April 9, 1943
Fri. 7:45 P.M.
Dear Folks:
Well folks I just returned from town. Yesterday at noon I went on as senior officer of the day. (S.O.S.)
That meant that I had more authority than any other cadet. I went off at noon today. For that 24 hours I had almost as much power as a commissioned officer.
I had to put a Sam Brown (sic) belt on with a shoulder strap. I also put on an arm band. I had to stay in the orderly room and take care of a thousand details. Any cadet coming into the orderly room had to salute me and state his business. If he had to see some officer, I had to go see if it was okay. I had to relay messages into and out of the orderly room.
To help me I had the junior officer of the day (J.O.D.). For that period he was the highest ranking cadet except for myself. If there was any mistakes made, I would get the blame. Quite often the (S.O.D.) get bawled out for making mistakes. But I guess I did okay because they didn’t say anything. I had to report to the officers in the correct manner every time or else.
I had to sleep in the orderly room last night and then I had to tell the guard to wake me at 5 A.M. The J.O.D. had to make bed checks and I had to turn in a report on it. In short, I had to do all the daily details. I was running in circles most of the time. It was just one big headache. But it was good practice. I had to give orders and I had to make a lot of decisions for myself. Because there were cadets running in there all the time wanting to know what to do about different situations, I had to think fast and tell them what to do. And I had to tell them the right thing or else…… I didn’t get to bed until towards 11:00 and got up at 5:00 A.M.
The boy that went on when I came off got bawled out right away for having a dirty uniform on.
Say in that letter from Dort she said that you had to get a tire fixed, etc. Was that on the Ford?
Tomorrow we have competition in the cross-country. So I will find out just how bad I am.
Dort also said that she has been doing some driving by herself. Well I expect to do some flying in about 2 weeks. Reports are coming back to us already of different ones of our ex-upper class men who have washed out already. We have several under class men who are asking for G.D.O. too. I guess they can’t take it.
Well I can’t think of much more to say. I guess I will write Pug a letter and send her a picture of me. I sent one down to the shop because Mr. Berg made me promise to before I left.
Well I am going to try to get to bed early but I probably won’t as usual.
Yours truly,
Alva
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