Citation: YouTube. (2019, April 8). Tallahassee's Dale Mabry Army Air Field Museum initiative: The Tuskegee Airmen. YouTube. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctREnT429HA
The following object description information includes basic elements from the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). An additional notes field is included to list dates from the actual letter, envelope postmark locations, and any other identifying details.
Notes – Handwritten letter dated June 4, 1943, two pages. Includes envelope, postmarked June 4, 1943, 3:30PM, from Dale Mabry Field, Fla.
Reading this letter, and others like it, one might wonder why Sgt. Dolin abbreviates Florida as "Fla". The answer is because the United States had not standardized two letter abbreviations for states.
"On July 1, 1963, the Post Office Department introduced the five-digit ZIP Code. At the time, most addressing equipment could accommodate only 23 characters (including spaces) in the bottom line of the address. To make room for the ZIP Code, state names needed to be abbreviated. The Department provided an initial list of abbreviations in June 1963, but many had three or four letters, which was still too long. In October 1963, the Department settled on the current two-letter abbreviations. Since that time, only one change has been made: in 1969, at the request of the Canadian postal administration, the abbreviation for Nebraska, originally NB, was changed to NE, to avoid confusion with New Brunswick in Canada."
Citations:
Citation: “State Abbreviations.” State Abbreviations - Who we are - About.usps.com. United States Postal Service. Accessed March 27, 2023. https://about.usps.com/who/profile/history/state-abbreviations.htm#
"... Each branch of military service required different skills, but all new recruits went through a few weeks of basic training, often called “boot camp.” The goal was to turn the wide variety of individuals who entered the service into teams of fighters who could work seamlessly with one another to achieve their objectives. To do this, basic training taught a new recruit to think of himself less as an individual and more as an integral part of his unit. As soon as they arrived, new recruits turned in their civilian clothes and belongings and received standard issue uniforms and equipment. Camp personnel shaved the heads of the recruits and assigned them serial numbers. Platoons of recruits slept, ate, and learned together, and even did hours upon hours of physical fitness training as a unit. Following commands, they practiced the same basic skills over and over— marching, loading, unloading, and cleaning their weapons. Drill instructors used tough methods to force the newcomers to become attentive to detail and protocol."
Below are two great sites that talk about all of the steps a soldier would need to do to move through conscription/induction.
Citations:
State of Oregon. (n.d.). Sending Them Off to War: Pre-Induction Information Programs. State of Oregon: World War II - Sending Them Off to War: Pre-Induction Information Programs. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://sos.oregon.gov/archives/exhibits/ww2/Pages/services-induction.aspx
Marshall V. (2018, July 11). Training the American GI: The National WWII Museum: New Orleans. The National WWII Museum | New Orleans. Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/training-american-gi