October 11, 1943

                     Santa Ana Calif

                                                                                                            Oct 11, 1943

Dear Mother,

            Well I have finally found time again to write.  Yesterday (Sunday) was rather busy but today I am having tests and there is a lapse of time in between the darn things.  These are physiological tests and there is nothing you can do in preparation for them.

            We are going through what are called M days.  There are 13 of them starting with M0 and ending with M12 if we are successful in all of them.  M1 and M2 are intelligence and aptitude tests.  M3 is a psycomative (probably spelt wrong) test which is a study of your ability to retain your senses under strains.  The tester attempts to rattle you and affect the results of the test.  Numbers, names, and different things are yelled at you constantly and you have to remember all this.  M4 is a physical exam of some sort and I don’t have any idea what the other days are used for.

            California must be a wonderful state if you stay here long enough.  It is really an invigorating climate and a wonderful place to work.  However until the day before yesterday I didn’t know how much of a valley we were in.  We could see the mts. which are about 7 miles away but we never see the real mountains about 15 miles away.  The reason is that the country has a very heavy ground haze during the day and even though you can see the sun and it is very hot you can’t see too far on the horizon.  Friday about 3 days after we had been here we found out that those hills on the west were not the biggest thing around but the mts. behind really lift into the air.

            Santa Ana is really a very large air base.  All day long planes of 3 or 4 types fly over and land on the plane at the foot of the mountains.  They are AT-11’s  AT8 B17F’s P38’s and assorted navy planes from San Diego.  The Navy sends up a few Grumman “Hell Cats” (Wildcats) and the Army the P38’s and they dog fight right above our heads.  You can guess what that does to the formations around here.  Another trick they have is to “drag” the field just before landing.  They fly over the field at full speed after a steep dive.  After they reach the outer boundary with the 400 miles/hour and access they do a very steep climbing turn.  The motors roar and they climb and climb and climb until you think they will spin. Then they level off and come in for a landing.  Usually a whole formation “peeling” upward instead of downward.  They are a beautiful sight and all the fellows want to be P38 pilots now.

P 38 

            When we expected that S. A. would be worse than Beloit we were happily mistaken. S.A is a push over as compared with what we had been through.  There is very little discipline here and the hours are such that if you get your work done on time you can rest and enjoy life.  Of course we are in quarantine for 14 days and restricted to the post for 42 days but I don’t care as long as I classify for what I want.  I won’t see the town or any of the citys for awhile but that will all come in time.

            The trip along the Santa Fe is something I would like to do again and would advise any North Easterners with the time and money to do the same.  If Easterners think they are poor or work too hard they should see how much and under what conditions people in the South West work to make a meager living.

Santa Fe Side

            My biggest surprise came in see how much the country lacked cowboys or horses.  I only saw 3 or 4 on all range land and they were either Indians or of Mexican origin.  One raced the train up a little incline and really kept up for about a ¼ mile.  The rider was a tall lanky fellow who could really stick on the horse.  We saw a few cows along the way but a lot more of these loading chutes where the cows were put on trains.  As we went west the grass seemed drier and more sheep could be found.  Finally all we saw was sand, tufts of grass, tumble weed and a few cactus.  They were nothing like the pictures I have seen but a lot like some of the little ones at home.  I suppose that there are a lot more out there that I didn’t see.

Cowboy and Train

            The desert we saw was a valley with mts. all around.  The land was barren and the only signs of life was the Highway 66 and an occasional patch of trees marking a small pool of water.  Most of the water seem however to come from tank cars along the sideings.

            The first 3 hours of Calif. were marked by the desolation that we passed.  It was all desert and a constant climb between far flung hills.  When we did come down the mts were very steep and most of the trains going up had 2 and 3 engines.  We made several stops behind a freight and saw lizards sunning themselves on rocks beside the road bed.  We followed the mts just in their foothills down to L.A.  Here we had supper and had time off to look around.  In general we had a swell time and a wonderful trip.  I am enjoying my travels a lot and learning Geography faster than it could be taught in school.

            I will have to close now as I have very little idea just what will happen next.

            With love,

            Austin.