Oct 8, 1943
Fri. 9:00. P.M.
Dear Folks:
I guess you are wondering why I haven’t written since Sunday. It’s like this. We have flown every night this week until tonight. Four nights in a row and we fly tomorrow night too. So you see I haven’t had time for any letter writing until tonight. We have been putting in about 18 hrs per day with 6 hrs. sleep. Everybody is about half-dead. We took a night cross-country to Houston and last night we took one to Austin. The rest of the nights we spent shooting landings.
A week from tomorrow I leave for Matagorda Island for gunnery. We’ll get back the day before graduation. Before going there I will have to pass an instrument check and an acrobatic check. I’m a very poor instrument flyer too. This week in the afternoons we have been taking 3 hrs. per day of maintenance.
Next week we will fly P-40s. Them P-40s are all engine. They are really a hot ship to land.
I hardly see Bouwkamp anymore because he is in X squadron and flies at a different time than I do. I’m going to let him take care of our reservations home. You see he will be here all the time while I’m at the island.
So ma is baby tender again? Bringing up a little Wiercinski this time. So you think you will leave everything fixed so I can sit down in comfort? I certainly don’t get much time to relax here.
I can’t think of much else to say. I want to get a little sleep tonight. So I’ll close now and write more Sun. I have just 3 weeks of good hard work left and then I hope to have 10 days in which to relax without a worry on my mine.
Yours truly,
Alva
Ancestors Across the Ages 