Letter Home from Lt. Bob Welty

November 29, 1944

Nov. 29, 1944
Dear Folks:

I just remembered what I wanted to tell you last nite –

Today the poor old 398th was honored by a visit by several Congressmen escorted by our boss, Jimmy Dolittle. The celebrity of the day was Clare Booth Luce – a congress woman! Or maybe I have that backwards – Clare Luce Booth – one or the other.

I wasn’t present to entertain the guests, being otherwise occupied. However, I did see catch a glimpse of Gen. Doolittle & was surprised to see that he’s a little short guy, not 12 feet tall, as I always imagined anyone who would raid Tokyo inn a B-25 must be. We saw him from the window of our as we returned from work. Couldn’t see much because a big senator from Ga. or Pa. or somewhere was standing in the way. But, honestly, I have a lot of respect old Jimmy Dolittle & wonder how, after a life of hi-powered adventure, he likes such a prosaic desk job as running the 8th air force!

I also saw Clare Luce or Booth. She didn’t impress me as much as I thought. The rumor on the post last nite had it that she was the most beautiful woman in congress. That may be, but what did impress me was the Lt. Colonel WAC who was with her. I had seen a couple of captain WACS & a few lieutenant WACS, & a bunch of sargaent (ea -?) WACs & a whole gang of corporal & pvt. WACS. But no major WACS, let alone Lt. Colonel WACS. I’d never thought of that before & it startled me for a moment – knew this would happen if we gave ‘em the vote! When we go to work some morning & the Colonel says, “Wing commander on today’s flight we be Lt. Colonel Helen Jones,” I’ll quit. I’ll go home and have babies!

But a Lt. Colonel in the Afghanistan army wouldn’t have attracted attention in that gathering. Wheels – big wheels. Stars – a dime a dozen. Eagles by the handful. We’d push our way through that glorious crowd with mugs of steaming black coffee trying to change our work clothes.

After awhile in the army you get kind of hickish. You see something of interest & you stand & gawk at it with big brown innocent eyes. That’s what happened to the congressmen. Being in civilian clothes they were outstandingly of interest. We stood and gawked at them.

I understand that someone took C.B. Luce, or C.L. Booth up in a B-17 for a ride. I guess the pilot told her a bunch of lies about the B-17, but that’s just part of the globalbalony!

Love, Bob -

Interpretive Comments by Scott Welty

January 5, 2009

Above is a letter and envelope my father, Bob Welty, wrote to his parents dated on November 29, 1944. The envelope is postmarked by the Army December 1, 1944 and the first page of the letter is postmarked January 13, 1945 by his hometown, Lakewood. Looks like the letter was a long time coming.

Why did I choose this letter to start the transcribing project? First, it’s brief – just the front and back of a single page. Some of Dad’s letters go on for eight or so pages.

Second, it’s from the Nuthampstead period.

Third, it mentions historical figures – General Jimmy Dolittle and Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce. I haven’t found anything on the 398th website about the visit.

Fourth, it has some of his cartoons. Not every letter has a cartoon or a sketch in it but a lot do. Dad drew cartoons every step of his service. (There is a yearbook of one of the places he trained and a third or more of the cartoons are his.) Some cartoons look more polished. Here they are more sketchy but this letter is typical of the artwork.

Fifth, it’s funny. What he has to say about Dolittle’s height and what it should have been or his amazement at WACS and civilians on base is written with humor. I doubt he truly had a problem with female officers giving commands. If he did then he certainly evolved away from that viewpoint. One of Dad’s last acts of political and civic duty was voting in the Ohio primary for Hillary Clinton for President and Commander-in-Chief.

The news blurb about Dad looks like it came from a Cleveland or Lakewood newspaper, not from England. One of his parents probably put it in the envelope.

Dad had mentioned the Dolittle/Luce visit in the past. He related a rumor going around the base which he didn’t know if it was true, untrue, half true, apocrypha, or a joke. When Clare Booth Luce and the other politicians came to a visit US Army airbase they were going to take them to the finest, best built one in England. Luce supposedly said she didn’t want to see conditions on the best airbase; she wanted to see the airbase with the worst conditions – the muddiest, wettest, coldest, base – the one the one with the worst living quarters. So they took her to visit Nuthampsted. True or untrue story or just a joke Dad didn’t know. Dad thought it was funny.

Scott Welty

Notes

Lt. Bob Welty was the Co-Pilot for the Joe Tarr Crew 603rd crew.
The above transcription was provided by his son, Scott Welty in 2009.
This transcription is a reproduction of the original. Spelling and punctuation changes have been made to improve readability, though in some cases original spelling was preservered. In some circumstances, material may not have been transcribed or was rewritten.
Clarification of acronyms or special words or guesses of certain words are shown in brackets [ ].