September 22, 1943

                                                            Sept 22
Dear Folks:
            Am writing this at San Antonio. Ten men from our flight came down to go thru the high altitude chamber that I went thru when here before. The rest of the flight will come later. Left Lubbock at 9 A.M. yesterday and got here about 12, landing at Kelly Field which is right beside Pre-flight here.
            This time we went to 30,000 ft. in the chamber and stayed there 45 min. while practicing the use of oxygen equipment. To get the oxygen we wore a tight fitting mask over nose and mouth and it was connected by a flexible tube to a pipe from the “plane’s” oxygen tank. In order to walk around in the “plane” the mask had to be disconnected from the pipe and connected to a portable bottle which snapped onto our belts. After doing this awhile we went on up to 38,000 ft. While up there 3 of us volunteered to take our oxygen tubes loose to demonstrate the effect of no oxygen. I lasted exactly 65 seconds. Things just started to fade out then after the observer turned on the oxygen and I got 3 breathes everything snapped back into place and I didn’t remember passing out at all.
            There has been lots of changes made here at pre-flight. The upper class system has been abolished and now the upper and lower class live at different sides of the camp. The summer uniform here has been kaki shirts and shorts. Those shorts are really comical looking. They wouldn’t look so bad if they were short but they are pants that have been cut off just above the knee. Stayed in a barracks here last nite and couldn’t get a pass to go to town.
            Sunday. We left Kelly Field at 2:30 Wed afternoon and got back here about five. Then put in 3 hours of night time that night. Collected my parachute and flying clothes last week — all brand new. Suppose you had a busy week last week. Hope you’re feeling O.K. again, Jo. Have a meeting this morning at 10 and flying to-nite so won’t get to church. We did some skeet shooting on the gun range here, using 12 gauge shotguns.
                                    Yours truly,
                                                John
Won’t know about leave until Oct 2 or 3 which is after graduation. If I get one I’ll come up thru Hutchinson. Will phone when I know (collect!).

Sent announcements to Dr. Olsen, Aunt Hattie, Aunt Nellie.