arm, same arm, same time. Cholera, Hep B, Typhus, and Smallpox vaccination. Hell I can’t even raise my arm to take a drink--of which I have a bottle of bourbon phenagled from a Canadian in exchange for an airplane ride. The second thing that happened was that I got a haircut. Now this may not seem eventful, even more or less to you, but to me it was both humorous and catastrophic. I got a haircut from one of the Korean boys we keep around for odd jobs and that is exactly what happened to my hair. He used a 1916 pair of clippers and clipped straight up all the way around. The rest of the pilots are still laughing. It honestly looks like a bowl haircut and I wish you could see it but I refuse to send any pictures so use your imagination. The clippers were about as sharp as wet cotton and I still hurt.
        We just got in our ration of beer so we’re going to have a few rubbers off of bridge for the beer. Poker would seem more logical but in bridge it takes longer and we can drink while we play. Don’t lose any beer now.
        Bye for now hon--thanks for writing like you have been. Hope you get to see the family again.