Delaware County NY Genealogy and History Site

Lt. Berkeley Boyd
Deposit High School Class of 1940
Army Air Forces
Alexandria Army Air Base, Louisiana
July 12, 1944

Dear Coach,

I received your two form letters - via about six other air bases I've been at in the past and I think they are darned good. You undoubtedly should have done a little writing along with your coaching. I expect to leave for overseas the first part of next month but I would appreciate it if you would send your next letter to my present address so it won't have to go through so many other channels.

I am a co-pilot on a B-17 flying fortress and we are now finishing up our last phaze of operational training for overseas duty. We have been flying as a crew for the past six weeks and I thing we have got a good outfit. Our bombardier is one of the best on the field and the gunners are pretty hot too. The first pilot and I expect to get a new plane to take overseas with us. I would rather be flying a fighter than a bomber but this B-17 isn't a bad airplane. I guess Pete Judd always said he would rather have been flying a fighter but when he got over there he changed his mind. I wonder if they will ever get any work about Pete.

I presume that with school out you must be getting a little rest from your responsibilities or are you going to be on the run all summer. Getting back to your letter, I think the idea of telling about games and teams of the past is really swell. I know that I did a lot of thinking after I read in your last letter where you mentioned the JV basketball teams of 1938-39. I never expect to have as much fun again as I did while playing with the JVs.

Well, I'll stop blabbing and anyway we have a six hour mission coming up this afternoon.

Sincerely,
Berk Boyd