Letters from a soldier in the 879th Airborne Engineers

When I came across these letters it was a great addition to the limited available information on the 879th Airborne Engineers who were born at Westover Field, Mass.

The letters are simple letters from a soldier to his uncle back home who served in an earlier war. He writes of nothing in particular, but gives us clues as to what it was like to be there while he was thinking mostly of getting home to his family and his girl.

The 879th recieved training in Lauinburg Maxton Army Air Base in Maxton, North Carolina, then shipped overseas and service in the CBI (China Burma India) , the Pacific theatre of the war. These men spent time in Egypt, India, Burma and dealt with malaria, monsoons, and mud. Their mission to build air strips.

I have also found some other letters, postcards, photos from others in his extended family, dating from the late 1800's which will be displayed here.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

From Burma - February 28, 1945

From Burma - February 28, 1945 To Henry
From his location in the Burma mountainside he could see China.  "I never ate so much so much meat until I came in the Army, but here it is scarce, so when you do get it, it really hits the spot. Today I got our PX rations, and received two cartons of cigarettes this month instead of the usual 15 packs.  We get cigars and sometime pipe tobacco so that helps out and makes the cigarettes last a month.

"When a "Chink" gets shot up, they stand around and laugh, but if you say something funny, they've go a strait face and think your nuts".







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