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17 May 1944

My dearest Ben,

Well, things here have been quite lively. There have been a few incidents with the townspeople and tempers are short on both ends. The worst incident nearly cost a young man his life. About three weeks ago a number of the men from the base went into town for a night out. One of them got drunk and was on the verge of being escorted back to the base when he and the black MP escorting him were accosted by a white deputy. A fight erupted and the black MP wound up in the hospital. It very nearly became a riot and none of the men here have gone into town for recreation since. I didn't mention this earlier, I wanted to wait and see what would happen. Well, the MP is fine and things have calmed down but it is a very uneasy peace.

You all have been in the news a great deal of late. We hear about your successful escort missions. One of the women on the base received a lovely letter from a young man who had flown bomber missions with the 99th as his escort. Her husband was one of his escorts and this young pilot wanted to express his gratitude. He'd said he'd heard about all the controversy about black pilots and wanted us all to know that he'd never met a better escort squadron than the 99th.

Thank you for the beautiful scarf. Where on earth did you find such a work of art in the middle of a war? I had a lovely birthday, marred only by your absence. The women I work with threw a party with, of all luxuries, a small cake. It's hard to think that anything good can come from war but the bond of having loved ones overseas has broken through some of the blind bigotry that exists. I know that some of these women and I will be friends for life, regardless of our different races.

I really do miss you Ben. I'm doing fine but I look forward to your return. Each day I pray that by some miracle the war will end before another soldier dies. Until next time -

I love you with all my heart,
Agatha

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