Milwaukee City Hall
US Army Flight Schools Postcard
25 May 1945

Postcard from
Vera Howe Franson
May 1945

  

[ Postmark: Charleston, South Carolina, 25 May 1945 ]

Postcard text - Milwaukee City Hall, 25 May 1945 - Vera Howe Franson (small)

        Thurs.

Dear Bill —
             Wish
w were here.

Love,
Vera
  

[ To: ]

Cpl. W. R. Franson 19170807
563rd AAFBU, 2nd OTU
Sec. D, Ground Sch. Student
Homestead, Florida
  

Postcard photo - Milwaukee City Hall, 25 May 1945 (small)   
City Hall,
Milwaukee, Wis.
  

The building patriotically carries a three-line banner:

Enlist in
the famous
U.S. Marines
  

  


  
Notes by RWF:

Wilfred R. Franson, a U.S. Army Air Forces instructor in celestial navigation for pilots at Charleston, South Carolina, was attending a school at Homestead Army Airfield in Florida. His wife Vera Howe Franson, for a period a civilian instructor in celestial navigation for Army pilots, remained at Charleston while he was at Homestead.

Some Army acronym hierarchy:
ATC: Air Transport Command
AAFBU: Army Air Forces Base Unit
OTU: Operational Training Unit

Wikipedia articles on Florida World War II Army Airfields
and specifically Homestead Army Airfield (later Homestead Air Reserve Base)
  

Vera Franson's use of "w", initial letter of Wilfred, replacing "u" as an abbreviation for "you" in the common postcard catch-phrase wish you were here, is I believe a deliberate typographical pun. That is, she wishes Wilfred were in Charleston with her. I suspect she also would have been happy if they were together in Milwaukee.

Vera was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; hence her choosing a hometown postcard to send from Charleston, South Carolina, where they lived during the latter years of World War II.

Milwaukee City Hall at Wikipedia

Victory in Europe was very recent: Nazi Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945.
  

© 2013 Robert Wilfred Franson


  
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