---
audio_path:
---

# Letter — 8 April 1943, to Anna

**Sender**: Pvt. Arthur M. Yena — Casual Det., A.A.F. Flexible Gunnery School, Kingman, Arizona (return address on envelope: 2nd School Sqd., A.A.F. F.G.S., Kingman, Arizona)
**Recipient**: Miss Anna L. Yena, Quaker Lane, West Warwick, Rhode Island
**Date written**: 8 April 1943
**Postmark**: Kingman, Ariz. · APR 9 · 5:30 PM · 1943 (Air Mail, 6 cents)
**Stationery**: Mixed — USO stationery (numbered pages, printed margin "IDLE GOSSIP SINKS SHIPS") + plain paper (unnumbered inserts). ONE continuous letter.
**Type**: Handwritten
**Scan location**: `scans/processed/1943-04-08_to-anna/` *(scan-mapping pending)*
**Transcription source**: Gemini/ChatGPT vision pass 2026-06-06, 2-pass QC 2026-06-07
**Confidence**: clean (~94%)
**Note**: ⭐⭐ **THE FIRST KINGMAN LETTER — the keystone that CLOSES the old 2.5-month corpus gap** (5 Mar Miami → 17 May Salt Lake). A long retrospective of the entire troop-train journey across the South (Apr 1 shipment → Apr 7 arrival at Kingman) plus the first look at the Flexible Gunnery School and the "pretty stiff" physical that foreshadows the wash-out. Pieced together from 7 mixed pages (4 numbered USO + 3 plain inserts); one image in the folder is blank.

---

## Transcript

> Pvt. Arthur M. Yena
> Casual Det.
> A.A.F. Flexible Gunnery School
> Kingman, Arizona
> April 8, 1943
>
> Dear Anna,
>
> Well I'm finally here in Kingman, Arizona a lonely desolate, flat vally with mountains all around. I've sent down post cards as I went along but I'll give you a brief idea of what went on. First of all we went on shipment April 1, 1943. The next day April 2 at 2:00 P.M. they told us to get ready by 3:00 P.M. to ship out. We ate at 4:30 and left for Miami at 6:00. We waited till 9:00 before the train came and picked us up. When we woke up for breakfast April 3. We were in Jacksonville, Florida. We ate at a restaurant and got a pack of cigarette when we left. All the way down we had Pullman's. At first I thought we might head for New York when we went into Georgia, but as soon as we dropped off a car full of air cadets there, we rode back down south into Thomasville, Georgia and ate our dinner there. That night we headed north into Montgomery, Alabama and we sure thought we were going to Miami but after we ate supper there at a hotel we rode all night down south through Alabama. The next morning we were riding through Mobile, Alabama, a little of Mississippi and about 5:30 Sunday morning April 4 we stopped at New Orleans, Louisiana, that's when we crossed the muddy Mississippi River and baby is that river muddy. We ate our breakfast in our dinning car that morning and after that we marched into the city singing songs and finally stopped at a couple of churches. Some went to the catholic church, some went to the movies and the rest of us went to the Episcopal church for an hour. We ate dinner at the Holmes Cafeteria and could have anything we wanted and I sure did.
>
> [page 2] After dinner we washed up at the U.S.O. and went on a walking tour through the French quaters. We landed up at an old house where the girls of that part of the city fixed up some iced-tea and cakes. Then we visited the oldest church in New Orleans 148 year old. Also walked through an old museum. We ate supper there at some place and sang a few more army air corps songs while the people gathered around us watched. After that we boarded the train again and rode all night through Louisiana into Texas. Monday, April 5 we had breakfast in our dinning car and at 10:30 we hit Houston, Texas. We marched up to this huge U.S.O. and took a shower and then had dinner in another big Cafeteria. In the afternoon we went to the movies and saw "The Immortal Sergeant". We ate supper in some place fixed like a ranch and then went back to the U.S.O. and [page 3] stayed a little while for the dance. Wed we continued on into Texas through to New Mexico and into Arizona Wednesday April 7 we stopped at 6:00 in Kingman, Arizona at this big field. What a place "Gods Country" and an airport.
>
> We are supposed to start classes next Monday and this course lasts for 6 weeks we can't go out of the camp during that time and besides if we could it wouldn't do much good because there isn't a place in quite a few miles and then there are a couple of homes with mostly Indians in them and may be a General store. Oh well the air is nice here and maybe I'll save some money when I get paid. I'm not quite sure of the address here but you can try and send a letter to this address at the end. Don't send anything unless you have already sent it to Miami Beach.
>
> There still is one fellow who was drafted with me from West Warwick. So far as I know I will take up Flexible Aerial Gunnery. First we will have a physical examination. They say its pretty stiff too so I won't say anything about Gunnery until after that. As yet I don't know what my Commanding Officer is yet and I still think you shouldn't write to him yet. I was talking to a few fellows here that stay here all the time and asked them what they would do to you if you didn't pass the physical and they claimed that since this is a relatively new field they would most likely keep you here as a permanent party man. I hate like heck to stay here all the time so I'll tell you a little more as I write. Did you [write — crossed out] send the camera down yet. If you didn't don't but if you did tell me when so I can figure out about when I should [page 4] get it. How is everybody you see? Good I hope, because I'm feeling good. As I said before don't worry for me about it. I mean the Gunnery part of it. Well I'll be ending now because I guess that's all I can tell you now. Write when you can and give my love to Ma and Pa and Johnny and Kathleen and everybody and take it easy.
>
> Love Arthur.
>
> P.S. Here is the address you can try to write to.
> Pvt. A. M. Yena
> Casual Det.
> A.A.F. Flexible Gunnery School
> Kingman, Arizona
>
> P.P.S. I just found out what I'm pretty sure will be my address here so use this one and if you havn't already sent the camera I change my mind you can try now. Please send a film because I'm almost sure you can't get them here.
> Pvt. A. M. Yena
> 2nd School Sqd.
> A.A.F. F.G.S.
> Kingman, Arizona

