November 7, 1943

                                                            Nov. 7
Dear Folks:
            On the move again. Flew down here to Myrtle Beach, S.C. Monday for 10 days of gunnery. Living in typical G.I. style here. Have barracks and eat out of mess kits which we wash ourselves when thru. The barracks are camaflouged by scattering them among the pine trees which seem to cover this section of the coast. Can’t write too much of what we do but do most of our flying over the water for a safe background for gunnery practice. We wear yellow life preservers. The pilot and co-pilot don’t do any shooting on the plane but rest of crew does. I’m learning to take apart and clean the 50 caliber machine gun. Seems good to get my hands greasy again.
            Landed the plane myself on Thurs. for first time. The target is white cloth and since the turret, tail, and rest of the guns fire at the same target we dip the ammunition in different color paints for the different guns. When the painted slug goes thru the cloth it leaves a little paint around the edge of the hole and we can tell how each gunner is doing. We all get some practice with the .30 caliber carbine, sub-machine gun, and .45 pistol as well as skeet shooting with 12 gauge shotguns. It would make some hunters sick to see the amount of shot gun shells we use. They’re not wasted however and thats the reasons they’re hard to buy.
            We were grouped as a crew and the same crew stages to-gether while here at Myrtle Beach. Two crews at a time go to the rifle range and the one with the lowest score buys the ice cream. The temperature surely varies here. It has warmed up 20° overnight for last 2 nites. The town of Myrtle Beach is just a wide space in the road. Did my class ring ever come from Lubbock? Will be going back to Ky. about Weds.
                                    Yours truly,
                                                John
P.S. Tell Marvel Lee a gold bracelet with pilot wings will be fine. Forgot to tell her until her letter was sealed.