Home > PB Upd8 > Archives > 2008 > November > 11
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
RAF Officer Letter Recalls Florida Duty
At 5 p.m. today, Palm Beach will add 7 more names to its Wall of Honor at Memorial Fountain Park, saluting military service ranging from the Vietnam War (James McCartney Wearn) to present-day Iraq (Matthew D. Silverman). The other honorees are Ronald D. Silverman (Iraq, Kuwait), Robert de Marcellus (Korea, Germany, Bosnia), Roland de Marcellus (Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia), Paul de Marcellus (Iraq, Kuwait) and Henri de Marcellus (Cold War duty on the German/Czechoslovakian border).
While researching Palm Beach military service a while back, I came across the poignant story of Royal Air Force Flt. Lt. Irwin “Joe” Russell Redman. In 1942, Redman spent the occasional weekend on the island while undergoing flight training in Clewiston, worlds away from his English home.
“Our camp is in a damned awful spot, miles from nowhere, and surrounded by swamp,” he wrote in a letter home “The aerodrome is about the one dry spot in the district, and even that gets pretty
damp at times. If you can rummage out a map of America, look up Florida down south, right in the centre of the state you will see a large inland lake marked, we are at the extreme southern tip of this lake. About every other weekend we spend the weekend at either Palm Beach or Miami, or lease at one or other of the seaside resorts on the Mexican Gulf.”
The letter is one of three written by Redman and archived as part of the BBC’s WW2 People’s War project. Here’s a link to the letter, in its entirety: Letters Home From An R.A.F. Officer
Redman’s letters were added to the archive by Susan Little, via Dundee Central Library.
The postscript to his letters reads: Flight Lieutenant Irwin Russell Redman (Joe) was killed on air operations in Palestine, 2nd September 1945. He was 22.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: History
