War Eagle Field
Lancaster
Mar. 30, 1944
Dear Mother:
I have received several letters from home and elsewhere since I have attempted to answer any. The chief reason is that time is rather short here and the schedule run pretty close. That seems like an old story by now but each time we move we go to a place where time moves faster and intervals between are few and far between. At Ryan I thought I was rushed but it was a schedule full of spare time compared with our present one.
We get up at 5:45 to meet reveille. We make our beds and everything that has to be done gets done or else. We eat breakfast at 6:45 and go to the flight line at 7:30. We are on schedule there until 12:45. We return and eat dinner at 1310 and go to first class at 1340. We finish ground school at 1640 and then go to PT at 1655. We have an hour of PT and have just time to take a shower. At 1825 we have supper and then retreat at 1850. We then have drill for an hour or maybe a little less if it gets dark early. About 2000 we should be free but if you have ground school at night or have flunked some class you don't get any time yet. We have been having lectures at night that last about an hour and that means we get off at 2100 and taps at 2130. In that last 30 min. you make your bed and shave. Then your day is done and starts again before you have a chance to think again. That's my day.
Flying is going all right I guess but I got kind of discouraged learning to fly all over again. I thought I could fly before I hit this field and here is where I am learning how little I know. You fly with your right hand on the stick your feet on the rudder pedals and the left hand is flying all over the place. You have a radio to control and a "mike" you carry if you want to use it. You have a propeller pitch, a mixture control, a throttle and a couple of heat controls. You also have a wobble pump, trim tabs, a gas tank switch and any number of instruments. I sure looked sick in that plane the first day. You also have a torque correction to take into account, and the altitude of the plane is the big problem. You try to maintain an even bank, keep the nose on the horizon. It is a very big job to take on all at once. Right now I doubt if I could even fly a Ryan but I guess I could if I started to remember a few things.
(About 24 hours have lapsed now)
I had to leave off the first part of this letter to go up to the ground school on business. I had to write a 350 word essay so I could get out this weekend. I have it all done now so I can go out.
I don't know what I was thinking about yesterday so I will say something about our flying schedule. I should solo soon and get in a little time in the air to myself. Next week we go on our first cross country hop which comes about 300 mi in the form of a triangle. We are going to have a lot of fun because we will do it solo. It will be easy to get lost because we will fly over a lot of desert on the way and check points will be few and far between. However a lot of fellows have done it before me so I guess I can do it.
We were kidding the instructors last night about our getting lost. I told him if I got lost I would fly the "iron beam" (the railroad). He said that was all right but not to fly down the middle of the tracks but down the sides because the navy flies down the middle. One leg of the trip will be over a road and near a railroad. This road follows a rather circular form and goes around a danger area where heavy B29's, B17's, and B20's do precision bombing. We often hear these boys talking over the radio because this area is not too far away.
I have been dreaming of coming home in the last few nights. Is that a good sign? I hope so because they are extending our course another week here and maybe a couple of weeks later on so I may not come home when I expect if I do get home. It's a wonderful thing to think about anyway.
I will get into your letter now. I guess the deal on getting out that class book so soon after the boy's death is that one complete page was added. You can see in the back an empty page. I guess they had the pages all printed and only had to add this one when they were bound. It was a rather quick job.
A few of the boys from Beloit went to Ryan with me but only a few. I think there were maybe 4 or 5 of them. You see we were only replacements for another sqn. going there so that we got pretty well mixed up. You will find a few all the way around. Still fewer are here at War Eagle than were at Ryan. I sure meet a new bunch every time I move.
As for the group Richardson the nice looking fellow is here with me. Rogers and Reynolds went to Marana which his near Tucson for Basic and Rowland was my bunkmate who washed out. If you think Richardson would be nice to write to you had better write his girlfriend whom he may marry soon seeing he is now near home. That seems to be the case of most of the fellows here. Most have very nice pictures tuck up or they are married and their wives live near here. I guess I am the only totally unattached one in the outfit.
A box will be very welcome you can bet. We don't have too much we can eat after meals around here. We can have food in the lockers if we don't keep it too long. As for 5 and 10 cent candy that will do very well. I like the licorice that was sent last time. Any kind of candy that will ship always tastes good. I suppose things are getting short everywhere except in the Army.
(Another 24 hours has gone by)
This letter seems to be extending over the best part of a week. Well you can read it and imagine it is three letters all received on the same day.
Today is Saturday and we have just finished our inspection and have the day free soon if they will only have PT. After PT we can go to L.A. and see the town.
I received a letter from Cousin Emma in Hollywood the other day and she said she had Dana's wife is living with her so I guess I had better not expect to stay out there. I can find a hotel room easily if we get to town early.
Yesterday I soloed that BT13A. It is quite a thrill of course and I bet I got a dozen grey hairs in the process. there are so many things you could forget and anyone might make a trip very uncomfortable. How I would like to get into an auto where you can live with a peaceful mind knowing that if anything goes wrong you have just to stop and think about it. Up in the air that is rather hard to do. I guess anyone can fly if they put their mind to it even though there is a lot to remember.
It is so different flying a closed cockpit plane. You can't hear the wind as well and you can't feel the air rush by when you do a slip in a turn. You can easily let the airspeed drop until the plane stalls because the controls are so heavy. They are so smooth to handle though. You can maintain your altitude by just moving a trim tab and it will fly at that altitude even when up and down currents of air bounce the plane around a lot.
I have a lot of fun with my instructor. He is always trying to screw me up and when I do something a little out of the ordinary he makes some witty remark. Sometimes he gets awful mad at me for some of the things I do but I guess I am slowly catching on.
I may not get a chance to answer Aunt Emma's gift right away.
I have started now to finish this letter but for good this time. I won't tell you how much time has gone by. I guess I have quite a manuscript now and I have run out of things to talk about. I may get a chance to write during the time we are on the flight line. I may write to Aunt Emma tonight so if I mention my thanks for the sewing kit that hasn't yet arrived I guess I will be in the clear. I am sending Mary a few additions to her charm bracelet. They came from L.A. (maybe you can guess how long it has been since this letter started).
Well I think I will close up for now and get some sleep. I had a long week end. I will write about it in my next letter.
With love
Austin.
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