6-18-44

Dear Folks,

Again a combined letter. Elaine, I received your letter and was really glad to hear from you and know that you were getting along so well. I imagine you are home by now but that isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t continue to take things easy. If the young one is as chesty as you led me to believe I have a good reason to believe that it is going to be sometime before anyone gets a undisturbed nights rest at 828.

We are still flying nights and will be for another week. We had quite a blow Fri. night. Two of our boys and their instructor were killed down by Bakersfield. Here it is the first accident we have had in our group since we have been here and it had to be in our squadron. The two boys have been in my outfit since we were at basic. They don’t know what happened, they were on a night instrument navigation trip and supposedly hit a mountain down by Bakersfield. We were on the same trip and heard it reported over the radio but didn’t know it was one of our ships. We were late in getting back to Mather as we were suppose to have landed at 2:30 but didn’t get back till 3:000. All the big shots were waiting for us, the C.O., sqd. commander, group commander, because our ship and the other one was the only one out. The weather down there wasn’t any too good, had about a 4,000′ ceiling which we had to fly under and about 20 mi. east of Bakersfield there are some 7,000′ mountains, so I think they got off course alittle and hit them. Oh yes – a friend of mine across the hall, Lt. Cheely is taking one of the bodies home. He lives in Iowa close to where they boy lived, and I think he might call you while he is there as he won’t be far from Chicago. The other boy lives in Galena, Ill. His name is Bruner the other Edwards. They were both in the graduating class at Luke. We are all hoping for some better weather this coming week so we can extend our cross countries alittle. I am suppose to go to Kingman, Ariz. tonight and at the present the weather reports seems to be OK.

Dad, I sent that check to McCane and I sent the factory a check for $71.00 to pay for my short coat and summer uniform that I got while home. For the present I think I am pretty well set until we go across and then I’ll need a trench coat.

I have my 201 file about completed, that is the personal affairs office has. They are really pretty good on helping you with those things around here.

I didn’t know it till just the other day that when we go to Salinas we will be in the 4th Air Force, and believe me it will really be a relief to get out of the training command. From what we have been hearing Salinas isn’t the country club that this is but you are there for one thing and that is to fly and you don’t have to worry about polishing the apple. We get to fly the A20’s there so you can look them up in your book. They are a two engine job with only one pilot – no co-pilot.

Well Cheely just came in to go eat so we’ll sign off. He is leaving here Mon. night.

With love,

Tom

Dear Folks, (everyone in Chicago)

The letter writing time that we did have in the evenings has disappeared and at the present time haven’t had any free time to put in its place. I have just a few minutes before going to the flt. line tonight. We just got back from PT and will be flying till about 3:00 AM. tomorrow. I got to bed this morning about 3:30 and had to be in ground school at 12:30 which doesn’t give much time when we have to eat also. This will last for two weeks so my letter writing might be even worse than it has been. Night flying is coming along O.K., tonight I have to go on an instrument night cross-country of about 5 hrs. in length. It shouldn’t be very hard because all it is is riding the air-way beam from one place to another. All I did Sun. night and last night was shoot landings, after you get on to them they are easier than in the day because usually the air is alot more stable and not much cross-wind to fight. The thing that is a bother in the night is wearing )2 masks all the time. There is a new order out that on all night flights O2 must be used from the ground up It is to help your eyesight.

I went home with Mort B. Sat. night and we came back Sun. afternoon. Had a swell time and went and had breakfast with Kay and her husband Sun. morning. Elaine, they said to tell all you folks hello. They were quite surprised to get such an early report on the new member. They lived only three blocks from the Blaisdell’s. They have a nice apt. but are going to have to move and they can’t find a place. We had quite a breakfast, scrambled eggs, bacon, rolls, coffee, grapefruit, etc. Larry had to go to work at 11:00 in Frisco. Our train left at 2:00 that afternoon and got back here about 4:30. The Blaisdell’s really have a nice home, it is up on the side of the hill overlooking the bay. You can see the Goldgate, San Franciso, Oakland Bay bridge, Treasure Island, Alcatraz and the ocean. You could see everyplace we had been when we were there at the pier.

Dad I received your letter and also the air mails, thanks alot. The telegram covered just about everything and thanks for sending that also. I hope everything is still coming along so well.

I sent you folks some pictures today, I sent one of the small one’s because I didn’t know how much room you had. Hope they are satisfactory.

