Tues. night.

Hello,

I think those were the best brownies I have ever tasted and that you have ever made. They were still good and fresh when they got here and really hit the spot. You really did a good job in packing and sealing them.

Yesterday I really had to drag myself around. We didn’t get into L.A. till about 11 PM. Sat. and then we couldn’t find anyplace to stay so we went to the show and came back to the base. It takes about 4 hrs. to get to L.A. and we didn’t get back till 5:AM. I had planned on seeing Aunt Molly Sun. morning but you can see what happened. I don’t think I will even go to L.A. anymore unless we get off a little earlier Sat. afternoon. We had our regular Sun. parade and while we were standing at attention, (and it wasn’t cool) the Gov. of Calif.^[1]Earl Warren & General Cousins^[2]Commanding General, Western Training Command made a speech and gave away a couple of medals posthumously. It was pretty spectacular but not very restful. To top things off I had guard duty Sun. night from 10:PM. till 3:00 A.M., (they were an hour late in relieving me) and only got 2 hrs. of sleep. As a result of all this I was in a complete daze all day yesterday and went to bed at 8:00 P.M. Have felt 100% better today.

Dad forwarded me a letter from Steve and he is still at Fort Pierce, Fla. His address is

Ens. C.S. Hempelman, USNR.
USNATB, SBC#1
Ft. Pierce, Florida

I had written him the last part of last week so guess he hadn’t received it yet. He sort of thinks he will either go to New York or Norfolk soon.

We have our last math test tomorrow and I have to get a 10 to pass the course, however, I plan on beating that by 90 pints. It covers vector prob. in navigation. This completes our math and then we start Physics. The nights before we have a test we are not allowed to sign out to go to the P.X.^[3]Post Exchange, a store on the base for small items Just about everyone is writing letters which is a good way to study for a test.

Is Karen making any friends with the neighbors children or doesn’t her Mother allow such things.?

I got a letter from Dad tonight and he says that all’s well at home. Maybe he means that this is the lull before the storm. I received a letter from Cleda Sat. and wanted to send it to you but lost it somewhere, I though I had put it in my footlocker. Anyway she had wondered why I sent all my letters to Dad and addressed them Dear Folks and that she felt they weren’t meant for her. I wrote her and told her that I thought they would get them sooner if they came to Dad’s P.O. box. What a life – I am about ready to give up on the diplomacy.

Give Karen a big kiss for me.

Love, Tom

Thurs. night.

Dear Folks,

Received your card yesterday and letter today. Wish I could have been with you at the Aragon^[1]Aragon Ball Room, Chicago, maybe later, O.K.?

I am looking forward to the cookies and I imagine if I spread it around much there wold be several others looking for the same thing. I guess you have already sent the pin. Zoe‘s address has changed as I found out today. The house closed for the rest of the summer, but she will get it ok., I am sure. Thanks alot for sending it.

I hope your hay fever doesn’t get very bad. I haven’t been bothered with you know what since we were at Tempe. I certainly have been keeping my finger’s crossed, but I don’t think it will bother me.

You spoke of the moon on the lake, this Calif. moon looks pretty nice but I think it would look alot better in the mid west.

I am glad you sent Dad’s letter because I know alittle more of how things stand. I never know what to tell him to do in my letters other than what ever he does do is ok with me. I get a letter from Cleda every once in a while, however, I know her well enough to know that she is playing up to me. I have only written her a couple of times and all my other letter I address to Dad. I don’t know if I ever told you are not but so you will know, you are the 2nd beneficiary. That is in the regular $10,000. government insurance policy.

We haven’t started aerial photography yet but we are taking 14 hrs. in studying the diseases of the South Pac. It seems that you can get anything there. We have had talks by a fellow who was shot down and lived for 24 day on coconuts (your favorite) and was finally taken to a friendly native village. His malaria is not entirely cured yet but he had everything else along with it. It is just a new course and the idea is to teach us to take care of ourself under the conditions which might arise. It seems that it is almost impossible to keep from getting malaria. I don’t think you are ever the same after having it I am certain this fellow isn’t.

