TRANSCRIBED FROM THE MOUNTAIN WAVE MAY 17, 1918 P. 2
FRANCE, APRIL 20, 1918.
Dear Father and Mother:
As you see I have access to a typewriter again. I go to the front again tomorrow. This time I will be attached to the French Army at a French Escadrille. I cannot say enough in my letters about the seriousness of the war and its apparent long duration. I wish the American people could be induced to wake up and quit talking about the war being over as soon as the United States gets into it. While we have accomplished much a great deal remains to be accomplished.
I am sending you some camera pictures, including one of a plane in which I was flying when it fell. The plane turned completely over and buried its nose in the ground. Myself and pilot were both unhurt except for a few bruises.
I am in the best of health and am having some exciting times.
The greatest battle of the centuries is on and we must and will win it. Rush air-plane construction, which is of supreme importance, and send us more men and then still more men.
FRED TILLMAN.
NOTES: Fred A. Tillman was from Fayetteville, Arkansas and is the son of Arkansas Congressman John N. Tillman. He had been in France since July 1917. He was born on January 1, 1889 in Fayetteville and died in April 1967 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville.
TRANSCRIBED BY LARAE SHURLEY
FRANCE, APRIL 20, 1918.
Dear Father and Mother:
As you see I have access to a typewriter again. I go to the front again tomorrow. This time I will be attached to the French Army at a French Escadrille. I cannot say enough in my letters about the seriousness of the war and its apparent long duration. I wish the American people could be induced to wake up and quit talking about the war being over as soon as the United States gets into it. While we have accomplished much a great deal remains to be accomplished.
I am sending you some camera pictures, including one of a plane in which I was flying when it fell. The plane turned completely over and buried its nose in the ground. Myself and pilot were both unhurt except for a few bruises.
I am in the best of health and am having some exciting times.
The greatest battle of the centuries is on and we must and will win it. Rush air-plane construction, which is of supreme importance, and send us more men and then still more men.
FRED TILLMAN.
NOTES: Fred A. Tillman was from Fayetteville, Arkansas and is the son of Arkansas Congressman John N. Tillman. He had been in France since July 1917. He was born on January 1, 1889 in Fayetteville and died in April 1967 in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville.
TRANSCRIBED BY LARAE SHURLEY