About the chances of my getting a leave before going across, I don’t know for certain but I’d say I should be able to.

The war news is sounding pretty good, I certainly don’t see how Germany can hold out on so many fronts for so very long, however, we still have the Japs to deal with and I am afraid they are going to have to be burned out.

Well I’ll add a short note to this when I get back.

(3:00 A.M. Wed.)

Just got back; was in the air 5 hrs + 40 min. half of which was 1st pilot time. Took instrument cross country to Chico, Williams, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, Fresno, and back to Mather about 1200 mi. all total.

I am pretty tired so had better hit the sack.

I am still waiting for more news about Mama and son. Goodnight or Goodmorning –

With love,

Tom

6-4-44.

Dear Dad,

I am going to have to make part of this a business letter. They are wanting us to get our personal affairs lined up pretty quick. I don’t know what the idea is but what it is is every officer has a “201 file” that is nothing more than personal orders, papers, and other things such as that. I am sending you a list of the things I have to complete. All I want you to do is let me know if you have received my Nat. Service Life Insurance Policy, and also send me the policy numbers and amounts of the other policies I have. I’ll make out a will here and then when we go across I’ll send you my 201 file which will take care of everything.

In a couple of months I am going to make out an allotment so that $100.00 will be automatically taken out of my pay and deposited in any bank account you choose. What shall I do have it sent to the 1st Nat. at home or the bank in Chicago? I have some blank checks for the bank at home so maybe I had better send it there for a while anyway so there would be enough money in it in case I would have to draw any out. What do you think? I am keeping $200.00 in travelers checks and I have that now. That is the reason I haven’t sent any money home yet.

Things are going pretty well, I passed my instrument check yesterday, the first one in the squadron to pass it. It was really quite a relief after having such a time with it at Luke. To pass the check I had to make an instrument take off, fly on instruments to Stockton and back, and make an instrument landing. Had to do all this with out once seeing outside the plane, you have a hood that comes down over you. The check rider rides in the co-pilots seat. It took an hour and 20 min. We are going to be flying instruments next week and therefore I can fly around and find out how the rest of the instruments work. We start night flying next Sun. night. Also we are suppose to be through her and leave on the 3rd of July.

I am glad you received the bracelet, sorry it wasn’t large enough but  but guess it worked out OK as you can use it for a fob.

Guess things are still going OK at the hospital and office. Last night I and a boy from Iowa went into Sacramento to have dinner and take in a show. Got to bed about midnight and got up at 2:00 this afternoon. I didn’t even wake up till noon, I really feel alot better.

Your chicken dinner at Elaine’s sounded plenty good. In fact it made my mouth water. Tell them hello for me. There isn’t much more to talk about from here so will sign off. Thanks for the stamps and I’ll try to see that you get them back on letters in a short time.

With love,

Tom

5-27-44

Dear Dad-

Just got back from the movie house on the base. We got off today so I really got caught up on some sleep. I was going to take the train to Berkeley this aft but the sleep felt better. I and another boy went into Sacramento and had dinner last night, and then came back and spent the rest of the evening in the Officers Club. I got to bed about 1 and got up about 1 this afternoon, just in time to get to the mess hall before it closed. They really have a nice Officers Club here + it is just about a block from our B.O.Q.^[1]BOQ = Bachelor Officers Quarterswhich makes it handy.

Mort went home last night, he wanted me to go along with him but I know I would not be able to get much rest so I decided I would wait till a later time, his train will get into Sacramento at 12 tonight.

We start flying in the afternoon again on Monday which means alittle more sleep in the morning but also working longer at night. I think we start night flying a week from tonight. They have 2 night shifts, one from 6 pm till midnight and one from midnight until 6 am. Then you got to ground school from 7 to 11. This will last about 3 weeks, then it won’t be long till we pull out. I rc’d your letter + really was swell to hear from you and receive the pictures. They are all good and I am certainly glad of the fairly sharp _______so good. To answer your questions: when we go up there has to be 2 in the plane and on training flights such as these , not over 4 – when you go solo you take some one along to act as co-pilot, and when your instructor goes up he usually takes 2 students with him. On one cross country the other day we took along a crew chief so that he could get in his flying time and draw his flight pay he was a corporal, ________ are really interesting. We passed one ______ off to the plane’s right so low that the people standing on the platform could actually see the cockpit.

