7-10-44

Dear Folks,

Well here I am back at Lemoore, however it isn’t the place we left last Jan. Now it is hot, dry, and dusty in fact it is about like I would imagine that well known place to be like.

There were 87 of us night fighters who came here, the rest stayed at Mather as instructors. We got to decide which ones of us would leave and finally got it so just about all the married fellows stayed at Mather. They should be set for the duration.

Most of us reported in here Sat. night and slept all day yesterday. Today we have been moving right along, went through processing this morning, this afternoon we took our overseas’ physical and had our overseas’ shots. None of us know what is going on so your guess is just about as good as ours. We got four shots at once, for Typhus, Cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox. As yet they haven’t bothered me, I can hardly wait till morning. They tell us we will go across in about 11 weeks. I think the reason for getting us ready now is mainly because they weren’t ready for us at Salinas. We are the only fighter outfit here, all the rest are heavy bombardment and are all ready to ship. We are not doing any flying here but have a few ground school classes and P.T. I think we’ll be out of here by the end of the month. Also from the sound of things we’ll get a leave before going over. Should get 7 days plus travel time.

I am going to try and call you folks tonight but might not be able to get through. Here’s hoping anyway. I have seen alot of fellows here that I have known through cadet training. Most of them are co-pilots in B24’s and I can’t say as I envy them.

Well Mort wants to go eat and there isn’t much more to tell. The address is the 461st Base Unit, Squadron T-2.

Hope everything is coming along OK at 828. Give them my love –

With love,

Tom