Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Dowell J. Howard Papers, 1942-1946, Accession # 11084-b, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These additional letters and photographs were given to the University of Virginia Library by Marianna H. Parrish, Vienna, Virginia, on January 12, 1995.

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of letters and photographs, ca. 1942-1946, of Dowell Jennings Howard, Jr., son of Dr. D.J. Howard, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and great-grandson of Dr. Henry Howard, Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia, written while serving in the armed forces during World War II. These letters were written to his grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. Henry Howard, Brookville, Maryland, and parallel the letters in 11084-a written to his sister, Marianna Howard Parrish. Howard had been attending V.P.I. and had to leave for Company E, Camp Lee, Virginia, and basic training in the middle of the academic year [1943 Mar 16].

Howard stayed at Camp Lee for eleven days and then entrained at night on March 15 for basic training at Miami, Florida, which had a permanent dim out because of submarines (1943 Mar 18). While in Miami, Howard worked at the Basic Training Center No. 4 Butcher Shop one day and saw a large turtle which supplied 1300 pounds of meat for the camp (1943 Apr 20). Other topics mentioned in his letters include: his move to Flight Q (1943 Apr 28); learning to repair weapons at the Ordnance School Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland (1943 May 24); his move to the 53rd Bomb Squadron, 46th Bomb Group, Will Rogers Field, Oklahoma City where he filled practice bombs with sand for the bombers (1943 Jul 6); and learning how to camouflage equipment, drive army vehicles from the size of jeeps up to one and a half ton trucks, and bomb reconnaisance (1943 Aug 8).

Other subjects include: his acceptance for special training in mechanical engineering at Oklahoma A & M College, Stillwater, Oklahoma (1943 Aug 27, Sep 13, Oct 10, Nov 13); his move to Company "A," 395th Infantry Regiment, Camp Maxey, Texas (1944 Apr 10); reference to the Normandy Invasion (1944 June 11); teaching swimming classes and working at the 799th Ordnance Company blueing plant (1944 Jul 7); his grandfather's death (1944 Sep 3); and at sea on a troop ship (1944 Oct 9).

Also present are fifty black & white photographs, ca. 1944-1946, pertaining to the military service of Dowell J. Howard, Jr.. These include: Howard and his dog "Blackie" taken before he left for Europe; his trip from Le Harve to his home in the United States via New York harbour; the North Atlantic; Wurtzburg, Germany; Belgium following the Battle of the Bulge; Prien Airfield, Bavaria; Sarrebourg, France; the 783rd Ordnance, Vocklabruck, Austria; Clark Taryton; and Hotel Westernacher, Chiemsee, Prien, Bavaria.