Home Front to Battlefront. Frank Lavin
Blue” and “Deep in the Heart of Texas.” More fun.
Keep your chins up—howz your throat?
Lots of Love –son Carl
Carl was out of the infantry and assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Queens College in New York City. America was at war and Carl was going back to school.
The ASTP came about because of politics. A majority of undergraduate students had been males, so the colleges were depleted when they were called into the army. The colleges brought political pressure to bear to use the colleges in training, and as a result the army started the ASTP.
Anyone with more than a 115 IQ could get in. There was no military training, just academic work. It was taking basic college classes extra fast. And it was generally believed that if you got into the ASTP you were assured of becoming an officer.
The program was a blessing for Carl. He no longer was in the infantry. He was in an academic setting in New York City, an exciting, expensive city that Carl could occasionally explore. An Emerald City.
It was wartime, but sometimes you wouldn’t know it from Carl’s letters. Carl was horseback riding, ringing in the New Year at Times Square, dancing at the Stage Door Canteen, hopping on the Staten Island Ferry, and even taking in Broadway. And he wasn’t doing it alone.
Carl was falling in love, with a girl and a city. And he was on the verge of becoming an officer. It was almost as if Carl had won the lottery.
Almost.
. . .
Queens College opened in 1937, though many of the Spanish tile–roofed stucco buildings had been built in the 1900s and 1920s. Its position on a hill provided a clear view of the Manhattan skyline from the far-end of the campus.1
The first ASTP unit came to the Queens College campus in the summer of 1943, and the appearance of all 345 ASTP men there was a welcome sight for the 1,625 civilian students.2
The ASTP students were still in the army, meaning they wore uniforms to class, received their same service pay and had to follow all army rules and regulations. Basically, ASTPers had “approximately 59 hours of supervised activity a week.”3 Though it could differ, it typically meant that from Monday to Friday ASTPers around the country arose to Reveille at 6:30 a.m. and ended their day on campus with Taps at 10:30 p.m. On the weekend they were required to wake at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday as well as attend classes from 1:20 to 3:20 p.m. After that, the students’ schedule freed up until 6:30 p.m. the next day, Sunday.4
. . .
Carl joined the program as a replacement. He would move into the recreation building, with army bunks taking over the gym floor. With him were several hundred enlisted men from across the United States.5
A student by the name of Anna Lee Kram captured the campus scene with her poem “Forward, Cupid—Hut!”:
They came in August,
A.S.T.P.
Marching and drilling,
(Gosh, it was thrilling!)
Olive, drab, spilling
From out building C.
Girls went wacky
Over khaki
Preened and primped,
Homework skimped
Soldiers to vamp us
On the campus.
Classes cut.
Forward, hut!
Alas! The Dean’s Office says
“—Eyes on your books.
Be efficient and curt,
Don’t talk, smile, or flirt;
The war effort’s hurt
By a coed’s coy looks.”
AFTERTHOUGHT
But never mind the ruling,
girls,
Lay aside your fears.
Just leave the maneuvers to
the F.A.L.
And the plans to the engineers.6
. . .
Nov 19 1943
Thursday
Dear Mother,
Yes, the work is pretty hard here. I’m taking 27 hours (average in a college is about 17) and taking 18 weeks work in each subject in 12 weeks. Only free time is one hour each evening and 24 hours each weekend. Besides we still have a lot of military stuff and gym. They’re trying to make this a second West Point. 30% flunked out last period.
But the work is very interesting, and the time goes rapidly because you’re always busy.
Yes, I could use some money. We weren’t paid this month yet and the cost of living is damn high in N.Y.
Went to the Stage Door Canteen two nights.7 Place is just like the movie but smaller and more crowded. They have a lot of talent, but I didn’t see any famous names. Have 20 mins. of dancing and 10 mins. of some kind of entertainment. Very good. About all the hostesses are your girls that belong to the actors union but not too bright lights. They are really something to talk to, and good dancers. So there you have the Stage Door Canteen. Anything else you want to know about N.Y.?
Saw Radio City, Empire State Bldg. at night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Times Square, and lots of people.8
This letter probably has a slightly scribbled effect to it because I’m writing while running between two classes at opp. ends of the campus.
Where’s my watch?! Did you get the socks yet? Send my gym shoes also, please, if you can find them.
Love Carl
. . .
During Carl’s stay in New York City, the city and its famous lights would show the strains of war. To protect the city from the threat of enemy raids, the neon signs of Broadway disappeared, top floors of skyscrapers went dark, cab headlights were covered, even the glow from the New York Times’s news ticker faded away.9
Downtown in Manhattan, the United States Courthouse had its “gold-leafed roof” painted black.10
And in the harbor, the Statue of Liberty saw her lamp go from the gleam of “13,000-watt lamps” to the dim of two “200-watt bulbs.”11
But even with less light, and the fear and the sacrifices that come with an international war, New York City life and culture carried on.
An illustrated “Camel” man blew smoke rings out of an elongated Times Square billboard. Oklahoma! began delighting crowds at the St. James Theater in March 1943. A variety of sports were still played inside the older incarnation of Madison Garden. And day baseball continued at the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, and Yankee Stadium.12
With limited free time, Carl and his fellow ASTPers still were able to enjoy New York City and all the activities it had to offer.
Affordable entertainment was never lacking in Gotham, but it didn’t hurt to be in uniform. Some events were free to servicemen—and many were under a single dollar.13
. . .
November 22
Monday
Dear Mother,
First of all, you’d better be expecting very few letters from me from now on, because that’s what you’ll be getting. I just don’t have the time. I’ll try