My Father describes his work activities in his early days with Queens College, Flushing, NY

This is a section taken from a draft letter written in pencil on scrap paper  (I can only surmise that it was recopied in pen on nicer stationery before being mailed to a guy named Bill,  that my Dad ( Charles A. Fries Sr) worked with at Devega ( A company involved with radios) 

“ A few words on history of CF ( i.e., Charles Fries )to keep you up to date. I became a Lab Assistant at QC ( i.e., Queens College) in 1938. A year or two later, the whole works was made civil service and my title was changed to Jr. Physicist- same duties. Then came the war and I became an Extension Division ( Evening Session) instructor of Radio Communications. In addition I taught radio to two classes of E. S. M. W. T. on alternate evenings. All the students were members of the Signal Corps Reserve. This was similar to the “ 63 Park Row” plan - but not the same. Then the A.S.T.P. moved into Queens College and I was made a full time instructor teaching Physics to the G.I.’s “ 

This A.S.T.P. teaching gave me a good salary and kept the draft board away. ......About two weeks ago the whole army educational program collapsed and all our soldiers “ joined the army”. The A.S.T.P. teachers are being absorbed by the research divisions of the larger colleges , and the remainder are getting commissions. I expect to go to Columbia University ‘s Radiation s Labs to work on radar. I already have the offer but am not yet released by Q.C. I hope I get re-established quite soon, because my 2A runs out in May and if things break the wrong way my new address will read “ Pvt Charles Fries”, etc. 

Somewhere in the above history I should have mentioned that I almost became an Associate Physicist ( P 3)  at Camp Evans, Belmar, N.J.  I wrote letters of recommendation s for my radio students to this Camp. Thus they got my name and sent me an offer of an immediate appointment as an Assistant Physicist ( P 2 ). I went there two times, bickering with them for a P3, ( a P2 was then effectively a cut in salary) but nothing came of it since Q.C. would not give me a leave of absence. Without this leave of absence I would have lost my civil service status.They told me my duties were to impact radar installations along the eastern coast. ( Little did they know how little I knew about radar installations.) 

Tomorrow I am going to look over a 300 watt “ Ham” transmitters. It is owned by W2LMN who is going overseas as a B-26 pilot. He used to work for me in the Physics Dept. and says he is giving me ( or this Dept) 1st crack at his equipment. He wants $100 for his outfit. If you are interested, let me know and I’ll give you more dope in the next letter.”