April 24, 1944

War Eagle Field

April 24, 1944

Dear Mother:

I guess you heard the Kay Kyser program the other night. {Link is not the to actual program, but to another from the same year in DC}.  It sure was a lot of fun to put on.  Everyone here enjoyed it immensely.  Kay Kyser really has quite a sense of humor.  Also his program is well gone over and planned before he goes on the air.  There was nothing hap-hazard about the way it was put on.  The contestants were the only unknown quantities and one didn't even seem to be a quantity at all.  I refer to L. Pounds who by the way is a big wingding around here.  He had himself put on the program even if he didn't know what goes on half the time.  He really has one of the slowest functioning minds I have seen.  I suppose I could do no better myself.

Kay Kyser

The fellow Shearin flies with me.  He is from Tenn. which you found out from the program.  He is a great big fellow and is some character.  I guess he is just a typical southerner.

Of course the program was full of over statements about the country and the weather.  However once you have been here and know a conditions in other parts of the U.S. you are very glad to leave.  Not that it is dusty all the time but we live in a kind of funnel here so that 3/4s of the time we get pretty strong winds.  The ranges of mts around tend to send the wind down this valley.  All the program amount to was a lot of fun for everyone.

I have had 3 different instructors for transition flying already and have had one instructor for instruments and will get another next week.  Most of the men have taken the chance of getting into the A.T.C. rather than get another job when this school closes next month.  I guess I am just hard on them anyway.  I lean a lot from each one because each has quite a different style of flying.  Each one harps on different details and therefore I should get most of them pretty well straightened out.  However what I learn helps and of course hinders in that each time I spend too much time learning a new technique and not getting some of the essentials such as chandelles and lazy 8's and acrobatics.  However they are not as important as just plain flying ability.

I think I am pretty nearly ready for check rides so my career in the Air Corps will be determined pretty soon.  I feel sure that the next 40 hours will put me over the hump.  They are getting rid of men in Basic pretty fast and when they get to advance they are too valuable to wash out for no consequence.  I am sorry to hear that Fred B. was washed but that is just one of those things.  

We have the floor to clean now so I will close.

With love

Austin