My father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson's mailed these two forwarding postcards to his parents Clara and Frank Erickson in Bismarck, North Dakota from the Mitchel Air Force Base in Hemstead, on Long Island in New York in January of 1944. His last stationing was part of 4th Search Attack Squadron at Langley Field in Virginia.

Ernest Anders finally had his combat flying assignment and was on his way to Horham Airfield (Station 119) in England. He would be stationed there with the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) throughout his 35 missions he would complete by August of 1944.

Mitchel Air Force Base also known as Mitchel Field, was a United States Air Force base located on the Hempstead Plains. Established in 1918 as Hazelhurst Aviation Field #2, the facility was renamed later that year as Mitchel Field in honor of former New York City Mayor John Purroy Mitchel.

During the American Revolutionary War it was known as the Hempstead Plains and used as an Army enlistment center. In the War of 1812 and in the Mexican War, it was a training center for Infantry units. During the American Civil War, it was the location of Camp Winfield Scott. In 1898, in the Spanish–American War, Mitchel's site was known as Camp Black.

In 1940 Mitchel Field was the location of the Air Defense Command, (also known as the "Zone of the Interior"). Starting in 1943, Mitchel became a staging area for Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers and their crews before being sent overseas.