I got another 100 on the 2nd math test and a 93 on the first aircraft identification test. We had 18 planes that were flashed for 1/5 of a sec. from now on they will all be at 1/10 sec.

I am sure that Uncle Tom as well as her parents would be able to understand every word that Karen says. In fact I think I could probably understand some new ones. I am going to take some pictures to show Aunt Molly. Our passes won’t start till 6: PM. so I won’t be able to get to Aunt Mollie‘s till Sun. morning. It takes about two hours to get to Los Angeles. I and another boy are going to try and find a room, I hope we don’t have to sleep on a park bench all night.

I have some math problems to complete.

–·, —, —, -··  ; -·, ··, –·, ····, -·  ^[2]GOOD NIGHT, in Morse Code

Love, Tom

*Karen’s

Fri. morning.

Dear Folks,

Finished cleaning a little early this morning so I have a little time before breakfast. I received your letter last night and was really glad to hear from you and also get your opinion. To several of your questions I don’t know the answer just yet and until I am certain of them my frat. pin will be enough. Would you send that to her? The address is 706 S. Mathews, Urbana.

It seems that you should be able to teach Karen how to curl her hair around her finger without pulling it out. It sounds like a bad habit to break her of. Have you had any success yet? Maybe you will have to put on her de-thumb-suckers to keep her from pulling her hair.

It is almost time for the whistle so I had better get ready, will try and finish this tonight. When the whistle blows we have 45 sec. to be in ranks at attention. I am on the second floor and it is really a race to get out there. It is worth two gigs if you don’t make it and several times I haven’t.

(7:00 P.M.)

Back again. To answer a few of your questions. A full pack weighs about 35 lbs. This can vary with rifle, etc. They also get heavier starting from noon on and about 4:00 P.M. they weigh about 135#. I don’t exactly know what the idea of crossing your eyes is for, but they run a pointer down a ruler and check the distance. They are trying a new night blindness test that is still in the experimental stage.

It is really quite complicated We don’t get any flying here at pre-flight, that starts at primary where we go next. Primary is probably where this fellow from Stanley’s office washsed out. However, some get almost all the way through and then can’t land heavy planes and get washed on account of this.

We got our dog tags today so I guess we are really veterans now. You have probably seen them they are two duplicates which you wear around your neck. They have your name, serial number, Religious preference, blood type, and persons name (Dad’s) and his address. It is the first time I knew what my blood was, it is O what ever that means.

Thanks alot for the advice and I will assure you everything you said will be thought through. Don’t worry about anything happening for some time yet but I just wanted to know what you thought.

We finished our chemical warfare course today. I think I did pretty good on the test, I got a 100 on the first math test we had, we have two more for the course. I think we start aerial photography Mon. It doesn’t seem possible that we have already had two week of school. We are suppose to get passes next weekend if we don’t have M.M^[1]Mess Maintenance or guard duty. I am going to try and see Aunt Mollie then.

I hope you are all settled down now with all the cleaning completed. Is Karen left handed? You said she would sling the H2O over her left shoulder, explain please.

With Love
·–, ··, -, ···, ·-··, —, ···-, ·,

Tom
-, —, –,

Dear Folks,

Received your letter this evening, the one Stan carried in his pocket. I was glad to hear of things at home and how you vacation was there. I got a letter from Dad yesterday and also one from Cleda today. I am glad things went so well at home, and I hope everything turns out ok with Dad. I don’t think you can blame Karen for being afraid of his cigars. Even if he wasn’t smoking one the smell won’t leave for a week.

