1943.9.26

Sept. 26, 1943
Sun 6:15 P.M.

Dear Folks:

Well folks I can only write a few words now. We flew this morning and we are going to fly tonight. I went on a cross-country and almost got lost, and I almost landed at the wrong field at Houston. When I got back I was using my reserve tank. The reserve tank is good for 20 min. flying at full throttle. It took me 3 hrs. 25 min. which is almost 1 hr. too much.

We flew Friday night for the first time. I got to bed about 12:30 or 1:00 a.m. that night. Then I was O.D. yesterday, and I didn’t get much sleep last night because some fellows had open-post until 2 A.M. I finally got to bed at about 3:30 A.M. to stay. I was just settling down at 2:30 after all the fellows had signed in when a fellow with a truck came looking for a boy he was supposed to take to the train. The boy had washed out. Well I had to get up and find him and get him loaded into that truck. All in all it was a rough night. I slept from about 3 o’clock this afternoon until right now. I passed by Naval Identification course. The grade sheet says I had 97 on my final exam but I don’t believe them. That gave me a final average of 85 because I had failed all the quizzes we had. 85 is the minimum passing grade.

My friend Bouwkamp got lost on his cross-country yesterday. He finally found his field but then he had so little gas he had to get some gas out of the control ship. We have more fun than a barrel of monkeys. I was kidding him about getting lost then I turned around and did the same thing. Wow! Well folks I hope you are all well and fine. I’ll try to write more next time.

Yours truly,

Alva