Dera Folks,

Now at last there is some definite news including some that is almost incredibly good. I’m being temporarily detached tomorrow so as to qualify at Chicago, but instead of getting the usual “proceed immediately” (24 hrs) or “proceed without delay” (48 hrs.) I’m getting “proceed” period (4 days) and two days travel time. No, I’m not going to try to get home on this. Why? because after qualifying, assuming I do, I’m getting leave—15 more days of it! This is something I hardly dared hope for and so never have even mentioned the possibility of, though I was well aware of such a possibility knowing that practically everyone gets their commissioning leave after finishing at Chicago, and that with all the red tape my having already had that might be forgotten—a distinct possibility. Of course I’d be due for some leave sometime this year, but that should be only ten days. I gloat. “Legal” or not I’m heading home.

The extra days to reach Chicago I expect to spend divided between a probable trip to Okeefenokee Swamp with an old Squantum friend, Dave Kersting, who lost his leg in a night flying accident last summer and, incidentally, after being surveyed expects to return to Harvard Medical School, where he was for a couple of years prior to Oct., ’41; and perhaps a couple of days in good old Ann Arbor.

I’m due in Chicago Wed. or Thurs. of next week and unless a new bottleneck develops, should be through and on my way home in a few days more—very likely well before the middle of the next month.

Chicago address:

℅ Commanding Officer
Carrier Qualification Training Unit
Glenview, Ill.

Love to All !!!!!!

Toots

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