September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California

Tom follows up on his earlier letter telling his Dad about his plans to marry Zoe. Uncle Leslie DeMoulin is arranging to send Tom a new uniform (they are made at Uncle Leslie’s DeMoulin Brothers factory.)
Tues might

September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California, Page 1
September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California, Page 1

Dear Dad,

Received your letter last evening and I am almost certain that some of my letters are getting lost some where or maybe they crossed in the mail. I have been trying to get two letters off every week and sometimes more.

I went on C.Q. Duty at six tonight and don’t get off till six tomorrow night and it was just my luck to have it when our squadron goes to the range but I would rather miss that than a day of school because I have had a lot more practice at shooting a gun than I have at taking code and spotting airplanes. Code is the hardest for me but I haven’t started to worry about it yet. I’ll let that worrying go till the last week. The instructor claims that the way it usually comes to a person is that he will come to class one morning and won’t have a bit of trouble with it. About the only way to study it is to read something in code, so I have been reading the paper every night in code.

Dad, I hope my last letter didn’t surprise you too much but there wasn’t any sense in not telling you and I thought you would want to know. Don’t get the idea that there are any plans for the future and when ever there are you will be the first to know about it.

September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California, Page 2
September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California, Page 2

I got a letter from Uncle Leslie today and he said that he had a hat for me and wanted a little more specifications on the coat so I wrote him a short line telling him that an officers coat would be O.K. Because most of the fellows are getting them and then having the belt buckle taken off and the belt sewed on the the coat. I told him to fix me up if he could so if you want to see what it looks like you might stope and see it. I don’t know if he has sent the hat yet or not.

It has been plenty warm here the last few days and now that we are back on the afternoon class schedule everyone has been getting gifted for sleeping in class. I haven’t got gaged four that but just the same I have 9 gigs already for this week. The gig week ends Thurs. night so even if I don’t get any more I am still walking one tour. I got four for a dirty floor and then five this morning for talking in ranks. They don’t fool around here by giving you just one or two gigs at a time but instead you hit the jack pot every time. This means I will have to stay in the Sat. Night but might get off early Sun. Morning and if I do I am going to get up early and go in and see Aunt Molly.

Well I have some reports to make out yet tonight and get ready to make bed check at 10;15.

Goodnight——-

With love,

September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California
September 1, 1943, Santa Ana, California

A Young Man Went Off to War