{"id":1414,"date":"2018-02-07T23:15:09","date_gmt":"2018-02-07T23:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/?page_id=1414"},"modified":"2019-03-13T10:52:16","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T15:52:16","slug":"80-january-15-1945-salinas-california","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brooksidepress.org\/cartmell\/letters\/transition-to-p-61-black-widow-fighter-training-november-1944\/80-january-15-1945-salinas-california\/","title":{"rendered":"January 15, 1945, Salinas, California"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n
\r\n Tom is spending a few days at the Salinas Army Air Base<\/a>, to complete his night flying practice missions over the ocean.\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Mon afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"January<\/a>
January 15, 1945, Salinas, California, Page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dear Folks,<\/p>\n

I’ve been over here for three days now trying to finish up our night flying so we can get a leave. We had been flying alot till last night and then a front moved in and the weather has been pretty bad. We are expecting to fly tonight but things don’t look too good. All our flying now is low intruder training which is nothing more than flying at 500 feet out over the ocean to some small island. We have made two night trips down to Catalina and the then to an island about 300 miles off the coast from San Francisco. It is all instrument flying because in these dark nights you can’t see the water or anything. The island becomes visible at about 2 miles but you can pick it up with radar a good bit before then. It helps out alot in your navigation. Andy<\/a>[1]<\/sup><\/a>“Andy” Anderson<\/a>, Tom’s Radar Operator<\/span><\/span>