May 3, 1942
Ft. Lewis, Washington
Dear Folksies,
Thursday we graduated from Officers’ Training School. We received fancy diplomas direct from Commanding General White. He handed the diplomas to each one separately, after making a short speech which he read! The whole thing was very nice but we all felt that a General should be able to talk for 5 to 10 minutes without notes, particularly when he even repeated himself a couple of times WITH the notes.
On Friday, the instructor at the School made special plans and we were allowed to go out on the firing range, examine, and see in action, one of the field artillery units. They only had a few guns but we were there when they fired them and saw, from a point on a hill the target they were aiming at, how close they came, how they calculated the whole thing, etc. It was loads of fun, and darned interesting. The Lt. Col. who was in charge was most communicative and was quite an old timer and he gave us lots of dope. All in all it was the most interesting field trip we have had.
The afternoon, however, was even better. We were taken to McChord Field and there we inspected and went thru some of the planes. We climbed all over the P-38s, the double-tailed patrol planes that you see all over San Francisco. Also inspected some of the larger models, went thru the hangars, saw planes land, saw the central control station, weather bureau, etc. It was all most worth-while.
Loads of love,
.
