I Went Aviatin' to China: My Father's World War II Letters to My Mother

My father, Joe Thomas Pound, graduated from Sullivan High School on a Friday in May 1943. The following Monday he was on a train to begin basic training in the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF). Less than two years later he was flying "The Hump". He was 20 years old.

With one of the worst wartime survival rates ever, “The Hump” airlift was achieved at the cost of over 1600 airmen in over 700 plane crashes. "Every 340 tons delivered cost the life of a pilot," wrote historian Francis Pike in his book, Hirohito's War: The Pacific War, 1941-1945.
Before she passed away, my mother gave me the letters between her and Dad from during the war, before they were married. All her life my mother kept the small local newspaper clipping that reported her marriage to Dad. We found it in her wallet after she passed away. For such an admirer of Dorothy Parker and advocate of women’s independence and liberation long before that was even a term, it has been remarkable to learn how fully she devoted herself to Dad, their marriage, and our family. That is love.
Mom and Dad married on 26 January 1946.