After a week of school I can give you an idea of our schedule. Starting at 7:30 A.M. we have drill and calesthenics till 11:00 A.M. Have Code at 12:00, Gunnery at 1:00, Chemical Warfare at 2:00, Math at 3:00, 3 days a week aircraft identification at 4:00 and the other three Naval Forces, which is the study and recognition of all the ships of different nations. Code and the identification courses are the hardest and you don’t have time to think about anything twice. In code we will have to be able to take 8 words a min, and we have to be able to recognize 50 different planes in 1/25 of a sec. aside from knowing there wing spans, armament, makers, type, speed, range, etc. In gunnery we are on the 50 cal. machine gun and are learning the parts. The idea here is that you learn everything in class so you keep taking the gun apart, naming the parts and putting it together again. We take up the 50 cal. gun, sub-machine gun, .45 pistol and theory of sighting. Also get to go on the range with all of them.

I am not having an awful lot of trouble with code but some of the boys are having an awful time. It is taught just like the other courses where you sit for an hour straight with the earphones and take down everything you can. During the period today we had three checks and I didn’t miss a letter in any of them, they gave it to us at about 5 words a min. (1 word = 5 letters), however, tomorrow I might miss them all, that’s the way it is.

I liked your description of how Bill ^[1]his cousin, Bill DeMoulin pressed his pants, with him in the navy nothing would surprise me. I got a letter from Mary a week or so ago but I have only written her about 3 times since I have been in the army. I think the various reports you heard of her were probably true. Zoe and I have been keeping up a steady correspondence, however, I don’t know what the date is that she graduates.  I think it is sometime in Sept. I asked her in a letter a couple of days ago so should know pretty soon. I think she might come out to where ever I am after she graduates, for a visit. She has an offer of a job in Kalamazoo, Mich., but I don’t know if that’s the one she wants are not. I don’t mind if you get her something for graduation but don’t ask me for any ideas because I am stumped myself. There is some advice that I would like to get from you folks, and if it is ok with you this will be strictly between the three of us and Karen. Zoe and I have talked a little of being engaged but you know how it is talking about things through the mail. Anyway, as things stand I think we should wait awhile and see how things work out, that is with my training. Under the conditions I thought it selfish on my part or on any fellows part to be engaged to a girls but she doesn’t seem think so. Whatever, we decide it would be some time before I would give her a ring but I just wanted your ideas on the issue. As I said before don’t say anything to Dad because things are along way from being that far along.

I have to shave and shine shoes yet tonight so had better get to it. Give Karen a kiss for me.

With love, Tom

Sun. morning.

Dear Folks,

Have  been trying to write for some time but all this moving has kept us all busy. I hope you really had a swell vacation, and I really enjoyed your cards and the letter from home. Did Karen and Dad get to be good friends before you had to leave or wasn’t it enough time? You were plenty lucky on your train connections. How did Karen make it with the younger generations at home? I didn’t know that Charles Easley was a bombardier. One of my buddies from N.U., ^[1]Northwestern University Robert Casey, was classified as a bombardier and will probably go to N. Mex. for his training after pre-flight here. I am glad the folks had Mrs. Perkins for dinner, Dad had told me that Cleda wasn’t much in favor of it.

Stan, I wish I could have been loafing in Greenville with you. You asked about where my pre-flight would be. We get it right here, in fact we are in pilot school now and start classes Mon. I don’t know all of our courses but some are: aircraft identification, gunnery, code, etc. We will supposedly be here 9 weeks and from what I hear the course is really condensed. After pre-flight we go to primary and it will probably be here in Cal.  The way things look now we will probably get all our training in the West Service Command.

I sent Dad a letter while we were on bivouac which was for all of you, I hope you got to see it. They kept us plenty busy while there but the last three days were the hardest. Wed. morning we had a 7 mi. tactical march,

In the afternoon we were suppose to have a lecture but a P38 that was spraying tear gas on another bunch set fire to a hill and all three squadrons got in on the fighting. It burned off the side of a hill before it was stopped. Really a lot of excitement.

