July 1, 1943

Dear Pop,

I got your letter in 2 days which is very fast for mail coming this direction.  Even airmail takes as long or longer to get here.  I can't understand how it came so fast.  The train doesn't come faster than the mail so you explain it to me.

Thanks a lot for the code.  I had forgotten a lot of it and I wanted to finish up on it so I could be a little ahead of everyone.  A lot of the fellows know code as it is.  Especially the fellow who was in the R.C.A.F. and shot down the German planes.

If you should compare the handwriting in some of these letters you would find that some parts are not written at the same time of the preceding parts.  Just now I got back from the Service Club.  Before going there we had our Tetnus shots and we had that on a full stomach.  I started the letter this noon but am writing it at 8:00 tonight.  Some span of time.

The Service Club is new and its a swell place to go and write letters.  It is a 5 minute walk away and not too convenient.  But the girls that work there are really fun.  They are of course Missouri girls and don't talk Yankee talk.  In fact they have a language all their own.  Everything is O.K. to them and it sounds funny when they way it.  Some of the fellows sit at the soda bar and order and reorder just to hear the girls talk. You really have nothing better to do with your money.

You may have a lot of money but just what can you do with it.  You can go to the P.X. and buy things to eat and drink but you soon fill up.  You can't go out and spend it because you need a pass to get off the post.  You can buy things to send home but most of the stuff is Air Corps stuff and I sometimes wonder if I will make the grade to fly.  Anyway the money problem doesn't trouble me very much.

Our "Conditioners" (physical training) is really tough.  They really wear you out if they can.  You start off with exercise of the arms and shoulders.  When they are tired you work stomach muscles and when they are tired you do push ups in cadence.  About half the time is spent running the 1 3/8 mile or the obstical course.  You then get rope climbing, pull ups, and combatitives.  They are a series of personal combat exercises such as Indian wrestling and ends in Jujitsu training.  Before you can fly you have to be able to chin yourself 9 times with your hands on the bar so that the backs are towards you (the hardest way).  You also have to do an agility exercise.  This starts from the position of attention, bending putting the palms on the ground the elbows between the knees, throwing the feet to the rear so that you are resting on the ground on your hands and toes.  You then do a push up and return to a position of attention.  You have to do 15 of them in 20 sec.  That will really be tough.  We also have coordination exercises that are not tough but are a test of your power to act on what you think. With a little practice you get so that you can do them.

I am sending some of my laundry out now.  Some of the stuff I just don't have time to do.  Our coveralls get so dirty I don't get a chance to do the work on them they require.  When you swet and then lay in the Missouri dust you get mud that gets too hard to wash.  Right now there is as much as 2 inches of dust in spots.  We haven't had rain for so long (4 days) we expect the pace to go away in the next big wind.  When the rain does come it will be a cloud burst and wash all the dust into the valleys.

With Love
Austin

{For a more complete discussion of the physical training, check out the Art of Manliness's article.  Are you as fit as a WWII GI?}