---

## Major content / narrative significance

- ⭐⭐ **THE FIRST KINGMAN LETTER — AND THE KEYSTONE THAT CLOSES THE GAP.** Until this batch, the corpus jumped straight from 5 Mar 1943 (the last Miami letter) to ~17 May 1943 (Salt Lake City), with 2.5 months unaccounted. This single letter narrates the entire troop-train journey across the South and lands Pops at his next duty station. The old "March–April 1943 mystery stop" question in the 5 Mar transcript is now answered: there was no intermediate armorer school — the shipment went straight from Miami Beach to **Kingman AAF Flexible Gunnery School**, with the journey itself eating the first week of April.
- ⭐⭐ **THE COMPLETE ITINERARY, DAY BY DAY** (Chapter-1/2 hinge material): *shipment Apr 1* → *Apr 2 left Miami 9 PM by Pullman* → *Apr 3 woke in Jacksonville FL* (restaurant breakfast, a free pack of cigarettes) → dropped air cadets in Georgia, doubled back to **Thomasville, Georgia** for dinner → **Montgomery, Alabama** for a hotel supper (and a false hope they were heading back to Miami) → overnight through Alabama → *Apr 4 (Sun) 5:30 AM* **Mobile**, then **New Orleans**, "crossed the muddy Mississippi River and baby is that river muddy" → *Apr 5 (Mon) 10:30* **Houston, Texas** → through **New Mexico** into **Arizona** → *Apr 7 (Wed) 6:00* **Kingman, Arizona.** Note the writer's loose geography — Thomasville is in *Georgia* (consistent with the project's "Thomasville Alabama" flag on Pops's geography elsewhere); here he correctly tags it Georgia but the GA→AL→back-south zig-zag reflects a confused trooper guessing his route, not the actual rail line.
- ⭐⭐ **THE WASH-OUT FORESHADOWED IN HIS OWN WORDS.** *"First we will have a physical examination. They say its pretty stiff too so I won't say anything about Gunnery until after that."* We know from memory that Pops washes OUT of Kingman gunnery for 20/30 eyesight. This letter is the calm-before: he is hedging, deliberately refusing to commit to gunnery as a future ("I won't say anything about Gunnery until after that"). The dramatic irony is total — the reader knows the physical is exactly what ends the gunnery dream.
- ⭐⭐ **"PERMANENT PARTY MAN" — the trap he fears.** *"…they would most likely keep you here as a permanent party man. I hate like heck to stay here all the time."* This is the **unique content of this letter** (correcting the earlier spec note): the real anxiety is not infantry/Air-Corps-pilot secrecy but the genuine fear that *failing the physical* gets you frozen at Kingman as cadre — permanent party — rather than washed forward to a new assignment. As it happened, washing out sent him onward (to Salt Lake), not into Kingman permanent party — so his feared outcome did NOT come to pass, which itself is a quietly important biographical beat.
- ⭐ **"GOD'S COUNTRY AND AN AIRPORT."** Pops's first, indelible impression of Kingman: *"a lonely desolate, flat vally with mountains all around"* … *"What a place 'Gods Country' and an airport."* Six-week course, confined to camp, nearest civilization a few homes "with mostly Indians in them and may be a General store." This is the bleak, isolated Mojave-desert posting that bookends the bright, social Miami Beach billet (grand piano, dances, sketching class) of just five weeks earlier — a deliberate tonal cliff for the narrative.
- ⭐ **THE USO AS LIFELINE ACROSS THE SOUTH.** The journey is structured entirely around USO/relief stops: wash-up at the New Orleans USO, the French Quarter walking tour with local girls serving iced-tea and cakes, the 148-year-old church and old museum, the *huge* Houston USO with showers + cafeteria + a movie ("The Immortal Sergeant," 1943) + an evening dance. This dovetails with the family theme that Pops himself runs the West Warwick USO — he is on the receiving end here of exactly the hospitality he gives at home.
- ⭐ **THE STATIONERY IS THE STORY.** The letter is physically built from USO stationery picked up *along the route* (the numbered pages carry the printed war-caution margin "IDLE GOSSIP SINKS SHIPS") plus plain paper inserts — a material artifact of the journey itself. One folder image is blank (no content lost).
- **TWO TRIAL ADDRESSES — the unsettled-arrival texture.** He gives the Casual Det. address in the P.S., then in the P.P.S. corrects it to **2nd School Sqd., A.A.F. F.G.S.** (the envelope return address confirms the 2nd School Sqd. as the settled one). Classic just-arrived limbo: not yet assigned, doesn't know his C.O. ("I still think you shouldn't write to him yet").
- **CAMERA & FILM LOGISTICS.** A running thread: he tells Anna *not* to send the camera, then reverses in the P.P.S. ("I change my mind you can try now"), and asks specifically for **film** — "I'm almost sure you can't get them here." Sets up the possibility that surviving Kingman-era snapshots exist (Mom-interview / attic item).
- **"ONE FELLOW WHO WAS DRAFTED WITH ME FROM WEST WARWICK" still travels with him** — the same hometown-companion thread from Miami (the Mar 5 letter's "fellow from West Warwick now in Texas," likely Arthur Swedberg). Here at least one WW draftee is still beside Pops at Kingman; whether it's Swedberg is unconfirmed (Swedberg was reported in Texas in March).

