Paul Gilbert Stroud Jr. Letters
Collection
Identifier: MSS-4118
Scope and Contents
The collection contains letters from Paul Gilbert Stroud Jr., a U.S. Air Force serviceman in World War II, to his family in New Hampshire while he was stationed at Gunter Field in Alabama during the spring and summer of 1945. He describes his various duties and events during his four-month tour at Gunter.
One of the letters describes the crash of a B-25 "with a crew of 8 negroes... during a take-off from this field. It happened shortly after midnight. They all were killed instantly except for the flight engineer, a corporal. They said he could walk and talk but his hands & face were burned. He died the next day. It was a miracle he lived at all." In the same letter he talks about seeing in his hometown newspaper a letter written by a friend who was serving in the military in Germany. The letter tells "of the German atrocities he saw. I guess you have to actually see it before you realize what happened. And then I guess you can hardly believe it."
Other letters are much more lighthearted. He fusses at his mother to use the allotment from his pay to fix up the house. He says, "I can't think of anything better to use it for. If I can't get by on $14 I'll like to know the reason why."
One of the letters describes the crash of a B-25 "with a crew of 8 negroes... during a take-off from this field. It happened shortly after midnight. They all were killed instantly except for the flight engineer, a corporal. They said he could walk and talk but his hands & face were burned. He died the next day. It was a miracle he lived at all." In the same letter he talks about seeing in his hometown newspaper a letter written by a friend who was serving in the military in Germany. The letter tells "of the German atrocities he saw. I guess you have to actually see it before you realize what happened. And then I guess you can hardly believe it."
Other letters are much more lighthearted. He fusses at his mother to use the allotment from his pay to fix up the house. He says, "I can't think of anything better to use it for. If I can't get by on $14 I'll like to know the reason why."
Dates
- 1945 March - July
Biographical / Historical
Paul Gilbert Stroud Jr. was born on April 17, 1926, in New Hampshire, second son of Paul Gilbert and Ida Mabel Greenleaf Stroud. He enlisted in the Air Corps in Fort Devens, Massachusetts, on August 14, 1944. He married in 1951 in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Extent
0.1 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Overview
Letters from a World War II Air Force serviceman to his family in New Hampshire while he was stationed at Gunter Field in Alabama during the spring and summer of 1945.
Provenance
purchased from Benjamin Katz, 2015
General
To provide faster access to our materials, this finding aid was published without formal and final review. Email us at archives@ua.edu if you find mistakes or have suggestions to make this finding aid more useful for your research.
Processed by
Martha Bace, 2015
- Title
- Guide to the Paul Gilbert Stroud Jr. Letters
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- June 2015
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections Repository