Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1918-05-16
Letter from w. 1. 6owsn
Berkeley, Calf.
Nav 8. 1913.
Hello pokey:

May 8, 1913.
Hello pokey:
Believe said I would write
when had started to work hero.
But believe me when l said that I
didn't know what I meant by work.
Don 1 have time to do much else.
but Ut is interesting work. So we
don't mind it so much.
And then too can't write much
to interest you. II is about the
same stuff you hear from eyery
one in Uncle Sans army.
Will try to tell you what kind of
ia place we inhabit, etc.
This is not a regular army post
and there are not many men here
except Flying Cadets. We are sta
toned right in Berkeley at the Uni
versity of California. The Govern
|ment has built a few buildings
here and the University has evil
IDENTIFY thrown itself open to the
government. We take many of our
lectures in the University build
lngs. They have built barracks
here for us and the college Y. M.
c. A., furnishes the mess and ev-
cry thing is pretty nice.
We wear the white hat bands,
like the cadets at Fort Omaha, hut
besides that we wear crossed pro-
pellors on our right soldier.
They have the course arranged
so that it consists of 12 weeks in
all. This is the ground course,
preparatory to going to the flying
school, and it is some strenuous
course. We have Military law and
what Mccormack said about that,
can be varified by me any time.
Besides this we have Army PAPER
work. Army Regulations, Organi-
of the Army, Wireless. We
have TO send ten and receive 8
words a minute. Quite a course i'm
machine Gunnery. And are taught
what each part of an airplane is
made of and the theory of flight.
We must be able to assemble a
plane completely and align it, get
ting it ready to fly. We have an
interesting course in aeroplane
engines, and Pokey they are sure
ly nice engines. Worlds of power
OH minimum weight. Would en-
JOY having a car driven by one Of
them. We have quite an extensive
infantry drill and courses i'm COM
handing also a real course in ath-
This consists of boxing, al
SO track work and the like. And
here | want to say we have
some real athletics. Guess all of
them have played foot ball or
some stunt. We have a fellow in
our squadron that took the trips
TO Stockholm to the Olympic
games and won some honors as a
long distance runner. But he is
not as good with the gloves as a
lot OF the other fellows, so all
around it is sort of an even break.
remember seeing pictures at
The Majestic taken at this school
of a boxing contest, and at the
time imagined it might be sort
OF an exhibition and not an every
day occurrence. But |, have found
out that | have a little battle ev-
cry day. Don't mind il at all any |
more. The first day I happened TO
draw a fellow that weighed about
30 lbs. and when l looked him
over l felt like | was quite a dis
lance from home and wondered
what they did with the fellows as
hey got knocked out, ect. But |
have been pretty lucky all of the !
way through. l have not even had
a black eye hung on me, so you
Know it is luck. We have gotten
put OF the boxing class now, so
brag a little. The course that
IS about the hardest for everyone
is Them all together and that word
discipline. That covers a lot of
country and they don't boast here
of being more strict than most
any other school of the kind in
The U. S. | agree with them i'm
That too. Will try to give you an
idea of every day here. Everybody
out at 5:15, (carly isn't it?) Al
march over to mess; at al
o'clock we have calisthcnics or
up exercises until about
7:45. Then four class hours and
mess at 1915. Some days we get a
rest until 2 O'Clock. Then one |
more lecture hour, one hour Of
athletics, one hour of drill. We
then stand retreat at 5:t5 and at
have mess. We have a wire
less class from $3.50 to $3.50 and
The lights are out at 10 O'Clock. Of
course we have to shave and all
That sort of thing in our spare
Time. Then the end Of a perfect
day.
Received a copy of the Times,
few days ago. The one that had
McCormack's letter in. IT surely
was interesting. They tell us that
after this course it don't take long
for the flying course. This all de-