Dear Folks,

This is the letter I have been trying to get written for the last two days. Cleda, I received your very interesting letter and thanks alot for the prints. I was wondering how they turned out. You mentioned about me going to bed at 8:00. I would like to do it every night but so far haven’t had the chance to very often. We usually come in from the field at 5:00 and are off till 7:00 at which time we usually have a lecture. By the time thats over and we get to bed it is 10:00. The lights are out at 10:00. Last night I got a big treat, I got a 6 hr. pass to visit Fresno. It lasted from 5:00 – 12:00. Half of the flight got one last night and the other half today. Half of the men must remain at the post at all times. After we got in from drill last night my bunk buddy, who is from N.U. (Hal Berglund), made record breaking time and were in town by 6:00. We went to the show first and figured on getting a steak afterwards. We got out of the show at 10:00 and the town looked as lively as Greenville at midnight. We finally ended up in a hamberger joint and believe me we were hungry after having marched all afternoon and morning. This is all considered a war zone and all the towns + cities are on a dim-out every night. However, next time we go in we are going to eat our steak first. It certainly felt good to get away for a few hours.

I don’t know if you saw it in the paper or not but they are thinking about giving all air cadets from 6 to 8 weeks of basic training, so we might be her that long. However, my flight is first on the shipping list and you never know till about an hour in advance when you are going to be shipped.

It is trying to rain today but the last few days feel like some one had turned a blow torch on them. The rest of my face + hands are petty brown, the nights get plenty cold and we use all the blankets we have.

Things are pretty routine now and you can tell everyone is getting toughened up to them alot better. We are on the drill field, which is about 150 acres, from 7:30 to 11:00 in the morning, during that time we have on hour of calesthenics and three 10 min. breaks with no H2O to drink. Going with out water is the worse part of it. In the afternoon from 1:00 to 5:00 we have the same thing including the hour of calesthenics. The only difference is that the sun is hotter and you get thirstier, in fact it is alittle worse all the way around. However, I seem to be living through it all and gaining alittle wt. to boot. My second typhoid shot didn’t seem to bother me much and I was very thankful for it. My feet are holding up O.K. but the tendon in the back of my left foot was plenty sore for awhile. I think it is from the high shoes. I have been wearing my civilian shoes every time I am off duty to give my feet alittle rest.

I sent home the bag with my clothes. I thought I had better send the bag back also because there wasn’t any safe place to put it here and I can always get a small canvas bag if I need one.

As I said before I haven’t written any letters for 3 days and I have several to get caught up on. I want to write Grandma. I wrote her one and she answered it right away so I will try to do the same.

I will write you every chance I get. Thanks again for the pictures and letters. Tell Agnes I got her letter and will answer it soon.

Love, Tom