February 20, 1943 - First Flight


Saturday Evening

Dear Mom + Dad,

               Your Sunday evening letter caught up with me today and it seemed swell to hear from you.  Will you give my best to Harold and Mariam and tell them I got a kick out of the pictures of Lee and the letter.  That kid sure has grown since I saw him in June.  But then I suppose that’s natural as eight months has gone by since then.  It seems like an awful long time since I was last home and I guess it is.  I will say that I’ve enjoyed my life more since I’ve been in the air corps that I did in the “medics”.  Of course it hasn’t been a happy time but I’ve liked my work much more and I’ve had better treatment all along the line.

               Today it happened!  I went up for the first time.  It was really a big thrill to get up there in the sky and fly around.  We were kept on the ground for 2 hours because of poor visibility and as a consequence we lost a lot of time.  Each instructor has five students under him and as a consequence I got only 21 minutes.  Perhaps the biggest thrill of all was when we climbed to 2000 ft and the instructor says take over.  It sure is a strange feeling being up there at those controls for the first time.  It isn’t as easy as it looks to control that darn thing.  I managed to zigzag it along for a short while.  I can see now why so many wash out.  For if you can’t get the feel of the plane in the time allotted to you, you wash out.  I think I can do it but you can’t tell yet.  I’ve still got my fingers crossed.  Regardless it is a big thrill and I know I’m going to like it.

               We go up again tomorrow for another crack at it to try and catch up a little on the time we lost because of the bad weather. It rained a little afternoon but it looks like it will be clear again.

               There is only one bad feature of our life here.  For some ungodly reason they won’t let us have a radio.  I had to turn mine in the other day to be returned at the time I leave.  I’ve never heard of anything like that before in the army but it is regulations here so I have to abide by them.  I’m sure going to miss that little jute box.  Outside of that everything is fine and I love it.

               If the weather continues good next week, we should have an open post next weekend on Saturday night and all day Sunday.  I will then get my first chance to look the town over.  I hear that it is really swell and that the cadets really rate.

               I’m going to send you a copy of the paper of the school here in a separate envelop.  I imagine it will aid you in understanding my new life.

               I guess that’s the story for tonight.  I’ll try and get another note off tomorrow night.  However, if you don’t hear from me it is because I’m busy.  Incidentally I mailed you on my average in pre flight as an upperclassmen I got my marks.  Just before I left and it was 91% instead of 89% which is just a little better.
              

All my love

Bobby

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