“Letters of a World War II Airman” shares original letters to and from my uncle, Frank Ebner Gartz, from 1943-1945, tracing the course of WWII, life on the home front, and the evolution of a neighborhood kid into seasoned airman.
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.
Seventy years ago today, my grandparents and newly married parents faced a foreboding task, one that was shared by just about everyone in America with a young man of draft age in the family.