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The collection includes 236 letters with some postcards and V-mails that "Cliff" wrote to his mother, Gladys Shirley, letters written to Gladys Shirley from some relatives of a soldier-friend of Cliff's who'd died in an accident, letters to Cliff from a woman he'd befriended in South Wales, and from his deceased friend's mother, to whom he'd written a note of condolence. News clippings, ephemera, and documents are also included. Cliff's letters express worries about post-war life and jobs, the desire for furlough, the point system, railroad strikes, Churchill, FDR, prices and wages, blackouts, housing problems in the US, draft dodgers, poor conditions in Germany (children begging GI's for candy, etc.), illness, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation (UNRRA), and much more. Letters date from October 1943 though 1948. Cliff's letters to his mother end in March 1946.

This collection relates to John L. McQuigg (Lieutenant Colonel with the US Army Air Force) who served with the 8th Air Force in Photographic Reconnaissance in the European and Mediterranean Theaters and participated in the North African and the Italian Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing, including surveillance for the Anzio Landing. The collection contains military papers, ephemera, photographs, artifacts, and maps covering John L. McQuigg's communication with his wife and children, surveillance operations during the war, and documents from the Air Force reserves following the war.

This collection includes miscellaneous materials collected from numerous sources by Michael Amdahl, a Refuse Transfer Center worker who collected and donated found materials over the course of many years. Included in this collection are a variety of graphic materials, letters, documents, magazines, and a book on the 13th Air Force. Also included are photographs depicting war-torn cities, soldier life, sea and air vessels, and scenery from around Europe.