TR93Nltr.doc

Orem, Utah

February 3 .2003

Dear Darrell and Mary:

Thank you so much for sending us a copy of your "Origin and Choices". My middle name must be 'procrastination', especially when it comes to writing letters; I do apologize for the delay in my answering.

Verna Vee and I both enjoyed it very much and thought that it was excellent. It was interesting and "appropriate that you let the reader know something of the person making the commentary " and who has so diligently and unselfishly contributed so much of his time and expense in doing the history of the 19th Bomb Group for the benefit and enjoyment of so many. Thank you again for your efforts and dedication to this enormous task. It was interesting to hear that your first contact, after the war, with the 19th was in 1992 in Seattle. We were there with a total of 7 crew members and 5 wives. It was a great event. The first year that I went to a Reunion was 1988 in Dayton, Ohio and we have been to every one of them since then.

It was sad to read that your roommate, Bob Nelson, and your cousin, Vincent Landau, both met such a tragic end to their lives and both happening at or near after the dropping of an A-bomb and so close to the end of the war. Coincidently, our crew had a near fatal event on the day the first A-bomb was dropped. I'll include a copy of that event along with a photo of the plane. As noted on the enclosed, you will see that this was in response to a young American boy who was living in Japan and going to school there.

It was interesting to know that Vern Chandler was instrumental in helping you get started on the history project and that at first it would only cover operations from Guam and is was so important that you expanded the scope of this project.. Your 9 'Content Choices' were all very good and shows excellent planning and strategy as well as the excellent filing system that you developed. The pictures are very good and provide a lot of information as well.

Your struggle with the inadequate computer technology and your vision to see that it would continue to develop as it did was admirable. Your unselfish personal investment in computers, scanners, software and other has been great and I hope that the satisfaction you have of your accomplishments has been enough reward for your efforts. I started out with a TI-99 computer, about 16K as I recall, that had a feeble exterior tape for a hard drive if you could call it that. Then went to the 64K with a color screen and a integral printer, then a machine with a 1088 Chip (don't remember what that was called) and added a math co-processor so I could use my newly acquired Cad program to design house plans for my home building business, then a 386, then a Pentium 33MGhz which I upgraded this machine to a 120MGhz or thereabouts, then to bought a Pentium 400MGhz and now have a 1.7GGHz Intel Celeron Processor. If only I could have had this one with the 19" flat screen that I now have to do the home plans; it's instantaneous now instead of wait and wait some more on a zoom in to do the detail work. Related this to let you know that I have a smattering of understanding of what you went through. I would love to have the knowledge that you have about computers and the process that you have been through.

As I mentioned to before, I am just now buying a DVD writer (Sony DRUSOOAX) and the additional hardware and software required to transfer all my VHS movies that we have taken of our family over the years. I was pleased to see that you have a Sony DVD writer. I have purchased a Canopus ADVC-100 video capture device (have not used it yet); this after much research on the Internet. One of the Internet sites that I eventually found was www.vcdhelp.com and where I did find this capture device by clicking on the left side of the screen at the red highlighted "capture cards" a short ways down the screen and near the middle of the screen then after the search comes up click on the "Top User Rated" button and then reading the comments by clicking on the comments at the right hand side of the screen. After reading some of the comments on other capture cards and seeing what was written here this seemed like the best choice. This may all be superfluous but just in case you may want (you may have already done it) to record your videos on DVDs whether from tape or video camera. The reason I am doing this is for ease of distribution to family as well as durability over the years as you already know. Also have purchased a video editing and burning software. Also I am scanning my color slides, some of which are over 55 years old and probably will put them on DVDs instead of CDs because most of my family's DVD players will not play Video CDs.

Anyway, we think that what you have done with the "Origin and Choices" and all the other that you have done is great and a service to all of the 19d1, and their posterity and friends.

We hope this finds you both well and happy,

Thank you,

Roy and Vema Vee