Dec. 24, 1943
Fri. 9:45 P.M.
Dear Folks:
Here it is Christmas Eve. I wish I could be home but I guess I’m not supposed to be. I opened that package tonight. Thanks a lot. I have the robe on right now and I’m eating the candy.
It’s been raining all day. It’s a cold, wet night. But I’m in where it is dry and fairly warm. We got tired of the dirty floors so we mopped our room today. Most of the boys are getting drunk right now. But I’m staying in where it’s nice and comfortable.
I got a check for $40 from National Brass Co. today. Not so bad was it?
I went on aerial gunnery the other day. An instructor and 5 of us trainees shot at that thing and it came down with just 8 hits. I was high man with 3 hits. That’s no good because we each shot 200 bullets at it. The sights they have on this plane makes it hard to get any lead on the target. On my first pass I almost hit the target with my plane. It sort of surprised me. I came sliding by that target so fast I never had a chance to shoot. I have 23 hours in this plane now. So I am about 1/4 done here.
I’ll answer a few questions now that you asked. No Ma. I said this plane uses 100 gal. per hour. No, I didn’t fly too high and have it affect my brain. But there is a saying that goes like this: “You don’t have to be crazy to be a fighter pilot, but it sure helps.” No I didn’t send anything to Steven.
Sat. 4:30 P.M. Not much to tell. I slept until quite late. We are now eating with the enlisted men while they fix up the officers mess. We had a real meal this noon. We had turkey and all the fixings. I had all the white meat I could down. It was really a very good meal.
I have a couple 50 cal. shells (with the powder out). I’ll send them to Jim some day when I get around to it. They are pretty big shells. I was surprised by the size of them.
Is Ma all okay now? You must have been pretty sick for awhile. You said Clarence was going to be there only two more weeks. Is Pug going to quit her job?
It looks to me like I could just as well come home for Christmas. I’ll bet this weather will hang on for all week and we won’t get to fly. There is a solid overcast at about 500 ft. or maybe a little higher. It’s raining and foggy.
How long does Dad expect to work at Wilson’s? How are you making out with the chores etc.? Say does that oil heater keep the place warm enough? I mean are you satisfied with it?
I can’t think of much to say. Nothing much happens. This weather here closed in on Thurs. afternoon. The clouds were quite low but high enough for ground gunnery. The second mission I was to go up on ground gunnery with another flight leader. I got to my plane late so he said he would take the rest of the flight, and I could meet them at the gunnery range. I just got off the ground when they called flying off. The overcast was down to 800 ft. at places. The flight leader sent the other fellows in and stayed up to check the weather. I was circling the field one way and he was circling the other way. The old tower was screaming for me to come in and land and this instructor was screaming at me to hurry up and land. So after the others all landed I went in and landed. Then the instructor came in. I put down my time as supervised acrobatics because I was up there dodging the clouds all the time while the tower and this instructor were telling me what to do. Some fun!
We really have fun buzzing towns and houses with these planes. You can imagine the roar we make when 3 or 4 of us come over a town in formation just high enough to clear the tallest building and doing about 275 or 300 mph.
Well I hope you folks are all feeling better by now. I might as well close and go eat my supper or something. I’ll write in a couple days again.
Yours truly,
Alva
P.S. Happy New Year!!!!!!! I got a knife from Murell but I haven’t tried it out on a pillow yet.
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