Stewart Letter #20

Letter # 20, March 25, 1945

 25 March  45

Dear Dad,

            In three months, I will be eighteen years old, and then if I am still in the ASTRP, I will have to wait for another month and a half to go by before I can find out what the active-duty man has to put up with. If, however, I am not in the ASTRP  then, I will have to go right away.  If I find that I cannot go to language school, and cannot have a furlough either, I believe that I shall obtain a release from the ASTRP so that I can be home for a while.[1] I might not have a furlough if the remaining members of my section are transferred to another university. Since there will be less than ten left in my section at the end of this term, and 10 are needed to make a section, there will be either someone shipped here, or we will be shipped out. The last section that was transferred that way did not get furloughs. Meanwhile I will try to learn as much as possible while I am here.

            Since I have come here, I have gained more confidence in the water. There is a nice swimming pool in the coliseum here, and we are given an opportunity each P. T. period to use it. My endurance is not very great, however, because I am not used to it yet. I can swim on my side and float on my back most easily. Also I can dive head first into the water for the first time.

                                                                                                                                   (cont[2])
                                  V ...- 3 Mail

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[1] It isn't obvious, but future letters will make clear that at this point, Stewart was very unhappy with his situation at Lincoln and was seriously considering withdrawing from the ASTRP program. Such a withdrawal, however, would have had negative consequences for subsequent choices in the Army.  A short time after this letter, he will go through a very down time but ultimately will be persuaded to stay in the ASTRP and he will be transferred to South Dakota State University at Brookings, SD, where he will be much happier. All that will be made clear in Letter #21, dated May 30, 1945.

[2] This letter is incomplete - the reverse side did not get copied for some reason.

[3] The three dots and a dash after the letter "V" are Morse Code for "V."  "V" for Victory.  It was very common back then to sing these using the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - "dah-dah-dah DAH!"  It was sort of a mantra during WW2.  This V-mail form was a  special light-weight, low postage Air-Mail letter widely used during WW2 for letters to servicemen.