Language of Material: English.
Scope and Contents
This series contains correspondence from SSgt. Marion T. Disbennett, USAAC to Margaret Disbennett written during his years
of service in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. The first letter in the collection is undated, but appears to
be written before he started radio operator training. In it he tells of having been "eliminated from further pilot training"
due to missing instruction while hospitalized and falling behind. Letters beginning in July 1943 are from Truax Field near
Madison, WI and Marion is writing to Margaret in Indianola, Iowa. He boasts of the food "lots of milk and butter" and of an
easy schedule with little work.
After two weeks of "waiting around" Disbennett and others are sent to Philadelphia for training at the Philco Training School.
They are assigned hotel rooms with maid service, go to school for eight hours, enjoy city life in the evenings and complain
about having to pay 25 cents for a malt. By mid-September 1943 Disbennett is assigned to Smokey Hill Air Base in Salina KS,
then to the Army Air Field at Pratt, KS. He writes about training to be a radio operator on B-17 and B-29 aircraft. He tells
of studying aircraft recognition, meteorology, radio code, advanced first aid, giving innoculations and blood transfusions.
He writes of training flights around the mid-west and to Texas and California, especially of flying over Los Angeles and Orange
County.
He was made a sergeant in early 1944 and writes of sending Margaret a greater share of his pay or "allotment." By March of
1944 he is stationed on the East coast though not permitted to disclose location, then soon to an undisclosed location in
India in what he calls the China Burma India Theatre. His crew is making bombing runs to Japan, he gets "yellow jaundice"
and is lonesome and homesick at night.
By Christmas he writes of being quite homesick and lonesome especially at hearing the songs "Paper Doll" and "White Christmas"
on the radio. During his training and deployment he writes several times of his and Margaret's favorite songs "You'll Never
Know" and "You Are My Sunshine."
In January 1945 he writes of receiving Margaret's letter telling him of his father's death and he writes of feeling "helpless
so far away." By April 1945 Disbennett is back in the United States, at Scott Field, IL and anticipates orders to become an
instructor for radio operator school there.
In his last letter in the collection, May 13, 1945, he notes he has more than enough points for discharge and anticipates
a visit from her.