Dear Folks –

Surprise! – if Zoe complains that I am not writing her enough explain to her that I wrote to you. Also, her correspondence is confined to only one person (me), while I have to keep you informed as well as the folks in Chicago. Her letters have really been swell and a big boost as well as alot of entertainment. Keep her encouraged and well supplied with stationery.

Dad, I hope you have been able to hold your own and are still wearing the brass in the house. Just throw your rank at them if you have any trouble. I imagine your life is pretty easy now with Zoe feeding the chickens and keeping the yard all cleaned up. Zoe said in one of her letters that you were really very well pleased with her cooking. I believe her and all that, but sometime if you want to write me a personal letter –

All kidding aside, I certainly want to thank both of you, for alot more things than I could possibly mention here, but most of all for taking care of Zoe. Yes, I know you say she’s your daughter but she is also my wife and if there is ever a time in our life that I should be there to take care of her it is now. It makes me feel an awful . lot better to know thzt she is with you.

It sounds as if the war over here is in its final stage and who knows maybe even by the time you receive this letter. However, that is hoping for alittle too much. Even with the ending of the war it will still take some time to hunt down and kill the guerrilla parties. There are going to be an awful lot of problems to solve over here and there are still the Japs. The way I put it it really sounds like a dark picture but time will straighten it out OK.

If I am going to write your daughter a letter tonight I had better get to it as my eyes are getting might heavy. I hope to be eating out of your garden before so very long so you might put in a couple more tomato plants.

Love,

Tom

Hello Dad,

I am afraid I read the first half of the third paragraph before Zoe had a chance to tell me not to. So she thought I was a Mollycoddle? I am certainly glad to find that out. I’ve been kidding her about her bug killing ability so I guess we are about even. I really was glad to know that you weren’t ready . to get the shot gun after me for my causing you to be a Grandpa. I am giving Zoe strict instructions that you are to be the boss so if she give’s you any trouble just drop me a line. Zoe threatens to cross this part out so if anythings missing in here let me know and I’ll send you a personal letter.

The way things look I’ll get to be here another month, and might even get a leave. The weather has been so bad here that we can hardly get off the ground. Don’t be to sure of the Pacific area for me. Hope to be seeing you folks soon.

Tom.

P.S. Zoe say take the pen to the store and use it.

Wed. Jan 3rd.

Dear Daddy,

I was so glad to hear from you – didn’t know if you exactly approved of the new addition to the family but felt reassured when you mentioned putting more boards on the screen doors. I really enjoyed the letter. Maybe you had better dig up part of the chicken yard for an extra garden this spring. On second thought that might not be such a good idea because eggs would taste mighty good to me – they are 72 cents a dozen out here so we don’t eat many out here – I’m saving a space so I can fill up on them when I come home.

Tom and I have really been living like kings today. All we did was sit before our fireplace all day – we had the nicest fire and tonight it really looks beautiful – sure do like a fire-place every thing looks so cheery. We bought some weiners tonight and roasted them in the fire.

Tom has been grounded for quite some time now – today is the first time he has felt fairly decent. – he had a combination of the flu and asma. – almost ruptured his ear because of flying with a cold. We’ve also had a lot of fog and rain and the fellows have had a hard time trying to get their flying time in so with a combination of both of these I think we might be here another month and finally get a furlough.

Tell Ruth to be sure to write me if she wants my job in Chi. My 3 months leave of absence is up Jan 22 and if she wants the job I want to tell Sadie about it when I write to tell her I’m quitting which will have to be sent right away.

P.S. Tell Mother that we didn’t receive a package from Frida + Harry other than what she sent in her package so maybe it was lost. Tell me if they did send something so I can thank them anyway.

Hello, –

And congratulations. Also thanks for seeing things the way you did twenty-five years ago, if you hadn’t my wife would certainly have been a disappointment. However, as it stands I owe you as much as my own folks.

They sent us down to Palmdale Sun. night to finish up our flying and we got back about six this morning.