We were not supposed to get than 200 feet above the ground which made it a little bad, especially with all the mountains we had to go over. They all had snow on them and most of them weren’t up to 7 or 8 thousand feet. Coming back we landed at Reno, but didn’t stay long, because we did not need any gas or servicing. ________200 miles ____, all the way there and back, wen you get down on the deck you really realize that you are moving along. It all helps to build up confidence in yourself and the plane.

The way things look now we will complete all of our training here in Calif. but I have hopes, and don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t be able to get home at least once more before going across. However the way things stand you just can’t tell what will happen; if they need B-25 pilots all of a sudden it could be that we would go out after finishing this training for we would be qualified for that work. Personally I don’t think that that could of happen, because from all reports they need night fighters alot worse than bomber pilots. We hear so many reasons that you can’t believe any of them. From the sound of Steve’s letter that Elaine sent me he must have been in some pretty tight places. I’ll send it as soon as I write him.

Well there is not really much more news so I will sign off. Give the folks my love and see to it that I get that telegram soon notifying me that D-day has arrived

With Love

Tom

Tell Cleda I rc’d her letter + was glad that the things arrived, and good _____on her understanding of ______ for the stamps. I was down to my last two.

5-21-44

Dear Dad,

I was going to write you this afternoon but when we got off from the flight line at noon, I laid down for a few minutes and the next thing I knew it was 6:30 pm. We have been flying regularly the last several days which means 5 hrs in the air with out a rest. I really _____ to think of another week starting tomorrow especially when we don’t get a day off. The trouble is now that everyone has been checked out. We don’t get to switch off. Before when the instructor would go with us there would be 2 students; and while one was flying the other could get a little sleep back in the navigator’s compartment. How ever now when 2 students go up to gether – one flies – one is co-pilot for 2½ hours and then you switch and both jobs are pretty tiresome. We have started inst flying and today was the 1st time I have ever been lost. At one time we were over _______ and then a couple of hours earlier when we had about 1½ hrs of __________ our position was what you might call uncertain. We look all over the place and there wasn’t a map to be had.

The only thing we had was a radio _________ chart and luckily our radio compass worked so we turned in on this Sacramento beam and made it back OK. with about 10 min or less of gas left. Come to find out we were about 50 miles south of ______ . There is nothing quite like the sensation of not knowing where you are, everything looks mighty infamiliar.

I recd your letter of last Sat and it was swell to hear from you. Also rec’d the cards from the “Old Hidelberg” and _____ I had been there with you, when I got back to Chi. I want to go there some evening, was glad the Air Corps song made a hit, it is a good song.

I guess Agnes had a very enjoyable time and I am sure if did her alot of good just to get around a little. It sounds like your business is picking up at the hospital, hope you don’t have too much night work.

I guess Aunt Mollie arrived OK, I imagine her trip on the El Capitan was pretty nice. I still remember ours, the only thing bad about our trip was my getting sick in Kansas City. How did you like the _______ concert? Wish I could have heard it with you. Hope the Navy does not need a good man such as Stanley for some time yet. I thought there was something the matter with your car, but _____________ have been the gas you civilians were getting these days. I have something for you that I will send soon, it is having some work done on it. Tell all hello.

Goodnite,

Tom

P.S. I had some pictures taken, will send them as soon as they are ready.

Dear Dad,

We had to fly this morning so we didn’t get off this weekend, however, we are suppose to be off Tues. They are having to do alot of work on the planes so there is a shortage of planes. Starting tomorrow we fly in the afternoon which means we can sleep a little later in the mornings. I am beginning to like these planes alittle more each time I go up. This morning I flew one of the new models with the 74 mm cannon in the nose. They are alot heavier and harder to land but handle better in the air. They are taking the cannons out of most of them because they haven’t panned out too well I guess, or else there are no more Jap destroyers to be sunk.

We will be starting either night flying or instruments in a couple of weeks. We have to get 25 hrs. of night flying which is a good deal. We just get a couple hours of formation flying here and they tell us we won’t need much more than that because most of the work is done with single plane elements in combat. They have alot of P61s at McClellan Fld. which is just a short distance from here. Yesterday one pulled up beside us, a race resulted and when I thought we were going along pretty fast (280), I looked over at him and here he had stopped one engine dead and the prop was standing still. We went along like that for awhile until he started up the engine again, then he pointed the thing straight up in the air and disappeared.

