Well we've been here four weeks already and that makes the half way mark. Four more weeks and we'll be through here. It seems that I've told you this before but here goes again. I am supposed to be here eight weeks and in this time I will get 60 hours of flying time. Then I go to basic where I stay eight more weeks and get 60 more hours. Then I go to advanced for 60 more hours. After I get this total of 180 hours I get my wings and commission, then I am set to what they call transition flying. Here I will fly and get to know the ship I will fly in combat. When they think you're perfect with combat ship they send you to a battle zone. We're in a valley and do all our flying in it. The only mountains we fly over are ridges or rock piles left by glaciers. Up to now we've flown only an hour a day, but when the upper class leaves we get the solo ships and then we fly about two or three hours a day. You said you couldn't understand why there are so many plane accidents. Well in the first place there aren't so many and in the second place 99 out of every 100 plane crack-ups are the pilot's fault. You'd be really surprised if you know how safe the planes really are. I may have been reckless in my car but it's entirely different with my plane and that's not bull either.

Say I don't understand about your letters. I got one mailed on the 21st and the next day I got two one mailed on the 15th and the other on the 17th. They seem to get held up somewhere. I got your large box before I got the letter telling me about it. Say, you sure did swamp me with boxes. I had so much to eat we almost had to skip our meals. I appreciated them very much but don't send me any more. In the first place I'm in training and in the second place it's hard to put the boxes away for inspections. I never got those white sox I asked for. If you want to send me something make it chewing gum and maybe once a month you could send me a morning paper or a daily news. I don't want them regularly, just once in a while it seems good to see a home paper. Nothing much happened this week. I had my 10 hour check ride and passed it all right. Well I guess I answered all your questions, be sure to tell me about Robin as soon as you find out what's what. That's all for tonight.

Love,
Rae