Frank is losing weight. Who wouldn’t with the intense workout the young cadets are put through? Stephen Ambrose, in his book about B-24 cadets, "The Wild Blue," describes one such workout, probably similar to what Frank experienced.
Corps Cadet, navigator-in-training, Frank Ebner writes to a former high school buddy, Ted Symon. Using his familiar humor, colorful language, and self-deprecation, common in the letters to his buddies, Frank highlights the intellectual rigor he's exposed to in his courses of study.
Army Air Corps Radio School sleeve patch-given to each student at the Army Technical School, Sioux Falls, SD Trench Mouth. The word conjures up images of soldiers languishing in World War I rat-infested trenches. But this disease, an [...]
Here's a letter from Frank Von Arx to my uncle. Frank Von Arx was two months older than Ebner, He enlisted and took the train to Camp Grant on 12/12/1943, for basic training, same place Ebner would go in January. Most of Ebner's friends were training for the war, bonding a generation in shared experiences.
My uncle Frank Ebner Gartz was drafted into World War II on January 23, 1943. The next day he wrote from his new home at Camp Grant, near Rockford, Illinois. Until I found the letter below, I hadn't know where he had started his training. Here's how the first day in training was reported by a new inductee on his first day in camp.