Letters from the War: A chronicle of Dan Chandler's service in the Army Air Corps, 1944-1945

By Jeff Chandler

Dan Chandler was a kid from rural Northeast Georgia who enlisted in the Army Air Corps near the end of World War II, leaving his family farm for the first time.  After going through basic training in Miami Beach, the Army decided he would make a great military police candidate, despite being short and slim, and shipped him off to New J

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Mar 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885900249

Jeff Chandler

Jeff Chandler grew up on the other side of the state in Northwest Georgia. He holds a bachelor's degree in Physics from Davidson College and an MBA degree from the University of Georgia. A technologist and entrepreneur, he retired from a career in information technology and took a left turn into the field of agricultural robotics. In his spare time, Jeff enjoys researching and writing about family history from his home near the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.

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Introduction

Daniel (Dan) Chandler served in the Army Air Corps during the latter part of World War II, from January 1944 through the end of the war. This book is a compilation of some of his letters sent back home to his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Curtis E. Chandler, and others in the family, which his mother saved.

The family lived on a farm outside of Commerce, Georgia in Banks County. Curtis Eugene Chandler, Jr. (Gene) was the oldest child, born July 20, 1922. Dan and his twin sister Dorothy (Dot) were next, born Sept. 10, 1924, followed by Reuben, born Dec. 17, 1927 and Philip (Phil) the youngest child, born Feb. 6, 1943.

Dan graduated from Commerce High School in 1942 at age 17. Growing up on the farm, he was accustomed to hard work and long days. He was accustomed to shooting a gun as well. Being 5’4", he was a good candidate for the tail gunner position since he could squeeze into a small space in the rear of the plane but first, he would have to go through basic training and a battery of tests to determine his future.

His short stature also meant that when hunting, he was assigned the task of climbing the tree to scare out the squirrels while his brothers shot the squirrels coming out of their nest, so Dan was not unaccustomed to being in the line of fire.

Gene enlisted in the Army Air Corps before Dan. Dot's new husband Brooks Harber enlisted in the Infantry soon after getting married in April 1944. Dan's first cousin Carter (Hap) Chandler interrupted his college education to enlist in the Army Air Corps and eventually was stationed near Dan in England as a navigator. Cousin Almond Chandler had recently been killed during the invasion of France in August 1944, the only casualty from this war for the Chandler family. Other cousins were stationed in the Canal Zone and the Pacific Theater.

Dan enlisted on December 2, 1943, choosing the Army Air Corps, and reported for duty at Fort McPherson (Fort Mac) outside of Atlanta. He was sent to Miami Beach first, and then to New Jersey for MP training. The standard Army Air Corps training included basic indoctrination, then gunnery school, followed by bomber and flight training.

During his training, Dan traveling up and down the eastern seaboard – he was stationed briefly at Camp Springs, Maryland (now Joint Base Andrews), Millville Army Air Field in New Jersey, at Tyndall Army Air Corps Gunnery School (now Tyndall AFB) near Panama City, Florida, and finally Long Island, New York, for the staging operation before shipping out via boat to England, where he was stationed at Hethel Field near Norwich from February through May 1945.

After the European Theater Operations (ETO) was wound down, Dan's crew flew a plane back to the US, stopping in Iceland briefly for refueling. Dan carried a souvenir of the Iceland currency in his wallet for fifty years afterwards. His final station was at Charleston Army Air Field.

Much of the text of the letters is talking about nothing. The censors would not allow anything to be written that would give away military information, so the letters tend to be the same thing over and over. Occasionally there are tidbits that give insight into the goings on. But mostly, they provide a feeling of how far away and lonely the service in the military must have been for Dan and thousands like him –a bit of despair, a bit of sadness, but always hope for the future when the war would be over.

Over the course of time, Dan changed. The handwriting changed, and his spelling improved. His letters started out Dear Mama & all or Dear folks and then changed to Dear Mama, Daddy & all and later changed to Dear Mama, Dad & all.

By the end of the letters, you can understand what was really going on during the brief four months while stationed in England. Some of the letters were written to his twin sister, Dot, with whom he shared different thoughts than with his parents.

After the war, Dan went on to graduate from the University of Georgia in 1949 and got married in 1948. He had two children and lived a long life, passing away at age 88 in January 2013 in Dalton, Georgia.

These letters were saved by my grandmother, Dan's mother; my sister and I found them in a cigar box when cleaning out the house after my parents had passed away. Most were still in the original envelope. Some were written on stationery with a military logo on it. Some were written on plain paper. The early envelopes were marked Free where the stamp would normally be but once in England most of the letters were short V-mail one-pagers or longer letters mailed via Air Mail with a 6-cent stamp.

The first letter was written at age 19. He had never been outside of Georgia before, and probably never farther away from home than 50 miles. The last letter was written a month before he turned 21. Spelling, style, and punctuation have been copied as best I could to give you a sense of the person and the times.

The Letters

Pvt Daniel Chandler 34832739

405 Training Group, Flight A-10

AAFTC No. 1

Miami Beach, Fla.

Mr & Mrs C.E. Chandler

Rte 5

Commerce Ga.

Postmarked Jan. 6, 1944

Miami Beach

Friday Night

Dear Mama and all:

How is everything way back up there. I got here just fine and am staying at the Blackstone Hotel which is the, or is one of the, largest hotels here at the Beach. Sort of raving am I not. This weather here is something else. Hardly no one wares a coat and when we left Atlanta we were even cold in an overcoat.

We left camp about 8:00 and after we got to the station it was 10 o’clock before we left. There were three train car loads that came down here. One load came from Fort Bragg. Our meals on the way down were nothing to brag about and neither was supper here at the hotel. I think the cook let everything burn or scorch.

When we left Atlanta I had no idea in which direction we were traveling. As soon as we got to Jackson, Ga. I knew where we were going. I didn’t sleep very well on the train for it was so hot that I couldn’t get my breath. I enjoyed the sights after the morning got on so I didn’t do anything but just look. I like these orange trees better than anything I saw. Don’t guess I will get to get into one soon for we are restricted to this hotel until we go through processing again which will take about 14 days.

I have two pretty nice boys for room mates. I have known them ever sense I got to Fort Mac. I think we will get along O.K. for the time being. I also saw plenty of palms and grapefruit trees. These gardens got me here. Everything is green as if it were summer. I saw fields of beans along the way. Not just patches but fields. There was one field of about 15 acres of beans and people were picking them. I would hate to have the job of picking beans.

We got here about 5:30 this evening and had to wait about 45 minutes on the trucks. They put us on trucks and brought us out here to the hotel. They told us what they expected of us then assigned us to groups. After that we went through the motion of eating. They let us off tonight to do anything we wanted to inside our rooms.

These foot pads Reuben gave me are coming in handy now. I think I am going to have to wash in a day or two or go with dirty socks & underwear.

I need some more money now for having my cloths pressed & other odds & ends. I would have sent you a telegram but they will not let us out of this building for anything.

Be careful and don’t worry about me.

Love to all, Dan

The Blackstone Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida

Used with permission of HistoryMiami Museum.

(no envelope)

Sunday night

Dear Mama & all

How is everything at home today. How's Phil and all the rest of you this pretty Jan. weather or is it pretty there. It really gets warm down here during the day. I get up a sweat trying to march especially the other morning.

One morning I had a pack and the next a rifle. We went to the drill field to drill toward the last of the week. I complained about the pavement but I take it all back now. The drill field is sand so you can imagine what it is like to march for an hour.

I guess you would [not] be a soldier if you didn’t complain. That is what a soldier is noted