Sheehan_May_1943

a/c Richard X. Sheehan

Cadet Detachment

A.A.G.B.F.S.

Independence, Kansas

May 8, 1943

Dear Miss McGlynn,

In your last letter you said the weather must be wonderful where you are. Well the only reason I've got a chance to write letters is on account of the weather. Information about the same is supposed to be a military secret, but what I'll tell you I don't think will do any harm. The weather in Missouri wasn't bad when we left. It was warm with slight winds. But even a slight wind blew all the dust in Missouri to the Parks airport I guess. But this place would be hard to beat. The wind is always strong, at least 25 mph by 10 every morning. This isn't bad for flying, since no dust blows on the field -- we have concrete runways -- but it is terrible around the barracks. The dust never stops flying. Thursday evening it started to rain and has been con-

stant ever since. It stops for 15 minutes at a time. They said that in 23 hours we had 6.4 inches of rain which is a record of some kind. It seems hard to believe, but if you saw the drops, I'd swear they were as big as dimes at times, you'd believe it too. Since we came here we changed into our summer uniforms and even that didn't keep us cool. The sun would melt the rocks here. If it wasn't for the wind, I don't know how we'd stand it. Ah yes, the weather is wonderful.

Well I finished primary O.K. and had more fun than a little bit. Acrobatics I got the biggest kick out of, loops, snap or slowrolls, flying inverted, immelmans, (a loop with a half roll on top), and Cuban 8's (two loops reversing direction on the way down on one loop. That's a fair idea of one. In a PT. you move along at only 100 mph.

Cuban 8.

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Immelman.

snap or slow roll. snap is 4 times as fast as a slow roll.

Hold it here 'til it stalls

Spin.

loop.

Don't know it it's of much interest but that's some of the fun I had. Can you make them out. We'll do the same things here with more speed.

The set up here isn't bad, but it isn't as nice as we have been used to. We live in since story, tarpaper covered barracks with the showers, etc. outside in

another building, most inconvenient, but I guess we can't kick if we think of the men overseas. When we first came here we had to get our water from lister bags (canvas bags lined with rubber) because the water was polluted. It was O.K. for a while, but we are back to the lister bags as of yesterday.

The ships we use here are North American B.T.-14's (Basic Trainers). I guess you've seen a picture of them. They are honeys. Lots of speed & power. The instructors and planes all came from Randolph field -- which is no longer a training field for pilots, but instructors -- so this is Randolph now the best Basic School in the country. Aren't I lucky?

I've solved this ship so now if I keep on the ball I'll be able to pick up 90 or 100 hours. 70 is all that is required -- 62 at Primary. Here we learn instrument, night and formation flying. We also have 4 cross countries -- 3 during the day and one at night.

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Oh yes, we had an accident here the other day, the first since this field was opened 3 months ago. A student was flying on instrument under the hood and the instructor was in the front cockpit. Their engine quit at 500 ft. so they had to make a forced landing without power. In making a turn the ship banked to stop with the nose high and lost flying speed so the plane spun in. They didn't have enough altitude to recover so they hit the ground going straight down. The Lt was mangled a bit because the engine was pushed back into his lap. Both were killed instantly. These are rare happenings.

The head chaplin here is a protestant so the catholics are kind of in the cold. We have no catholic chaplin because of the shortage, so a priest comes out from town