Thurs. night

Dear Folks,

I finally have alittle time to write you folks a letter. We only have navigation on Mon., Wed and Fri. nights so that gives me an extra hour, which I can use very well.

It is really beginning to get hot here after lunch. However, we have our drill in the morning so that helps alot but we still have calesthenics in the afternoon. You might be interested in a daily program of mine. It varies very little so here it is: Up at 5:15, fall out for roll call at 5:30. Breakfast at 6:00, drill from 7:00 to 8:00, lecture on military indoctrination from 8:00 to 9:00, Geography class from 9:00 to 10:00, First Aid class from 10:00 to 11:00, lunch at 11:30, English class from 1:00 to 2:00, hour off, calesthenics from 3:00 to 4:30, fall out for retreat at 5:00, dinner at 6:00, Navigation class from 7:00 to 8:00, lights out at 10:00. You have to rush everything you do here. When we get out of calesthenics at 4:30 we have to shower, get dressed in the best clothes we have and make sure our shoes are shined. Really the only time we can sit down and study is between 8:00 and 10:00 P.M. We had a test in First Aid today which I didn’t do too bad on, however, I got the tendons mixed with the ligaments. We don’t have any school on Sat. but we drill anywhere from two to three hours in the morning and clean the dorms in the afternoon.

I signed the pay roll today so I might be getting paid one of these days. However, one of my roommates signed in the wrong place and they think the whole squadron will have to sign over again. Yesterday our whole room got one gig apiece for having a dirty sink. After you get 5 gigs you start walking tours for every one over that. That is 5 gigs a week. Walking tours is the same as walking the bull pen. One fellow has 13 so he is going to be busy all weekend.

Cleda, I got your letter and the cookies and it was really swell. I will write you when I get some time. Maybe this weekend. The cookies really hit the spot. You certainly picked out my favorite. The whole box last the four of us about 15 min., however, the brownies went down my throat in alot shorter time than that. They had kept real well, they all tasted fresh and none were broken. It is really alot more of a treat to get things like that here than at Fresno, because at Fresno they had a P.X. whereas here we can’t even get any cokes let alone candy or cookies. There isn’t any ice cream or anything like that to be had around this part of the country. Maybe it is the same way at home now.

I received a letter from Bob B. and Carl Abt today. Carl is trying to get in the air corps but he has to get a waiver at the citizenship requirment first. He hopes he can get in before they call him.

I have two speeches to prepare for tomorrow. It is the first time I have ever had to do anything like that before. I have already made one in military indoctrination and have another in it tomorrow and another in English. The one in English I am going to talk about education and the one in mili. ind. I think I will talk about you, Dad. It has to be a speech about a successful man and how he got there. I haven’t thought of what or how I am going to say so had better get to it.

Love, Tom