Aug 20, 1943
Fri. 8:15 P.M.
Dear Folks:
I suppose you folks are surprised to hear from me 2 days in a row like this. Well we don’t have any flying or ground school tomorrow and I have a little time tonight. I passed my final check okay yesterday. Today I got in 2 hrs. and 10 min. of formation flying. I got this all at one time without stopping. Then when we got down I went right up and took an instrument cross-country. On this cross-country I did pretty good. One of the other fellows was my observer. He said I missed one point by about 1/2 mile. I went right square over the second and when I thought I should be back home I shook the stick and came out from under the hood. I was almost right over the home field. That is pretty accurate instrument flying if I do say so myself. I was doing pretty good in that formation flying too. It is a lot of fun to be up there and see how close we can fly to the lead ship without hitting it. But it is hard work too. You see we have to sit there with our eyes glued on the man in the lead ship. I sort of had a lame neck after that 2 hrs. and 10 min.
By this time next week I should be in my new home. Of course I still have to pass my ground school subjects.
I got those pictures today. You all seemed to look about the same. Everybody looked pretty good. Clarence (Jr) is getting to be quite a boy. But Meredith seemed to still be able to handle her nephew. But no picture of Jim. Is he as big as me yet? I must look pretty fat. One of the fellows thought I was too big for fighter pilot. He said he thought I must be as big as himself. He weighs 190 some lbs. He asked another kid and the other kid said that I must weight 180 lbvs. So you see I must be sort of pussy looking. Ma and Dad looked pretty good. Dort looked the same as usual. Of course being a senior she looked older and more learned.
I’ll have some pictures. They will be from the proofs they took for our class book.
Well I better close for now. I’ll write again soon.
So long,
Alva
P.S. I think I’m a pretty hot pilot now. Getting through Basic with no trouble at all (much). A.B.
Ancestors Across the Ages 