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A B-24 Pilot’s Letters Home

Memoir/WWII History

Date Published: May 27, 2025

Publisher: Acorn Publishing

In this posthumously published collection of letters and postal cards,
William “Bill” Hanchett shares his candid experiences as a
flight-school cadet, and later as an Army Air Forces pilot in command of a
B-24 Liberator bomber during World War II.

Through Bill’s first-hand accounts, we learn that mastering the art
of flying during wartime is about more than understanding engine throttle
and airspeed. It’s about wondering when you’ll be called to
fight and if you’ll be asked to betray your ideals. It’s about
working hard and documenting the days, dreaming about the future, and
longing for home.

An extraordinary primary document, Disgracefully Easy offers us a rare
glimpse inside the military in the 1940s, a time when Americans worried
about the fate of their great country and looked to the brave and courageous
to deliver them from fear. This unique collection will be long remembered as
an important addition to the annals of aviation history.

EXCERPT

Disgracefully Easy: A B-24 Pilot’s Letters Home

BOOK EXCERPTS

From the Introduction (747 words)

Before William (Bill) Hanchett became a professor of American History and an authority on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, my father served as a B-24 four-engine heavy bomber pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces (AAF) during World War II. This book is a selection of his correspondence written during the war era. The total correspondence consisted of 206 letters and 98 postal cards written from the late 1930s to December 1945. The correspondence has been edited with an introduction to each group of letters.

The letters are divided by each phase of flight training, or flying school, as it was called during the war, to assignment as an instructor-pilot in BT-13 basic trainers, to transition to B-24 heavy bomber pilot training, and subsequent assignment to a B-24 training squadron at Tonopah Field, Nevada. The letters provide first-hand descriptions of flying different airplanes, from the PT-17 primary trainer bi-plane to the B-24 Liberator. All the chapters, except the first, which covers several years before Bill’s enlistment in the AAF, include his letters. 

The title Disgracefully Easy comes from a postal card my father wrote on August 19, 1945, ten days after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. Bill Hanchett indicated that his military service had been “disgracefully easy” when compared to other servicemen who had served in combat. This assessment reflects my father’s feeling at the end of the war and his awareness of the sacrifices of so many. Through his correspondence, Bill Hanchett tells another side of the history of World War II.  

My father kept B-24 flight manuals and booklets published by the U.S. Army Air Forces, describing all phases of flight training and the air fields where he trained. Through the years, dad told me about flying and about his experiences during the war. The discovery of the correspondence as he was dying, combined with his stories, the flight manuals and air field booklets, provided a trove of primary source material.

         In the fall of 1944, as he learned to fly the B-24, the correspondence also describes the critical election when President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for a fourth term against Republican Governor Thomas E. Dewey. Bill’s father supported Dewey, but Bill supported and admired Roosevelt, “our greatest President,” he wrote. That year, Bill found his own political voice—separate from his father. The letters reflect a continuity in American politics and society, with politicians and writers stoking division and promoting controversial conspiracy theories and voter suppression, themes which resonate today.

The correspondence reflects a time when families communicated with each other through handwritten and typed correspondence, which was delivered via “snail mail”—long before email, text messaging or social media were even imagined. The letters are naturally written in language commonly used in the 1940s. The letters are a snapshot in time, of course specific to the Hanchetts, but they also reveal family experiences and situations during the war years that many will recognize and identify with on a personal level. 

            My father received frequent correspondence from his immediate and his extended family, but as service members do, Bill sometimes complained about the lack of mail from home. He especially enjoyed receiving cookies and other treats. The correspondence sent to my father from his family is unavailable, so we do not know exactly what he heard from home, but from his correspondence we can infer the other side of the “conversation.”       

            Throughout the correspondence, various family activities and family members and friends are mentioned, and through Bill’s comments and expressed opinions, the reader learns something about them and about him. In some of his letters, my father “lectures” his parents about various things, from politics and finances to even winding a new watch. Bill had a lot to say and at times every blank space on a page—front, back, top, bottom or side—were filled with questions or comments.

         Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Forces in October 1942. His correspondence tells the story of basic training in Miami Beach, drilling on a golf course, and his experience in a unique Army Air Forces College Training Detachment (CTD), program where aviation cadets attended college courses while waiting to enter flying school. This experience reinforced his interest in history. 

The story also includes some of the instructors and AAF officers who directed the training. Bill discusses them, not always by name, but by rank. End notes are included on several who were influential in his development as a pilot. 

About the Authors

Thomas F. Hanchett

Now retired from federal civil service, Thomas Forster Hanchett holds a
bachelor’s degree in government and two master’s degrees, one in
history and one in public administration. In 2016, after his father
Bill’s death, he found over three-hundred letters Bill had written
during WWII. Given Tom’s interest in military history, it seemed only
natural that he be the one to edit and present his father’s letters in
manuscript form. Tom has also written historical and educational articles
for various publications. A native Californian, he resides in North San
Diego County.

William Hanchett

William “Bill” Hanchett (1922-2016) grew up in a wealthy family
in Evanston, Illinois. His father lost his municipal bond company business
during the Great Depression, changing their family’s lifestyle
drastically. Bill attended Black Mountain College, but his time there was
cut short because of World War II. He enlisted in the Army Air Forces,
rising from private to second lieutenant, and then to airplane commander of
a B-24 Liberator bomber.  After the war, he continued his education,
worked as a civilian historian for the U.S. Air Force, and taught history
for over thirty years at San Diego State University. Bill authored numerous
articles and historical books, including The Lincoln Murder Conspiracies
(1983). He loved living in San Diego, California, where he spent time
sailing on the bay.

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