Thurs. we had a 15 mi. march with full pack and K rations. I don’t think I will ever make a mountain climber. Fri. morning we marched back to SAAAB which is about 15 mi. and made it in 3 hours and 15 min. We had one 10 min. rest. llThe worse thing about that was that we didn’t have a thing to drink. As soon as we got back we ate lunch and moved into pre-flight school.

I saw Sam ^[2]Tom’s former roommate from College Training Program in Arizona State College, Tempe and he didn’t make it on his eye test, he couldn’t cross his eyes. ^[3]There is some irony that Sam Ashcroft couldn’t pass his eye exam. After the War, Sam devoted his entire career to teaching and research on behalf of blind and visually impaired children. It is funny at the number that wash ^[4]wash out on that. I think he will go to Scott Field for radio and gunners training which means he will probably see action before the rest of us. In a talk we had by the Col. yesterday it seems that if everything goes well we will be on our way inside of a year. From the time we start pre-flight till we finish training it takes 36 weeks but the way they keep knocking off a week here and a week there on your training it probably won’t be that long. I don’t mind them shortening the course as long as we get in our full number of flying hours.

We have our usuall Sun. afternoon parade. I wish you folks could see one they are really very spectacular. It is almost time for lunch. Give Karen a kiss for me.

Love, Tom

Use new address.

Sat. night.

Dear Folks,

Hope this letter reaches you ok. I thought I would chance it.

At the present I have a cold and a sore jaw. The tooth came out ok with the aid of a couple of shots of novacane. The dentist here are good especially the ones we get to go to. The cadets get the same medical attention as do the officers. We are just beginning to be able to tell the distinction between enlisted men and officers. We haven’t heard anything about our classification but several have already washed out and moved to the wash out squadron.^[1]He is in the Classification stage of his training, were extensive testing is done to determine who is suitable for pilot training and who is not. Depending on the results, he might be further … Continue reading There have been 25 out of the squadron so far and there will probably be some more.

The pictures were really swell of Karen, she certainly is something to be proud of. It looks like you got your wish with the curly hair. From the sounds of Dad’s letters he is getting anxious to see her again. I don’t know how things are going at home but I think they have been having a little trouble over Agnes staying. ^[2]I don’t know who Agnes is. My guess is she was a housekeeper, since Dr. Cartmell often had housekeepers at this time. First, I hear that she is leaving, then Dad writes and says that he has talked her into staying and then Cleda writes and says that she thinks Agnes will stay but she can’t understand why. You will probably get all the dope in a number of different stories so maybe you can straighten me out.

I hope you are all enjoying your vacation and I am sure you are. I wish I were there with you.

Has Stan taught Karen to swim yet? Maybe that comes later and Uncle Tom can get in on that.

It is almost time for taps so will sign off. I will will write you at home. Besure and have a good time.

Love, Tom

Sat. noon.

Dear Folks,

Received your letter the day before yesterday but this is the first chance I have had to answer. This morning we had part of our physical and our interviews, so far so good, however, I have to have a wisdom tooth pulled Mon. morning and I don’t know when I take the rest of the physical, maybe Mon. afternoon. You can imagine how I will feel then. This afternoon we have drill and parade. From what I hear we are due for M.M. (mess management which is the same as K.P.) tomorrow I was sort of hoping for a day of rest maybe I can insist upon going to church.

It sound like Karen is getting as many shots as I have geen getting. We had another one today which was for desert or valley fever, that is a new one on me. They put it right under the skin on your forearm and it feels like a wasp sting for about 10 min.

I guess you all enjoyed your 4th of July picnic, I wish I could have been there. As for the 4th here I didn’t even notice it. In fact I have been losing all track of the days, I had to ask what day this was to put it on the letter.

You should have seen some of the machines we took tests on yesterday. If you can imagine a bunch of real screwy pin-ball machines you have hit it on the head.

