November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona

Tom took Zoe out to the field today so she could see his training site. 10 student pilots were washed out as discipline for buzzing the ground and flinging toilet paper rolls around the countryside. They were all about to graduate, and now their pilot careers are finished.
Sun. night.

November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona, Page 1
November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona, Page 1

Dear Folks,

Well here it is Nov. the 1st and if my memory serves me right Dad you will have a birthday in about 5 days. Many happy returns.

I think Zoe is leaving tomorrow morning. She is going to see you folks when she gets there. We drove out here to the field this afternoon so she will be able to give you a pretty good description of the place. By the way ten boys washed out out today. All of them were upper classmen who were flying today to finish up their time. All of them we caught buzzing and flying about 10 feet about the ground. They had taken up some rolls of toilet paper and had it strung all over the countryside. They were all caught by the inspector and everyone one was washed out in less than an hour. It should serve as a lesson. I have about 18 hrs. in now so I should have my 20 hrs. check the first of the week. We start on the upper classmen schedule tomorrow which is really rugged. Flight line from 7:30 A.M. till 1:00 P.M. and in the afternoon have two hrs. ground school, hour of drill + an hour of P.T. (Phys. training). We will have all the planes to our selves now and will be flying about 3 hrs. a day. From this schedule you can see why I am going to make this letter short.

November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona, Page 2
November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona, Page 2

Cleda, thanks alot for the letter and card I certainly wish I could have been with you in Chicago. I guess I’ll have to take a rain check on that too.

Goodnight –

With love,

Tom

November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona
November 1, 1943, Phoenix, Arizona

A Young Man Went Off to War