Mar 21, 2024 - Sale 2663

Sale 2663 - Lot 314

Price Realized: $ 1,062
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(MILITARY--WORLD WAR TWO.) Edgar T. Brown. Pair of letters home written as a Tuskegee Airman, with a related chapel service program. 3 items: 2 Autograph Letters Signed (as "E.T. Brown" and "Edgar") to mother-in-law Mary A. Thomas of Smyrna, DE, each 2 pages, 10¾ x 7 inches and 9 x 6 inches, with original mailing envelopes, plus mimeograph program with manuscript notes, 10¼ x 8 inches; mailing folds, minimal wear. Various places, 1942-1943
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"We don't have the least bit of trouble from whites, unless the boys go in town and act out of place. . . . We desire the prayers of each and everyone, that we may 'keep 'em flying' safely to victory."

Edgar Thessalonia Brown (1915-2007) was a Georgia native who married Rachel Thomas of Smyrna, Delaware in February 1942. At that time he was working in the Philadelphia quartermaster depot. By the time of his 30 April 1942 letter to his new mother-in-law he was in training as a Tuskegee Airman. He writes: "We are getting along fine here in this hot weather, and the boys say hello. Our camp is still being constructed and it is going to be the prettiest camp of the south. We have the honor of helping to build it up. As you know, it is one of the few all-colored Air Corps in the U.S. We don't have the least bit of trouble from whites, unless the boys go in town and act out of place, so I don't have a thing to go there for. Don't worry, I'll be a good soldier." He later sent a program from the Tuskegee Army Flying School's chapel service of 6 September 1942, signing it as a member of the 366th Materiel Squadron.

Brown's 9 January 1943 letter home is on the letterhead of Dale Mabry Field in Tallahassee, FL: "We are still in suspense as to when or where we go from here, altho we expect to return to Tuskegee as soon as the pilots get their required number of hours in gunnery practice. So far they are doing a swell job, with no fatalities. Of course, it is keeping us all on the job day and night, holidays and Sundays, but we don't mind it, because it is a great credit to our race. . . . I didn't chance to go to the broadcast, but I'm proud that the people of Smyrna heard and liked it. We all are really proud of our Eagle Boys, and we desire the prayers of each and everyone, that we may 'keep 'em flying' safely to victory. . . . White and colored soldiers are stationed here, but we don't have any trouble whatsoever. In fact, they all think the 99th is tops because it's the first and only Negro aviation fighter squadron." We know from other sources that Brown was in Europe by September 1943 with the 99th Fighter Squadron, and returned home safely after the war.