Well this wasn’t meant to be a letter just a note.

With love,

Tom

Hello-

Here I am right back where I started from. It is alittle cooler than when I left but still hot.

I am looking forward to seeing your daughter out here soon.

The hours here are worse than any where yet. We have to get 65 hours of lying in 8 weeks.

Hope you made it to the graduation OK.

Tom

7-23-44.

Hello, –

I guess you had thought this state of California had swallowed me up. Anyway here I am back here at Lemoore but I certainly wouldn’t know that it is the same place I left last Jan. The 4th Air Force took it over about two monthes ago and are now using it as a replacement center for air crews, making up heavy bombardment crews, giving overseas’ physicals and shots. My group has had its overseas shots and physical, however, we are still due for about 11 wks. more night fighter training. Our crews, that is our flight engineer and gunner are just starting their operational training now and we won’t pick them up till about a month yet. I have been running into alot of fellows here that I went through cadet training with, they went into another type work and most of them are all set to go across. Jim Brewer from Greenville is here, he broke his foot acouple days ago so will be laid up for several weeks yet. He’s a bombardier so when he is well he will be assigned to his crew. We didn’t think we would be here this long as there is only a few of us. Will probably leave the first of the month, but you can’t depend on the army. Most of us would be willing and ready to leave inside of 10 min. if they said the word, as this isn’t too enjoyable a place to be at this time of year. Early in the morning it gets pretty cool, which helps alot in getting in our sleep.

Zoe said that you folks were in Chicago awhile back. How did you find everything? I have hopes of getting a leave and hope to get to Chicago but with all the time I would need in travel it would have to be several days in length. I would like to get back once more even if it would be for just a short time.

I feel alittle breeze coming through the window, I don’t know if it enough to get to sleep on but think I’ll try anyway. Hoping to hear from you –

Love,

Tom

Dear Folks,

You can really feel honored, this is the first time that I have answered a letter on the same day that I received one. I certainly enjoyed your letter and it seems that things are gradually getting straightened out in my mind. I knew that Zoe had been going with John and that it had been pretty steady. I couldn’t really blame her a great deal because if you count back the times we have seen one another in the last two years you can just about count them on your fingers. At the present I don’t know exactly how things stand with Zoe and me, but I do know that someday I hope to marry her, that is with the approval of her Mother and Father. This is the first time I have told anyone of my plans but things are moving so fast now that everyone has to move fast to keep up. I know that perhaps alot of people would think we are too young, my Dad might be one of these as I haven’t told him a thing as yet, and I am ashamed to say that I don’t exactly know how to tell him or discuss it with him. At the present I am just sitting tight to see how things work out because it will be next April before my training is over, and even then there might not be much of a furlough.

I was classified about two weeks ago and have been in pilot school for about a week and a half now. They keep us plenty busy, get up at 5:00 A.M. and have calesthenics and drill in the morning till 11:00 A.M. At 12:00 go to a class in Code, 1:00 Gunnery, 2:00 Chemical Warfare, 3:00 Math, 4:00 Naval and aircraft identification. Have our evenings for study but just about everyone writes letters during that time. They keep the pressure on us all the time, it seems like there are more officers around here than cadets and they are always ready to hop on you for something. This is all part of the game but after the flying we had in C.T.D. everyone is anxious to go on to more, however, we have about 6 weeks of school yet before going on the primary.

Zoe never did tell me when graduation was. Do you happen to know? I certainly hope that she will be able to come out here after graduation, by then we will probably be in primary and have alittle more free time. We can’t even get off the post here until we have been here 42 days – what a life.

I should do alittle studying tonight and there isn’t much time before taps. I am looking forward to hearing from you again.

Yours sincerely,

Tom

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Foran,

I have been trying to find time to write this for the last several days. I certainly do want to thank you for the box of cookies and candy. They were really swell. By the way, my roommates seemed to enjoy them also so I am sure that they send their thanks.

