An excerpt from the unpublished memoior of "Bobby" Wilson:

"The battle of Midway had taken place in June, the summer before. It was the farthest advanced U. S. territory in that part of the South Pacific in the spring of 1943. So, when we got there we were put on strip alert and we had airplanes airborne in case the Japanese tried to attack. So, we had time to perfect and hone and get our tactics down a lot better and do a lot of combat tactics. It was a great opportunity for training. The weather out there was always perfect for flying."

this is a letter Wilson wrote to his future wife Sunnie:

May 20, 1943

My dearest beloved,

There are so many things I would like to say to you but somehow when I start to write they just never come forth." "We are still holding out on this old rock but if there ever were a place that tries men's souls this is it.

Monotony is the biggest thing and if it is hard on the Officers, it is twice as hard on the men. If it were not for the grand bunch of fellows we have here, this duty would be almost unbearable.

We do put in long days, from three o'clock in the morning until an hour after sundown, but you have many opportunities to sleep during the day, but just sleeping with your clothes on and sleeping between some nice cool, clean sheets is a world of difference. Flying patrols and being always on the alert for something that never seems to come may not sound like much work, but I think the real thing would be easier. "

We get every third day off, but the recreation facilities are so limited that you may just as well be on the job. Being able to fly is the big¬gest recreation I have.

Fishing here is pretty good if you are lucky enough to talk somebody into letting you use their boat. You go out on the coral reefs and just drop your line over the side and look into the nice, clear water of the Pacific and watch the fish grab at your hook. To have been able to do that a few years ago, I would have given a few months of my life, but now there just doesn't seem to be much fun to it.

Most of the fellows haven't shaved since they came here, including myself. Of course, I haven't got much more than a little fuzz but even that is getting pretty long now and just as red as it can be. Steve is growing a "Van Dyke’’ and with his beard is doing a pretty good job of it, too. All in all, we are a pretty rugged looking outfit and if some Japs come our way, we could at least scare them away. Maybe we will be able to take some pictures and there is a slim possibility that I may be able to send you some.

We have a different movie every day, but if we are lucky we may be able to get 'Broadway Melodies of 1934,' by next month.

The only radio programs we get is "Radio Tokyo,'' every evening about 7:30, some ol Jap with a Harvard accent starts spouting off about all the ships they have sunk and all the prisoners they have taken and all the territory they have captured, and all the strikes in America (which may be the truth), but it is mostly just a lot of bunk and everyone gets a big laugh out of it.

Every two weeks we get some newspapers, which are pretty old, and a few periodicals. There isn't a page of Life, Colliers, American and a couple of the magazines I haven't studied. A plane came in today with some mail, but it was either official mail or some Christmas cards sent last November."