Dear Folks,

Finished up night flying tonight and it is the first time that I have been in bed before 3:00 A.M. since we started. Each one of us had to get 27 hrs. of 1st pilot time which meant 27 other hours of copilot time, we did it in 12 nights so we have all been doing agood deal of flying. Last night I had to get some 1st pilot navigation time in so I went to a little place down by Blythe called Desert Center. It was like finding that well known needle in that well known hay stack.

I got there about 1:00 A.M. which made it all the harder to find as everyone had gone to bed and had left very few night lights burning. I had a fellow from another sqd. for co-pilot and he sat over there sound asleep all the way there and back. It took about 5½ hrs. and was alittle over 1,100 mi. The worse part was that we flew at 13,000′ + 14,000′ and I just about froze as the freezing level was 10-,000. An O2 mask gets alittle uncomfortable after the first 2 hrs. and on all night flights we have to use it from the ground up. The trip was over some pretty rugged country, flew by Mt. Whitney which goes up to 14,500′ and several other ranges which were brushing the 12,000 foot mark. One of our ships missed Desert City and flew about 150 mi. past it. They ran out of gas coming back but were lucky enough to be able to land at Palmdale. From what I hear the big shots at Palmdale were pretty sore about the whole thing because the field is closed to all aircraft because they are supposedly testing some jet-propulsion ships down there. I don’t know what they expected the boys to do, I guess land on some nice soft peak down there.

The accident that I told you about in my last letter letter, we got the report back and it is really a mystery. They ran smack into the side of a mountain at about 7,000′ up. They can’t figure it out as the instructor had been here for over a year and knew the country well, and they were about 50 mi. off course. Their parachute harness wasn’t buckled so they probably never knew what happened.

Dad + Cleda, I received your letter today, and it was good to hear from you. It must really seem like you have a family up there and I imagine there is plenty of work to be done over at 828. Elaine + Stan, Dad reports that Tommy is just like a school boy already, Cleda says at first he looked like Stan and now you don’t know who he looks like. I’ll admit I am baffled, here he is alittle over 2 wks. old and I already have him pictured as a little boy trudging off to school and in some ways looking like Stan and in other ways not. I’ll guess I’ll just have to wait for some pictures, however, until then Elaine you might let me know just what he is up to. Is he walking? Talking? Reading? Wetting? Or what?

Here it is all most 2:30 and and I am getting up at 5:00 AM to go to Berkeley with Blaiz so had better get acouple hrs. sleep.

Dad at the present time I can’t get you any ties as we can’t even get underware out here. It is a good thing I had my stuff as some of the fellows are having a hard time getting clothes. Usually the PX’s have quite a supply, however, they say they will getting alot my stuff in so will send it to you then, unless they are feeding me a line.

Goodnight –

with love,

Tom