## Family-tree refresh from this letter

- **Anna L. Yena** — recipient; sister and primary correspondent/scribe. Addressed at Quaker Lane, West Warwick.
- **Ma and Pa, Johnny, Kathleen** — "give my love to Ma and Pa and Johnny and Kathleen and everybody." Standard family roll-call; confirms Kathleen (sister) is at home in spring 1943.
- **"One fellow who was drafted with me from West Warwick"** — unnamed here, still with Pops at Kingman. Cross-ref the Mar 5 letter's WW companion (Arthur Swedberg candidate, last placed in Texas) — possibly the same man, possibly a second WW draftee. Open.
- No NEW named persons in this letter — it is journey/place-dense rather than people-dense.

## Open questions

- ⚠️ **Return-address square-up:** the *letter* opens with "Casual Det." and the P.S. repeats it; the P.P.S. *and the envelope* settle on **2nd School Sqd., A.A.F. F.G.S.** Use 2nd School Sqd. as the canonical Kingman address; Casual Det. is the transient first guess.
- **Who is the "one fellow from West Warwick" at Kingman?** Is he the same man reported in Texas on Mar 5 (Arthur Swedberg), or a different WW draftee? If different, that's a new name to recover. Mom-interview / WW draft-roster item.
- **Did Kingman-era photos survive?** Pops reverses course and asks for the camera + film. Any Mojave/desert-posting snapshots in the attic would be the visual record of this exact stretch. Attic/Mom-interview soft-watch item.
- **Exact rail route:** Pops's narration (FL → GA → AL → back south → New Orleans → Houston → NM → AZ) is a tired trooper's guess; the GA-then-Montgomery-then-"thought we were going back to Miami" zig-zag suggests car-shuffling (he notes air cadets dropped in Georgia). Worth a light railfan/AAF-troop-movement check if the journey becomes a set-piece chapter.
- **The "pretty stiff" physical → wash-out timing:** this letter (Apr 8) says classes start "next Monday" (Apr 12) with the physical first. The eyesight wash-out (20/30) lands sometime between here and the mid-May Salt Lake letter — the next Kingman letters in the corpus should pin the exact wash-out date.

## Themes

kingman-az · FIRST-KINGMAN-LETTER · CLOSES-THE-2-5-MONTH-GAP · troop-train-journey · apr-1-shipment · miami-to-kingman · jacksonville-fl · thomasville-ga · montgomery-al · mobile-al · new-orleans-muddy-mississippi · french-quarter-uso · houston-tx-uso-shower · the-immortal-sergeant-movie · GODS-COUNTRY-AND-AN-AIRPORT · flexible-aerial-gunnery · 6-week-course · PRETTY-STIFF-PHYSICAL · PERMANENT-PARTY-MAN-FEAR · WASH-OUT-FORESHADOWED · 2nd-school-sqd-vs-casual-det · two-trial-addresses · camera-and-film-logistics · WW-fellow-still-with-him · uso-stationery-idle-gossip-sinks-ships · chapter-1-2-hinge