3-27-1943

March 27,1943

I don’t know what the date is.

Dear Mom and Dad, and Shirlee and Rhoda;
Well, here I am again. I have really had some good experiences today. I was the only one in the bunch that they thought had an allergy. If I had have had one I would not have been able to pass but I am glad that they thought I had one because I got a chance to go over to the U.S. Naval Hospital over in Oak Knolls in Oakland. There are thousands of wounded Marines and Sailors there it is a real terrible sight. However, they are in a wonderful place. I spent about 5 hours there and every minute was a good experience. First I went to ward 65A, while there I had a doctor, a Navy Commander, look me all over for any skin diseases. I guess before I go any farther I had better tell you why I was thought to have an allergy…….it was because of the way my skin welts and goes red when I scratch it. This doctor said I had a tender skin and put some big long name by the diagnosis chart. He told me that I had better go down to ward 5 and get a skin-scratch test, however, and when I got there they told me to go to the Pathology Laboratory over in Ward 4, so there I went. My test started by a series of scratches on my skin. These swoll into welts which stumped the docs so finally they used the last resort, the long, tiresome scratch test. The would write 100, one-hundred, numbers on my back in red crayon, then they put by each number a drop of pollen from some plant.
Then before the drop would dry they would scratch the spot with a little scalpel. Then I had to wait a half hour and see how these spots reacted to my skin, or I should say how my skin reacted to the scratches. Well you can imagine how I looked with 100 red numbers on my back and by each one a little scratch. Well this turned out NEGETIVE which is a proof that I am not susceptible to hay fever or any other type of disease. There is a lot more to tell you about this hospital but I’ll wait until I get home.

I passed nearly all my tests today so now all I have to get are some interviews and some signatures. I think I will be finished with every thing tomorrow about noon so if I Pass everything else O.K. I will call you about 7 PM Saturday night.
Well these people in the YMCA are very nice to service men. (and me too) I had a nice room last night, and some fairly good meals, all paid for by the Navy.
I have really seen a lot around here and I will tell you more when I get home, about Monday.
This typewriter is one that is timed for a half an hour. You pay ten cents and you can type for ½ and hour then it stops on you.
I haven’t seen much of S.F. I have just seen the Navy stuff. I think I will see as much as I can tomorrow, Saturday and let it go at that. There are so many people here that it scares you to think what would happen if an air raid came.
Boy we don’t have to worry about an air raid back home because there are so many defense plants and Army and Navy camps here that the Japs could drop millions of bombs on it and still not touch a majority of it.
I don’t have much time to do a lot of writing and sight seeing but I do manage to get around to Navy place where I have to take test. I went all the way to Oakland in 35 minutes and that is really fast. The buses here go about 40 miles per hour right down the middle of Market Street.
Well I guess I had better go and get some supper here in the café. It fills you up but doesn’t make you want more.

Good Luck
Bill

P.S. I hope you heard from Don.
Tell Aunt Lou I’ll write as soon as I have time. And also that there are a lot of Pan American boys here taking the air corps tests for Pan American Pilots….
Bill
Tell Shirlee to be a good girl and to practice.
I might bring her something.
Bill


(back of letter) written on Saturday night 5:00 P.M. 3-27-1943
Dear Mother, Dad, Shirl, & Rhoda,
I just arrived at the aviation cadet selection board. I have taken a few physical tests but they were just preliminary.
The trip down was quite nice. I met quite a few nice fellows, but there was on that chummed around with me all the way down. His name was Dick Daggett. He is from Toledo, Ohio. He was in the Merchant Marine Service and wore a navel uniform.
He was 29 years old but he didn’t look or act more than 20.
The food on the train was pretty-good but nothing to brag about. Dick and I would get off the train every time it stopped and have a look around. We stopped at Reno for a few minutes but not long enough to do any “gambling.”
Dick drank a little beer but he didn’t smoke or drink anything strong.
I slept pretty good in the train but when you wake up you still feel tired. You just don’t rest.
Madame Chiang was on a train just behind us but we never got to see her. They are having a big parade for her here in Frisco now. They had hundreds of soldiers out with machine guns & rifles walking behind, in front & on each side of her car.
There are really a lot of sailors here.
Every large building has an anti-aircraft unit on it, and they really look like they would use it on any-thing that (rest is missing)