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No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the David A. Walsh Papers #05062, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Marguerite Walsh Behn, of Chapel Hill, N.C., in June 2001 (Acc. 98979).

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• Soldiers--United States--Correspondence--History--World War, 1939-1945.
• United States. Army Air Force--Military life.
• Walsh, David A., 1923- .
• World War, 1939-1945--India.
• World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American.

David A. Walsh was born on 9 June 1923. He was graduated from high school in Babylon, N.Y. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Forces as a mechanic. In 1943, Walsh attended the Army Air Forces Technical School at Seymour Johnson Field in North Carolina. He first joined the 308 Bomb Squadron, 85th FTR Bomb Group, at Harding Field, Baton Rouge, La., then the 502nd FTR Bomb Squadron at Waycross Army Air Base, Waycross, Ga. Walsh rose from the rank of private to corporal in 1944 and was relocated to the Army Air Field, Punta Gorda, Fla. At the end of the war, Walsh was stationed overseas, first with the 328 Airdrome Squadron of the 2nd Air Commando Group, and then with the 604 Air Materiel Squadron of the 380 Air Service Group in Karachi, India. In 2001, he lived in Norfolk, England.

Chiefly letters, 1943-1945, relating to David A. Walsh's United States Army Air Forces service during World War II. The largest concentration of letters are those written by Walsh to his sister, Marguerite Walsh (called Magee). The letters describe Walsh's military training at the Army Air Forces Technical School at Seymour Johnson Field in North Carolina and the places he was stationed, including Harding Field, Baton Rouge, La.; Waycross Army Air Base, Waycross, Ga.; Army Air Field, Punta Gorda, Fla.; and a base in Karachi, India. Walsh also wrote about military life as an airplane mechanic, social activities, family affairs, the Army bureaucracy, the relationship between enlisted personnel and officers, the books he read, and planetary flight.