Howard Halpin was a Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps during World War 2, where he would sever as a bomber pilot. Halpin graduated from the Roswell Army Flying School in Roswell, New Mexico on June 22nd, 1943. He would go on to be stationed in La Junta, Colorado, at the Greenville Army Airbase in Greenville, South Carolina, and San Francisco, California. During his service Haplin flew several missions, many of which he stated he could not talk about, and went through many different types of training including Ground School. Halpin is the main author of the collection writing to his girlfriend, Ruthea Van Loon, describing his daily life. Ruthea Van Loon, the receiver of this collection's letters, was going through Nursing School at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York for the duration of the collection. All but one of the letters Van Loon receives were from Halpin but one. Her brother, T.J. Van Loon, sent her letter warning her of the dangers of wartime marriages. By the end of the collection Halpin and Van Loon are married, Van Loon was finished with Nursing School, and Halpin was stationed in Greenville, South Carolina for the second time.