Dear Mom,

You have been wondering why I have not written more, but it is the same old story of just not having time. We have 12 minutes during the day, to ourselves. We even go to school at night now. This is the toughest part of our training. If we make it through here we are pretty sure of making it all the way. It is hard and that is a mild statement too.

Now, a little about our base. We are out in the middle of nowehere, right in the middle of the desert. The nearest town of any size is Tuscon which is about 25 miles south of here. We are about a mile from the railroad and highway. No wonder you could not find Marana on the map, there is nothing here but a phone booth. We are about a mile or so out in the desert from the great (whistle-stop) of Marana. But we can buy anything we want on the post. We have a PX, soda fount, swimming pool, (which we haven’t had time to go in) and a picture show so we don’t have to go to town at all.

We have some pretty tough studies to contend with in addition to learning to fly a plane that is entirely different from the one we flew in Primary. There are about a hundred gadgets you have to watch to fly his thing. It seems, sometimes that you will never learn all the stuff but somehow you manage to get. You just have to or you won’t be a cadet bug. It is so very easy to “wash-out”. There are so many little things you can wash out on.

The sun shines all day long and it gets pretty hot too. I am really getting tan too. You feel swell in this dry climate, it is not that sticky heat like Atlanta has.

There is one consolation, all the buildings are air-conditioned, including out barracks and mess hall. In the mess hall we go through the steam table and take all we want of the food. The food is good too. We get lots of milk, butter, and ice cream.

Mom, I hear that we are scheduled to graduate on the 8^th of February, if I make it ok so you can be thinking about coming, I hope. I am pretty sure I will stay in Arizona for Advanced Training.

Guess I will close for now, so until next time, just don’t worry if you don’t hear so often. I’ll do the best I can though. I can hardly wait to get the picture. Tell Pop Thanks a million!

Love to all, Mom, Pop, and Ben – Roy