Dear Folks,

Just a short Christmas letter to let you know how things are going here. We are on the afternoon schedule this week and didn’t get off the flight line till 6:30 tonight. I only have two more days in the instrument squadron and am I glad, however, it is a good thing to know how to use them because you can never tell when you will need them. The weather here has been rainy and not very good for fair weather pilots. We have been flying steady now for 8 days trying to get in as much time as possible before the weather really does close in.

I received alot of birthday cards and want to thank you folks for your, also I believed you called the other night because I was to call operator 6 at home but the lines were so busy I couldn’t even get through to Los Angeles. It seems like my birthdays always have some eventful happening. I saw my first fatal airplane accident this year. A boy in our squadron who came with us from Thunderbird crashed in taking off, he is from L.A. ^[1]This is the story of Gerhard John Heller, Tom’s friend from Thunderbird Field, who was killed in a training accident.They don’t know what happened other than he stalled it at about 100′ after getting off the ground and spun in. however, they couldn’t tell much from the plane. The thing that probably happened is that when it stalled he didn’t get the stick forward. One thing about such happenings is they are tough on one person but I’ll bet my bottom dollar that there are at least one hundred safer pilots here at LAAF.

I think I am due to have my 20 hr. check ride as soon as finishing instruments. I don’t think it will be very tough, probably mostly procedures. Just the same you might keep your fingers crossed.

We still don’t know if we are getting off Christmas Day. There probably wouldn’t be an awful lot to do so I guess it won’t make an awful lot of difference. I’ll be satisfied with 24 hrs. of sleep.

Well I will cut this alittle short because we have a test in Meteorology, and Navigation that I want to study for. Let me hear all about your Christmas. Goodnight.

With love,

Tom.