February 17, 1944

Dear Mom,

Have you been wondering what has happened in that my letters haven't been lately? Well it's nothing serious bit I did rip my hand open and I haven't been flying or able to write. It's pretty well healed now and I'm back flying again. It sort of netted up my night flying too. I've got to spend some more night down on the line. They took me out of ground school and fly me all day now at least until I catch up on my back flying time.

Getting back to my hand, I was climbing up on the plane to get in and to do so I have to put one hand in the barrel of the lacking gun that sticks out of the leading edge of the wing and swing yourself up. When I pulled my hand off the gun I had  it a little too close to the wing and a sharp piece was protruding that cut my hand between the thumb and forefinger. They put a couple of stitches in it so that it would heal faster. Every time I used it, it would start bleeding again, so the Doc fixed it so I couldn't move my fingers.

I'm learning to dive bomb and skip bomb. With these ships, we carry five hundred pound demolition bombs. They really pack quite a wallop. After we bomb, we go out on a strafing mission. It's more fun skip bombing and seems to be more accurate. You fly down to the tops of the trees when you get right in front of the target you release your bomb. I can hit a 10 foot circle at 250 miles per hour. Which isn't too bad.

Firing aerial gunnery with eight guns slows the plane down by 30 miles per hour every time you fire the eight guns at once.

We'll be here a couple more weeks i guess.

As Ever

Al