Dear Jack,

How are you? You must be getting through school before long, and for that I envy you. I won’t be getting through until the summer, probably August, if I get through at all. I can hardly wait for my two weeks or so of leave (vacation) and already have been wondering how best to spend my time. Of course I’ll have to get to Squam for two or three days even if no one is at our camp. Florida is getting hotter and hotter and therefore more and more unpleasant. Winter is the best time of year here I guess. There are lots of nice woods around, but there are none as nice as ours, and there are no hills at all. There are, to be sure, lots of nice birds and some animals, but again they don’t sing as well as those in Groton and at Squam. There is one bird, however, that has beautifully colored plumage—red breast (bright red), blue head, and yellow-green back. It is almost the size of a sparrow and has a pleasant song.

The other day the instructors put on a swell show for some South American officials—252 planes in formation, biplanes and monoplanes, landplanes, seaplanes and giant flying boats. Right now I’m having formation work and soon will be flying only by instruments (dials) without looking out to see where I’m going. After that I expect to have advanced training in seaplanes and expect sometime to be catapulted from a cruiser or battleship.

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