Aug 8, 1943
Sun. 6:00 P.M.
Dear Folks:
I don’t have much to say but I thought I better write while I have a chance. If things go like they did last week, I won’t have much time to write. We fly tomorrow night again. On Wed. night and Friday night we will go on overnight cross-country flights and then I think we will be finished with our night flying.
I told you about that little fracas I got in. Well they decided to give us 20 tours instead of 12. We also each have 10 permanent demerits. These will go on our permanent service records. So we really got hooked. We decided to go see the Captain and appeal the decision. So we did. He didn’t like that very well. But at least he got a more clear picture of the whole situation. The only thing is the whole bunch of cadets’ morale is low and they have been lax etc. So our little incident came up so they decided to make an example of us. I’m certainly glad that I only have 3 more weeks in this place. The whole thing is the officers in charge here just don’t know how to handle their men. The officers and cadets are just bucking each other. We had one good officer here who treated us like men but he got transferred so now we haven’t even one.
As I told you I signed up for single engine school. I’ve heard that they take the best ones and send them there. Then they take the best ones from single engine and make instructors out of them. I guess I don’t have to worry much about being made into an instructor because I will be far from the best (If I even get through). I certainly don’t want to be an instructor. That job is just a pain in the neck. It’s too risky too because there are a lot of dumb cadets around that the instructor has to take his life in his hands and ride with them. It’s a lot safer to dodge Jap bullets because you have an idea what the Jap will do next. You never know what a cadet is going to do next. Just ask my instructor. He knows (ha ha ha).
Yours truly,
Alva
P.S. We only have about 7 hrs, dual instruction in advanced single engine. We also fly P40s the last 4 weeks. A.B.
Ancestors Across the Ages 