Dear Dad,
I’m going to write to each one of you separately from now on-unless a situation arises so I haven’t time.
Today is Sunday out here and at home also of course but, a Sunday out here is so different. They allow us to sleep an hour longer every Sunday. That extra hour really comes in handy when you follow the schedule we do. So far-I can’t complain at all-the food is good and the living quarters are also good. I’m glad they moved into barracks again because it was terribly dirty in the tents. You can’t imagine how this dust gets on your clothes.
We have to shine our shoes for every formation. That’s about six times a day. Our room-so far-has the best record of any in the squadron.
Every day the CO inspects our rooms and gives us the report of the condition he found our room in. Our room has had excellent every time except one so far, and we missed it that time because one of the fellows had his shoes a little out of line. In the first place our beds have to be made perfectly. The US insignia on each army blanket must face the foot of the bed and must be directly in the middle of the bed. If the blankets are folded loosely the bed is torn up by the inspector. We are told that our CO carries a ping-pong ball with him so he can test the tightness of the blankets. If the ping-pong ball doesn’t bounce when dropped on the blanket the bed isn’t made correctly. The next thing they look at is the way our uniforms are hung up. Our garrison hat (the peaked hat) must be placed on the shelf directly above our other uniform with the peak facing the inspector. Our dress blouse is the first in line. All of our clothes must face the door and every button has to be buttoned. The closed end of the hook on our hangers must face the wall so the inspector doesn’t see the open space. After the dress blouse are the OD (olive drab) shirts we have two of them. Then the sun tan shirts-we have three of them. Under each shirt we must hang a pair of pants corresponding to the color of each shirt. Then our gym clothes and our towels. Our uniform Dad is the best of quality. Say! I almost forgot-they issue us a short overcoat which costs about $40. All in all our uniform is really nice. Everything is made according to officers specifications. They don’t issue us the heavy shoes of the army. Ours are made by Florsheim shoes. Some fellows are always yelling about something but I didn’t hear one complaint about the uniform.
I hope you don’t care if I tell you about our camp life but, I think you like that sort of thing due to your army experience.
I really miss home Dad–I didn’t realize how easy I have it at home. I’d give anything to be home with all of you and Thelma once again. The way things look now in the papers I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this war lasted another five years. I don’t mind it very much honestly because the kids are such nice friends. I have made many lifelong friends even in my short stay in the army. That’s what I like about this life–the friends you meet.
I saw Gene today. I think he’s going to leave for primary flight training in about a week–the lucky dog. I see Eric just about every day so it really isn’t too bad. Take care of Thelma for me Dad will you please. Give Mother and Jocie my love.
Your son,
Jim