The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-05-18
iAIR AGES WIFE SAYS HUSBAND
 HAS CONFIDENCE

| 23-year-old bride of Americas fore most air ace-Marine Capt. Joseph Jacob Foss-attributes her hus- bands success in shooting down 26 Japanese planes to the fact that he knows his limitations as well as ] his abilities.
 My husband is one of those for tunate men who know their own abilities, which probably has some thing to do with his shooting down 26 Japanese planes; but he also knows his limitations-wh which must be one reason he is alive today" she explained
 Mrs. Foss believes good philos- phy, like a good diet, is very i'm portant in the stress of war. She said she didn't know about his diet, 1 but there was nothing wrong with his philosophy.
 He lives very much from day to day" she said, yet anything he does he does well. If he thinks he can't do it well, he won't attempt It. He has loads of confidence in himself but always it's well placed"
 The famous flyers wife seems to have a very excellent philosophy herself, for she believes in keeping busy 50 you don't have time to sit around and think up all sorts of possibilities,
 Met in High School
 Mrs. Foss met her husband when they were both attending Washing ton high school in Sioux Falls, s. D. -"homeP to both of them. She was graduated from Iowa State college in June l94l, and Is now dictician at Scripps Metabolic Clinic at La Jolla, Calf. They had been married only one month when he left for combat duty in the Southwest Pa cific last fall,
 But we correspond regularly" she said, "and he speaks longingly of coming home'
 She said Foss interest in avia- ton dates from his first glimpse of Charles Lindbergh in 1927 when the Lone Eagle" on barnstorm- ing tour with his Spirit of St. Louis" came to Sioux Falls. AL though she has no personal interest in flying, she has made several flights with her noted husband.
 Since the, Foss family was not wealthy, Captain Floss worked his way through college, playing the saxophone and working at other odd jobs,
 Joe worked In a butcher shop part-time and on vacations for the packing house and as an attendant in a gas station, where he learned something of the mechanics trade, which undoubtedly stands him in good stead now" she related.
 His first flight training was at Sioux Skyways. Then he took the CAA government flying courses at the University of South Dakota,
 tch-Hiked to Minneapolis
 Selecting the Marine corps for his career, FoSS travelled lon his thumb" to Minneapolis, in sub-zero weather, with $5 In his pocket, to enlist in flight training in January, l940. He was one of the two ac- cepted out of 28 applicants that day. But Joe just had to get in, and when Joe decides he's got to do something he finds a way to do 1t, Mrs. Foss explained.
 Flight training at Pensacola com pleted his preparation to be a fight CT pilot and he was made an in- structor at the end of his course, But she said that when her husband was transferred to aerial photo graphic duty as pilot he was un- happy. He used to say, This is too slow for me--I've got to have ac- tion"
 "When he became a fighter pilot and joined me in California, he was the happiest man alive" the young wife added.
 Mrs Floss once feared that her husband would find the Solomons 50 fascinating" or the hunt" so exciting, that he'd find home-com- ing dull in comparison. But the captain, in letter, allayed her fears, writing:
 Don't worry about me wanting to come home; that's the life I'm fighting for now, and we'll have 1t, | too--it's not so far off"