I received a letter from Bill today and he said that he had called you and Cleda was there. How long is she staying? I am glad she is coming to stay at Elaines. I sent her a package from out here I hope she received it in good shape. By the way I am going to have some pictures taken Tues. so I’ll get you fixed up.

My clothes are OK but I’ll be glad when the summer wear I ordered from U. Les.^[1]Uncle Leslie DeMoulin, president of DeMoulin Brothers, a family factory that produced military uniforms during the war. get here. Blaiz received the telegram and we met OK.

Well Dad the boys are waiting for me to go to eat dinner so will close.

With love,

Tom

Dear Dad,

Wanted to drop you a line before going to bed and let you know that I am still around and thinking of you. I really thought this week would never end, it was pretty rough. However, it isn’t too bad and it can’t last too long. We still are on the morning schedule which means getting up at 4:30 and tomorrow afternoon I am having my last wisdom tooth taken out, I am hoping it won’t knock me out of any flying, but don’t think it will.

I received your letter and was really glad to hear from you. As you can see they have changed our address, they are trying to get things lined up alittle better over in the mail room. I haven’t heard from Mary Beth Schwartz and I doubt very much if I do after her and Mary getting together that Sat. evening.

Did you get to see the ball game last Mon?

Mort Blaisdell’s girl came up from Berkeley this weekend. I think we might go down to Berkeley in a couple more week ends. Tell Elaine I’ll look up Kay, Blais knows where they live and it isn’t very far from his home.

Thanks for sending Bob’s letter, when you see his new address in the advocate send it to me.

I was going to surprise you folks and fly in to Chicago next Fri. night. In fact we had a plane and everything planned and then they cancelled it because the weather for May didn’t look good for that part of the country. My instructor is a 2nd Lt. from Chicago and we really had things planned, we were going to leave here Fri. at midnight, re-fuel in Cheyenne and get in Chicago about 10:00 Sat. morning and then return Sun. morning. We might be able to make it sometime later but at the present it is off. Maybe we’ll have better luck next time.

Well Dad I am going to have to get to bed so had better close. Goodnight –

With love,

Tom

Tell Elaine I am still going to write her and that I’ll send Stan’s bag back as soon as I can pack it. Give them my all my love.

Fri – Apr 28-44

Dear Dad,

Well here I am all settled and ready to start to work at 6:00 in the morning. This seems a good bit different than the ___ cadet life, but it really isn’t so much. We still have ground school, P.T. + flying, however the nice things are that we now have orderlies, that clean our rooms, make the beds, and you go places on your own rather than being taken. Things really sound pretty nice here, there won’t be more fooling around, in fact we start flying B25’s tomorrow afternoon, some jump from an AT6 with 550 horse power, to one of these with 3,000 H.P. from what I have seen of them they look like a pretty sweet ship, the instructors live and breath by them, and I don’t think I have ever seen a piece of machinery so respected. When we first arrived here we kept hearing about the gentlemen that we would meet down on the flying line, it wasn’t till this afternoon that we found out it was the B-25’s.

Mort Blaisdell and I are rooming together. The rooms aren’t very large, but they are better than I had expected. I am afraid P.T. is going to get plenty rough here because they are supposed to be getting us ready for over seas duty.

I have heard that they moved the field in Florida that we were going to, out here to Calif. That _______ any chances of leave for us, but we can worry about _______ will be here 10 weeks and get in 100 hours in the B25’s. The food had been good so far, we can go into Sacramento any evening that we want to and aren’t night flying, how ever when you _____ get to get up at 6:00 + fly for 5 hour stretches at a time, because it doesn’t pay to _______ one of these up just for an hour or two. I imagine you will spend most of your evenings in bed.

Our flying area is all over the west, we take cross countries to Texas and back without landing and others over to Oklahoma.

Well Dad it is time for dinner, and this is mostly to let you know my address and a little bit of the set up here, tell every one hello + tell Elaine I rec’d her letter this morning. I hope everything is getting back to normal for you folks, and I was certainly glad to see everything going well.

Tell Elaine I will write a _______ letter to her in a day or two.

Mort is getting hungry so will close.

Thanks again for a swell vacation ______

I will always remember.

With love

Tom

Dear Dad + the folks at 828,^[1]828 Lakeside Place in Chicago was Elaine and Stanley’s address at that time.