I haven’t heard a thing about Uncle Harold going back to Miller’s. ^[1]I don’t know who either Uncle Harold or the Miller’s are.Dad didn’t say a thing about it.

The weather here is really a change from Tempe. We use three blankets and the day haven’t been very hot yet.

It sounds like Westy ^[2]Westy Westbrook was one of Stanley’s apartment-mates when he was living in Chicago before marrying Elaine.has been through a few engagements. I guess he is getting a long needed rest. How did the wedding go and did Karen enjoy it? She is doing pretty good going to weddings at a year old.

It will be good to get to pre-flight but at the present we are restricted to an area about a block square. After this time we can go anywhere on the post which is plenty big – about like the field at Rantoul.^[3]Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois was an Army Technical Training site, with 25,000 students in 1943. After 42 days we start getting weekend passes which everyone is looking forward to. If we don’t wash out we get our cadet uniforms in about a week and start drawing 75 a month, however, we got 75 last month for our flying time at Tempe. Everytime you get more that 4 hrs. of flying time in a month outside of cadet training you get the extra $25.

Will have to close because we only have a short time before lunch. The food is good but not enough of it. At the present we are on field rations so you can’t expect much.

Love, Tom

Wed. night

Dear Folks,

You will have to be satisfied with cards for about two weeks because we are plenty busy. The past two days we have been going to lectures, movies, drilling, having calesthenics, etc. Tomorrow we have 8 hrs. of psychological tests and then the last mental test Fri. Then comes the 6-4 physical.

I will try to write a letter this Sun. but we will probably have MM. (a dignified term for K.P. which means mess management.) Don’t take that form letter I sent too much to heart, I will tell you more of the nice things later. We all got a big kick out of that.

Use this address.

Love, Tom.

Will write a more personal letter later, but these are compulsory and it is thoughtful of them because we haven’t had any time to write yet. After arriving at 4:A.M. and getting up at 5:AM. I need some sleep.

Wed. evening

Dear Folks,

Don’t get the idea that I am at Santa Ana yet but will be there Sun. We didn’t get our change of address till yesterday or I would have let you know it sooner. The address doesn’t seem very complete so will probably have another when we get there. I hope things are better organized in the mail room there than they were at Fresno.

It will really be good to get away from some of this heat, it is gradually wearing everyone down. There really isn’t much sense in going to bed anymore.

I got your letter the day before yesterday. I was glad to hear that the gifts were satisfactory. I was afraid that the things might not fit Karen, will the knitted outfit fit her by the time it is cool enough to wear. It had been a long time since I had sent you anything and you had sent me so many packages that I thought it was about my time. Things aren’t near as good out here as they are in Chicago but that isn’t anyones fault.

It sounded like Karen really had a swell birthday, so many gifts and such a wonderful party. I hope she is fully recovered from her fall off the bed but that isn’t as bad as being dropped on the parlor floor. If I recall you did that to me about 19 years ago. Maybe I don’t recall it but I had heard of it.

Don’t worry about my pocket book, we got paid today and we have six weeks of confinement to look forward to at Santa Ana so there won’t be much to spend it on. Besides you should know that it is against the principles of a private to have any money three weeks after he has been paid.

Mrs. Perkins told me she received a letter from you, she said she was going to write. They are coming out Fri. evening to see me. I won’t get to see them for much more than an hour but they wanted to see me before I left.

I am going to write Aunt Mollie^[1]Aunt Mollie Smith is his father’s sister, living in Pasadena, California. tonight. I doubt if I get to see them for about 6 weeks unless they come out to the base. I think it is about 30 mi. from Los Angeles.

Steve is still training his crew at Norfolk. He is another person who I must write.

We are going on a six hr. hike tomorrow which wouldn’t be bad if it wasn’t for the heat. However, we will get to see some of this desert country. There is plenty of it around here.

Will drop you a card before Sat. and hope to hear from you at Santa Ana.

Love, Tom