I hope you folks aren’t going through any of this hot weather. It has been hitting 115° about every day for the past few weeks and the nights aren’t much better. I am glad I don’t have to go through much more of it.

We finished our flying last Thurs. and will be leaving here in the very near future probably for Santa Anna but we won’t know that for certain till we get there. They flying went pretty well and the more I do the better I like it. We didn’t get to solo here but our last check ride wasn’t much different than a solo because the instructor just went along for the ride.

It didn’t seem that Zoe got much of a vacation before summer school. I think she is getting anxious to graduate, of which I can’t blame her. She told me about working in the chem. dept. at school, it will probably be pretty good experience.

I think you knew that Dad came out here. We had a good visit even though it was awful short. I only got a 25 hr. pass but he was anxious to get back because my Grandmother was sick when he left. However, I think she is alright now.

I am going to have to make this letter short because it is almost time for taps and I have enough demerits already. Thanks again for the package.

Yours sincerely,

Tom

Hello,

You must have thought that I had forgotten how to write. On the contrary, though I have been writing out so many navigation and Physics problems that I haven’t had time for much letter writing.

Things are going pretty well but everyone is anxious to move on to something new. We will supposedly be here for 5 months but the way they have been piling on the work we will start flying about the 1st of July. As soon as we get in 10 hrs. flying time we go on to Santa Anna. The new training program takes about 15 months all together, however, you can wash out anywhere along the way as several have already found out.

I wish I could send you folks alittle of this weather. It has only rained twice since we arrived here and that was 9 weeks ago. The nights are still cool but the afternoons have been getting plenty warm. It has hit 110° several times.

Dad tells me that they are drafting alot of the married men. It appears that they are certainly set on getting a large army. I guess this means alot more work for you, Mr. Foran.

I guess Zoe is beginning to get alittle excited about graduation. It doesn’t hardly seem possible that she should be graduating already. It seems like only yesterday that we were in high school together. At that time I didn’t think I would ever be going to Arizona State College let alone be in the army.

We have plenty of work here but I like all the subjects except English. Our schedule is 17 hours a day. Up at 5:15, class from 7 to 10 then drill till 11:00, afternoon classes from 1 till 3:00 and then calesthenics till 4:30; retreat at 5:00; classes in the evening from 6 till 8 and then study till ten. That two hours from 8 till 10 in the evening doesn’t give one much time to prepare for History, English, navigation, Physics and Geography. Most of the profs are understanding enough to go easy on the assignments but the History prof keeps giving about 50 pages to read every night. However, none of us have read 50 pages in the book yet. It is hard to understand what History or English has to do with flying a plane.

I know you folks are busy but if you can find time I would like to hear from you, –

Yours, truly,

Tom.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Foran,

I was really glad to get such a quick return on my letter, at least one member of the Foran family believes in prompt replies. Sometimes thats more than I can say for Zoe.

The candy arrived today and is really swell. If you won’t take my word for it just ask my roommate or anyone else on this floor. Everyone else knows what mail you have got before you do and there is really not very much need in trying to hide anything. Thanks alot.

The way it sounds your doctor at Sorento is doing well by everyone except you folks maybe when I get through I should come there, then I am sure you would have plenty of business.

I just returned from swimming they certainly do give you a work out. It is a good thing I don’t have any more classes today for I don’t believe I could get there. About all we do in swimming is play water polo and that means you are in the water about 45 minutes in one stretch. It’s beginning to snow again and get colder, I am certainly ready for spring to come, but there will prob ably be several more cold spells yet. The way your letter sounded you are not having any summer weather down there either.

Yesterday afternoon 5 of we boys from the house went down to Elaine’s and had Sun. dinner you can imagine what her apartment looked like after we left. It was alot of fun and had a good dinner. The that we have been getting here has been lousy and is getting worse.

This letter is going to have to be alittle short I have an hour exam in Chem. and Trig. tomorrow and will have to do some reviewing the Chem. is the only one I’m afraid of.

I want to thank you again for the candy and it got here in fine style.

Yours sincerely,

Tom