Chugalug,
Your: ".....if indeed the means of reception (presumably SW receivers) existed in the USAAC barracks that Danny inhabited, he alone can say....."
Now I come to think of it, how did we manage to hear any "wireless" at all ? We certainly didn't have any "portable" (or any other) radio sets in the barrack rooms. The PX would certainly have a radio set blaring. Over the "Tannoy" ? - certainly not. Was it possible to receive the BBC at all ? Not to my knowledge. So what did we do with our spare time ? - What spare time ?
From colour-hoisting parade at dawn to lights-out at "taps" we were "on the go". Flying and Ground School all day. In the evenings, "bulling-up" our (luxurious by RAF standards) quarters, so that they would pass muster with the Officer of the Day next morning. My log shows that, of the 58 days I was at Carlstrom, I flew on the first 22 consecutively (so weekends had gone "out of the window" - for a war goes on 24/7), had a 3-day break 5-6-7 0ct (half-way through - this must've been when we went over to West Palm Beach) and a 2-day one 25-26 Oct (I think this may have been the time of the hurricane).
Our only recreation was a swim in the tepid open-air camp pool- but you kept your mouth shut, for the local water, though safe, was brackish. The CocaCola machine did a roaring trade ! We were grateful to tumble into bed at the end of every day, I can tell you.
We were effectively in purdah, and had little time to keep up with news of the outside world. The life of a US "Kay-det" was not an easy one - nor was it intended to be.
Smudge,
Your: ".....if the feedback you chaps had was nuanced one way or another....." No, I don't think so. The BoB had been won the year before, and there was no danger of an invasion of Britain, but there was no attempt to disguise the grim time we were having with the U-boats in the N.Atlantic, and we had not been doing too well in the Mediterranean in Crete and N.Africa that summer, either.
The victory of El Alamein was still a year in the future - and even that would be balanced by the catastrophe in SE Asia.
Danny.