November 19, 1943

Dear Mom, Pop, etc..

Here goes again for one of my epistles. Everything seems very uncertain. Even they don't know what they're going to do with us. The latest rumors are that we will get two weeks of schooling and then be set to a tactical flying school. They tell us we won't be flying for the next month and maybe two. This means we start off by not collecting our flight pay. We have to get four hour in the air a month before we collect.

Being an officer is really the berries. Of course we still have our 11:30 bed check but then there's not much doing in town. The accommodations here aren't as good here as they were at Moore Field. All we have are the regular barracks with double decked beds. The have a swell looking officers club but they charge us $3.00 a month for it.

Imagine it, we're all pilots and we're restricted from the flight line. They have a pile of Thunderbolts down here. They sure look good to me.

The trip down was a successful one. We arrived in Washington about 2:00 in the morning. We rushed down to the train station but the next train didn't leave for Florida for twelve hours, so we all went up to Dot's house and banged on the door. She gave us a bunch of blankets and we all went to sleep for about 10 hours. I left the boys about two in the afternoon. Gee, it was great to be home even if it was only for a few days. Thanks for everything Mom. I'll send you the dough when I get to the post office.

Getting back to the train, I arrived in Tallahassee about 2:00 in the afternoon. They had such a crows here I could have gotten in at midnight and no one would have been wiser.

Love and Kisses

Al