November 8, 1943

Oct 8, 1943

(most likely meant Nov)

Dear Mother,

            This is the first real opportunity I have had to write since I got down here to the  Pilot-School.  Sunday nights are no longer free to write as we have G.I. parties each Sunday which are real work.  Also we have home work from each of our classes each night. You see therefore that time is getting scarcer and scarcer and that is how the letters are coming, slower and slower.

            I got the box of cookies today and they look very good to me.  I don’t have to eat them like the last box because down here at the school we really are getting fed again.  When I had K.P. down here I didn’t think they were so well off; but now I know they are taking care of us and that is what I mean.  The food is really good too.  We get the food the civilians don’t get now and it is good compared with what they get at the Classification Center.

            I have got another haircut that is better than the one before.  This one is really short.  I was put in the 3^rd Wing down here and they have the shortest hair cuts off all the cadets.  They sat that 1” is all you need but if I have got 1 measly inch I’ll eat it. I’ve got a half inch and feel bald headed.  My hair sticks up and gives no protection to my head.  I always wanted a wiffel and now I know what one is like.  Now I can’t come home for months because you wouldn’t recognize me.

            I have just found out that a couple of more Stoneham fellows are here.  Crocetti is here as well as is Joe Fraser.  They are both in the C.C. area and under quarantine so I can’t see them and obey the rules.  I feel like going up and see them anyway.  Spencer Bobson is heading this way I hear but as yet hasn’t got here yet.  This is just a rumor.

            We are beginning to get gigs again and for some they are coming thick and fast but for me I have got 3 in 4 days.  If I can hold out till Thursday I won’t walk any tours.  That I will like very much. It means I have a good chance of getting out a week from Saturday.

            I just got up to see the fire in the mts off in the distance.  You may have read about them in the paper.  They are getting pretty bad and we expected to be alerted to fight them but as yet we haven’t.  You can really see the glow in the sky and at times it looks like the whole horizon for some distance is red.

            I am the last one of my group from Mass. to be going ahead.  The only other one who started with me is still unclassified and may be washed out.

            I must close now to do homework

With love,

Austin                         a/c

{ed. note - I can't find any references to a wildfire in November of 1943, but there was a large fire in Hauser Creek, California where 11 members of the military died.  They were not trained to fight fires, but were called upon anyway.}