--- audio_path: --- # Letter — 18 June 1943, to Anna *(last Salt Lake City letter)* **Sender**: Pvt. Arthur M. Yena — Sub Air Base No. 1, Squadron Adm. No. 1, Bks., Salt Lake City, Utah **Recipient**: Miss Anna L. Yena, Quaker Lane, West Warwick, Rhode Island **Date written**: 18 June 1943 **Postmark**: Salt Lake City, Utah, 19 June 1943 **Type**: Handwritten cursive **Scan location**: `scans/processed/1943-06-18_to-anna/` **Transcription source**: ChatGPT vision pass 2026-05-26 (~95% confidence) **Confidence**: clean **Note**: ⚠️ Rank reads "Pvt." again — possibly a rank reversal from the early-June Pfc readings, OR a ChatGPT cursive misread of "Pfc." back to "Pvt." Worth eyeballing. Last Salt Lake City letter before shipping out. --- ## Transcript (ChatGPT clean) > June 18, 1943 > > Dear Anna, > > I just got your letter today and as I have been placed on shipment again, I'll answer it right away. I graduated from this school with a 92% average. That rates a graduation with honors. I'll be on the move again in a couple of days I guess and this time I'll be assigned to an outfit which I'll be with anywhere it goes for the duration. When I get there I'll try to get a furlough, but don't expect anything because more likely than not I won't get it. I'll try, like hell anyway. > > Right now its Friday 6:10 P.M. Mountain War Time and am listening to Kate Smith who is broadcasting from Newport Naval Base, Rhode Island. You can bet I jumped up when I heard the announcer mention Rhode Island. You know radio is quite thing, here I am listening to her when you might be hearing the same thing 3000 miles away. > > I'm glad you got the pictures alright and I don't know if you got the ones from Salt Lake City yet, but if they aren't there yet they should be there soon. > > I just wrote to Karl and said I guess we'll have to give the plants up for lost. > > Boy I guess that must have been some crash. It's a wonder the pilot got out in one piece. I guess you're seeing more action than I am. > > Still haven't heard from Ol. Witty's letter haven't popped up yet and besides it's too late now anyway. I wonder where I'll land up next? Maybe by the time I get your next letter I'll know then I'll be able to tell you. > > Our Lt. Hall in charge of our class, as I told Karl, had a fireside chat with us and told us about his flights in a Flying Fortress against the Japs. He has seen a lot of action and is as swell a Southerner as you could ever hope to meet. He is to be formally decorated with the silver star for heroic action in Australia when his plane crashed in the swampy jungles and they all got back alive. It was in some very interesting stories. He has so many medals that he looks almost like Goering. > > Well that's all I can think of right now. Hope everything is all right home. I still have some candy left, the slippers are fine and I'm pretty well stored up on everything. > > Will take it easy and don't worry if you don't hear from me in a couple of days as I might be on the way again. > > Love to all at home, > > Love, > Arthur --- ## Major content / narrative significance - ⭐ **THE CRYPTOGRAPHY GRADUATION.** *"I graduated from this school with a 92% average. That rates a graduation with honors."* Pops finishes the Salt Lake City Cryptography Course. Next assignment: "I'll be assigned to an outfit which I'll be with anywhere it goes for the duration" — i.e., his combat unit. (Spoiler — that doesn't happen yet; he gets re-routed via Sawtelle hospital → Tucson, and the actual bomb-group assignment is a year later in 1944.) - ⭐ **Kate Smith broadcasting from Newport Naval Base RI** — Pops listening on Mountain War Time, "jumped up when I heard the announcer mention Rhode Island." Beautiful image — connection home through radio waves. **Strong Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 scene-setting moment.** - **Lt. Hall** — Pops's instructor, Silver Star recipient for crashing a B-17 in Australian jungles, all crew survived. "So many medals that he looks almost like Goering." NEW. **First mention of a Flying Fortress in the corpus** (per Pops's words). - **"The plants" lost** — Pops and Karl had something growing that's now given up for dead. Possibly window-box plants? Family garden in Quaker Lane? - **A crash at home** — Anna mentioned some kind of plane crash near home. (1943 had multiple training-flight crashes in New England.) **Mom-interview / archive check.** - **Witty's letter has lapsed** — *"Witty's letter haven't popped up yet and besides it's too late now anyway."* The Witty advocacy effort fails to produce results before Pops ships out. ## Family-tree refresh - **Lt. Hall** — Pops's cryptography instructor, Silver Star recipient. NEW. ## Themes CRYPTOGRAPHY-GRADUATION · 92-pct-honors-finish · placed-on-shipment · lt-hall-silver-star-flying-fortress · australian-jungle-crash · kate-smith-radio-newport-naval-base · 3000-miles-radio-connection · home-front-plane-crash · witty-effort-fails · last-salt-lake-letter · pull-quote-kate-smith-radio