The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1918-09-05

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WRITES Home
June 10, 1918.
Dear Father: Letter writing is
sure getting more onerous here every
day, but have got hold of typewrit-
rthis morning and so may get along
better. Please don't mind the mis-
takes on the machine because I am
not so good on it as I used to be and
we will see whether or not we can
write a letter that you can read.
Am on the flying list regularly these
days, having finished up the % meter
dual control type and now being on
the % meter single control type; have
improved about thousand per cent
the past few days and have just about
given up my idea of getting on a
bombing plane and believe that will
try for the single-seated fighting
work. Thought at first l never would
learn to fly these babies, they are so
small and fast and tricky, but it came
to me all of sudden one morning
and / went out and handled that ship
like l used to drive a Ford. Am
playing the game conservatively
though, more so than ninety per cent
of the men here, not pulling any
stunts close to the ground and max
ing an honest attempt to live through
the training period at least. Would
not mind getting dose of hot lead
on the front so much but would hate
to get busted in training. The fell
lows are leaving here regularly for
the front these days, flying French
planes in French squadrons, and it is
surprising how remarkably we'll some
of them are doing. A friend of mine,
Taylor by name, left here and had not
been gone two weeks before he had
brought down, two Huns officially and
one unofficially. He was telling me
about the first fight he got into alone
dropped down on two seated Ger
man plane. They could not see him
because he was in the sun, and open
ed up with a machine gun before they
knew what was going on. He wound
ed the man in the rear seat at the
first burst, but the latter recovered
and commenced to shoot his own gun;
Taylor circled,' climbed above and
dived again, killing the observer this
time and wounding the pilot. Then
he followed down on the tail Of the
Boche and poured over 500 shots into
him. Taylor was the most tickled
guy you ever did see and crazy for
more. l wouldn't be surprised to see
this bunch of Gringoes, whenever
they do get really organized, show
some of these European birds few
things about offensive fighting that
they never knew before.
A few days ago l wrote letter to
Chick which l asked her to forward
on to you, it being a rather long one
and this method serving to same on
writing. l told there about having
gone over to a chateau of Ferdinand
de Lisseps, the man who built the
Suez canal and started the Panama,
one of the biggest Frenchmen of his
day. Since then Jimmy Vidol, an. old
friend of mine from Minnesota, and I
have been going over more or less
regularly to play tennis and fool
around. They are wonderful people,
with charm and manner which seems
mighty fine to us Americans. They
play cracking good game of tennis
and so we have been rather fortunate
in having received invitations to go
there.
Yesterday l was over to a city
about twenty miles away to get q
new suit fitted. While there at no.
tel I happened to meet an American
woman from Spokane, WASH, who
knew several people out there whom
l also knew. She is a grand opera
singer from the Champs Elysees at
Paris, has been in France for six years
and is at present making tour for
the Y. NJ. C. A., singing for the SOL
diers at the different camps. She is
good looking and good COMPANY and
so had quite day. Oh, this war is
not all hell by any means. Am get
ting sort of in love with France; if l
had a good income over here l could
sure listen to the proposition of COM
ing over here to live. They know how
to live better than the Americans do
and over here one can get away from
that everlasting dollar chasing which
is so prevalent in America.
The quartermaster corps now have
both cigarettes and tobacco in stock,
we can buy all we need at prices
much less than you can buy the same
stuff in America and 50 there is not
need of you sending anything and also
it will save the trouble Of getting
these permissions.
Yesterday a young fellow from
Tulsa, Captain Gwinn, and his me-
chanic, got into a tail spin near the
ground and crashed. They will be
buried this afternoon. The cemetery,
or Field No. 10, as we fellows call
"taps" at the grave of one of my best
friends last week, but someway it all
doesn't affect one the way it would
back home; over here death has be-
come such general thing that it
seems to have lost all it's awe and de-
tails are no longer asked for.
Upon the line, the offensive seems
to have come to stop again, although
l think it will probably break out
again in some other place. But Foch
can hold them every time he gets
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