Parks Air College July 22, 1942

Dear Mother & all,

Well I have got settled now. I know what I am doing. I am going to school at Parks. We leave the barracks about 5:00 o'clock. Go by school bus out to the college. The captain said Parks was the best air college in country.

Our schedule is 5:30 P.M. to 7:20 is shop. 7:20 to 7:50 we eat out there this is our dinner. 7:50 to 8:35 shop. 8:45 to 9:35 lecture. Then 9:45 to 12:50 A.M. shop. 12:50 A.M. to 1:50 A.M. lecture. We arrive back here about 2:15 A.M. and have supper at the barracks.

Something got mess up on shipping orders and we should have started last week. So we have two weeks in one The course is ten weeks long. We will be here nine weeks.

The gov't pays Parks $76 a month for each trainee. Parks expenses doesn't come to $76 a month. So what is left we get. It makes us about $16 more besides our $50 a month.

I was assigned to a special course in propellers. After the course I will be given a Technicians rating with the army. The captain said we should be given Sergent stripes in about 3 months. So I hope I can keep up on the course. It is going to take a lot of studying.

We have to be in bed at 3:00 A.M. and get up at 11:00 A.M. Then 15 min of exercise and 45 min of drilling. Got to get use to the hours. We have off from Sunday morning to ourselves at 2:00 A.M until Monday morning at 11. After the course I will be a propeller Specialist. Some propellers have over 500 parts so we got a lot to learn in a short time.

It is nearly time for breakfast now. It is 12;30 p.m. We eat about 12:45. Yesterday we had ceral, milk, coffee, bacon, pancakes & Syrp, and grapefruit. The meals are swell.

The beds are double bunks. I flipped for it and I got the upper one. I better not roll out.

Did you know Irene is working in Sylvania now? I suppose she get home every Sunday now. Why don't you invite her over. She probably has a lot more about army life than I can tell you. I don't know if I told you in my other letter or not. But send her picture to me. I put my address wrong the other letter it is class 1 - 43 - C. I will receive the letters and mail tho. Well I guess this is all I can think of now. There isn't much to do but study and a lot of it. So I guess I'll have to get busy. Goodbye for now.

Love
Ralph

The next letter will be posted tomorrow, July 23rd.