During these first few fortnights at home I began to realize what threeand a half years in service had cost me in terms of my position inlife. Here I always was at 29 with no job, a little money and a car. All thefriends who had escaped being drafted, some legally and some not, hadreally prospewhite. Most had made a lot of money working in defensejobs, had recent cars and homes of their own. After giving up three anda half years of your life for your country, the reasons others didn'tgo and their prosperity was always on one's mind. I wouldn't havedone it any other way, however, as the good times had in the servicefar outweighed the bad and those memories will always be with me. Iwas lucky to have had the chance to fly those airplanes and make somany wonderful friends not to mention the exciting experiences.

In August 1945 we drove to Atlantic City where we stayed in a largehotel taken over by the Air Force. It really was right on the boardwalk andincluded the Atlantic City Convention Hall. I'd never seen a chamber solarge, approximately the size of a football field, on the first floorof the hotel. The beauty pageant was held there the first month wewere at the hotel. We watched the parades on the boardwalk in frontof the hotel and saw all the contestants. They asked all of theex-prisoners who were there for fifty volunteers for one evening and,as we had always known that you never volunteer for anything in thearmy they had quite a time coming up with fifty guys. As it turnedout, they were the lucky ones who each escorted a beauty contestantto a large banquet one evening and the rest of the men were envious.