April 23, 1943
Fri 7:00 P.M.
Dear Folks:
As you can see I am now at a different location. We left last night at 6:15 and arrived in Corsicana at 5:45 A.M. this morning. We had nice pullmans to ride on.
This primary is altogether different than pre-flight school. In the first place, they aren’t very military here. Flying comes first before everything. We have rooms. There are 10 men to a room. We have nice thick mattresses and big springs. A bunch of men from West Point came in today too. We have one of them in our room. The rest of the boys were all in E flight with me. It is almost as good as living in a hotel here. The food is swell. It is served cafeteria style. We can have all the milk we want too. There is a lot of nice green grass. The buildings are low sprawling one-story buildings and they are right on the edge of the flying field.
We will be on the flying line about five hours a day. We have 2 hours of classes, 1 hour of P.T. and 1/2 hour of drill. This is a privately owned place. The army pays them to train us. Of course the army has a few officers here too. I understand the people in Corsicana are mostly well-to-do. They made their money off oil wells. And they treat cadets just grand. We are the only ones around here.
This afternoon we were issued our flying helmets and goggles and our leather jackets. We will probably go in the air Monday morning.
The only trouble with this place is the number of wash-outs they have. They have as high as 87% wash out. Them planes out there look awful easy to handle to me.
Boy I’m telling you this is a nice place. We have a coca-cola machine just outside our door. Write soon folks and I’ll tell you more.
So long,
Alva
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