January 23, 1944

Ryan Field

Tucson Ariz.

Jan 23, 1944

Dear Mother:

Here is it Sunday so I guess I can find time to write again as we are confined to the post, or should I say quarantined because of the mumps.  They are trying to make it pleasant for us, having movies and refreshments, but we all wish we could have gotten off the Post for a change.  The movies wasn't bad but rather old.  Today we are going to see the movie "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday".  This picture isn't quite so old and should be interesting.

I got your last letter of the 19th and the box of cake and candy at the same time.  The letter took only 3 days to get here which is pretty good time.  I got Mary's letter the same day and it took 5 days.  This is cutting about 2 days off from the regular time required before.  I was overjoyed to hear that you had finally got a watch and a good one at that.  Do not worry about its being satisfactory because I am sure most any style will please me. You see I really need the watch to calculate my flying time.  You see Mr. Powell my instructor is about to kick his fledgling out of its nest and then flying time will have to be calculated by myself.  Probably by the time you get this letter I will have had my first solo flight.  I am rather looking forward to it.

I would have written yesterday only I was J.O.D. which means Junior Officer of the Day.  It seems at first to be a good job and if anything a rather important one but in reality it is just a punk detail.  All day long you run errands and do odd jobs that no one else wants to do.  You make beds, feed a goat, deliver telegrams, clean offices, and ride a bike all over the post hunting up cadets and officers and everyone in general.  What really makes it tough is that the bike runs harder than anything imaginable.

However you do get around to hear and see things.  I got into the Link trainer room.  You know what a Link trainer is, it's a plane you can step out of at 10,000' without a parachute and not get killed.  You can also land it 50' under the ground and not get hurt.  Really it is an instructional trainer.  Every cadet gets 5 hours in one of these before he leaves the post so I will get to see the inside of one of these.  You fly a course in one and it is plotted on a table that is electrically attached to it.  One fellow was flying a rectangular course each leg of which about 20 miles long.  He was up 2800' and flying 160 mpg.  He was doing all right considering he hadn't had too much time in the thing. (I am making mistakes all over the place because I am trying to hear a radio program and write at the same time.)  I also heard a fellow getting nailed for flying above the altitude limits around here.  He was caught at at 13000' just flying around doing nothing.  I suppose you wonder who could have caught him.  Well in the field they have several Basic Trainers and officers go up to patrol the boundaries.  Well this one happened to be up to 18000' on oxygen and saw this fellow come up through the overcast.  This fellow got into a lot of trouble partly because he was disobeying orders and partly because he was doing something that was medically wrong.  Army regulations state that you cannot fly above 1000' without oxygen.  This fellow may be washed out for this foolishness.

I was rather disappointed to hear that Carl Evenson was eliminated from the Navy flight training.  It don't seem to me that a fellow can be washed out by flunking a test.  It must have been more than that.  The Navy as a rule is rather lenient in such matters as is the Army.  You can hardly quit even if you want to if they can determine why you want to leave. He seemed to be rather wild and he could have been eliminated for breaking regulations.  Well I hope he can find something that he will like as well.

I am glad you found a good place to eat in Boston.  From what you wrote it must have been a very good place.  When I was in Boston that summer I used to look in that doorway just to see what I could see.  However I never ate in there.  It looked like a good place to me.

A.A.F.F.T.D. means Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment.

I will close now and see who else I can write to before I have noon chow.

With love
Austin.