Darlings-
Thanks for the letter it was swell-tell Jocie her picture is very cute-no fooling.
One of the boys in our flight was killed today. Don’t worry mom he could’ve saved himself but, he tried to save the ship, before he knew it he was too close to the ground to bailout. His instructor feels badly about it-you see it happened during formation flying. His instructor was the lead ship. Another cadet and Gould (that’s the kids name) were flying formation – V formation. Gould came too close to his instructors ship and tried to get away by diving beneath the instructors ship-which is bad. You should turn away from the lead ship. When he tried to get away the instructor couldn’t see him so Gould’s tail surfaces were smashed by the instructors prop. He could have saved himself easily by bailing out right away but, I can’t understand why he didn’t.
I hope you don’t worry about it mother and dad. I can take care of myself. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you about these things but, I hate to keep anything from you. Our poor Captain told us to forget about it-this is war.
Well, darlings, flying is very interesting now. Everything is new-formation, night flying.
I just found out today-our instructor was in the RCAF for two years before the war started then he transferred back to Uncle Sam. He certainly is a wonderful instructor. He’s only 21 but, he’s been flying for four years.
Well, darlings, don’t worry about me now. I shouldn’t have told you but, I always said I’d never keep anything from you.
Your loving son,
Jim