Title: Correspondence from Mary Bason Whitehall to Lt. George Sadler

Identifier: 0358-b2-fb   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/86751)

Description: Returned correspondence from Mary Bason Whitehall to Second Lieutenant George Sadler of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The letter was returned Whitehall after Lt. Sadler went missing after his plane went down over German-held territory. Sadler was captured as a prisoner-of-war and Whitehall was unaware of Sadler's status at the time. Though never delivered, Whitehall's correspondence is notable for conveying the anger of the American public over news media censorship of battlefront information, Liberator losses in September, 1944, and Governor Dewey's campaign tactics against President F. D. Roosevelt in the presidential campaign. Sent with the letter to Sadler was a clipping of contestants in the 1944 Miss American beauty pageant. Sadler was later liberated in June 1945.