Another combined letter so hope you won’t mind. We have been here at Gila Bend since Sat. noon. I have found out more what these AT’s will do in the this time than any of the other flying we have done. They really let you kick them around down here and the closer you come to the tow plane the better they seem to like it. I fly tomorrow afternoon on ground gunnery which they say is alot more fun than the aerial but I have been having alot of fun at that. We don’t do our qualification shooting till the last couple of days. The gunnery instructors down here are all plenty good. Alot have come back from combat, in fact mine, Lt. Campbell was a gunner on a B17 in the battle of Midway and then he went though cadet training.

It is really alot safer here than you think, however, we did have one boy killed the afternoon just after we came here.^[2]On April 1, 1944, Oliver S. Johnson, while flying an AT-6B, Serial #  41-17353, was killed in a crash impact with the ground at Gila Bend, Arizona. No one knows what happened, they were returning from a gunnery range flying in formation when he simply fell out of formation and flew her down into the ground. They couldn’t get any radio reply and there wasn’t any attempt for him to get out. They think he must have just passed out but that will just remain another mystery. The boys who really take the chances are the tow pilots, I would hate to have guys making passes at me all day.

Dad, I received your letter today and I must say that there was alot of news that I hadn’t heard of. Also thanks for sending the money. I am paying Mr. Perk $50.00 for his $50.00 deductible insurance, he didn’t want me to but I am going to. Things are all under control and if things go as planned there shouldn’t be any mix up. Your reservations are at the San Carlos Hotel for the 14th + 15th. Get in touch with the Perk’s when you arrive and you will be the guest of the AAF on the night of the 14th. I would like to have asked the Perk’s out for that evening but just our parents + girlfriends (sing.) can come. By the way I have a date for the evening also and I wish you would bring the girl out in the evening when you come.^[3]Note: This is not Zoe Foran, his long-term girlfriend and later-to-become wife Graduation will be in the morning of the 15th probably start around 8:00 AM. I will get off the rest of that day and night. I am going to take the plane from Phoenix at 10:50 Mon. morning and will get in Chicago at 4:00 AM. Tues. morning. I am only allowed to take 40# on the plane so wonder if I could have some stuff sent through on your ticket. The plane cost me $89.00 while the train is $84.00 which in my opinion is worth it if everything goes well. Let’s hope anyway.

See you in about 10 days and the rest of you in about 2 weeks. Goodnight –

Love,

Tom

Dear Dad,

I am really sorry that I have neglected you in my letter writing but we have been getting off for the last few days and everyone thought that they might as well go out when they had the chance. I guess Elaine told you that I had called her and also about the accident I had with Perk’s car. fNo one was hurt but the right front fender and grill was mashed. Mr. Perk was really swell about it and the insurance company is taking care of things, he had full coverage. We haven’t heard any more about it so I guess things are OK. There was another cadet with me and the other car was a convertible and there was a boy about 22 and his girl in it.

I think we leave for Gila Bend this Sat. The first bunch returned from there yesterday. They say it is really alot of fun and something new. Anything goes and they have the instruments and stuff taken out so that they are lighter and not so dangerous near the ground. You do alot of low flying down there. They had one accident, a mid air collision, the instructor got out with a broken back but the cadet in the other plane they think was killed on impact. It seems that a mid air crash is the most feared accident a pilot knows. However, here is one pilot that fears those blind corners of Phoenix alot more.

Elaine said that you got your train reservations changed OK. I have you a room at the San Carlos for the night of the 14th + 15th. If this is the right nights let me know pretty soon. It doesn’t seem possible that it is only a couple of weeks off. There is something I wish you would do for me and that is get about $100.00 out of my account at home and bring it to me when you come. I don’t know if I will need it but there is alot of stuff that we have to get before they pay us out $250.00 but I might need some more on my ticket. Don’t give me this yourself because I would like to keep things sort of on my own. If I have to sign a check send me one.

I wanted to ask you; was Grandma, Grandpa C. + Grandpa, Grandma D. all born in this country? We had to know this for some papers and I thought they all were.

We don’t get off the night before graduation but they are having a dance out here and you folks will be able to get on the post about any time you want to.

I have been doing some figuring, you better send me $50.00 before you come because I am going to have to get my tickets before we get paid.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Love,

Tom