5/1/43: My address: A/C M.W. Cass, Group III 13-43-PB Photography, AAFTTC-Yale University, New Haven, Conn.  [The stationary has a propeller and wings insignia over the wording “Technical School, AAFTTC-Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut].

 

Well, honey, I’m becoming an alumnus of old Yale by a 12 week process.  I graduate July 22, & I’ve drawn a calendar on my writing paper box, of the 12 wks, & am blacking out each day as it goes by.  Those little gold bars are beginning to stick their heads up not so far ahead now.  Boy, will I be happy when I can hold that commission in my own bare hands!  There’s one sour note – we get absolutely no furlough in between graduation and our next post.  We receive our special orders the day we graduate, so they say, & I have to go “with the least possible delay” to the new station.  But between now & then you & I are going to get together so we won’t worry about that now.

 

We have a pretty good deal here, on the whole.  The worst feature is getting up at 4:15 AM.  How would you like to get up and be standing in line for breakfast at 4:40 AM? Have to use the alarm clock, as they don’t blow any bugle around here.  Our first class is 6 AM, & is 5 hours long, with 10-minute breaks on the hour every hour.  There’s another bad feature.  The General has ordered all chairs removed from classrooms; hence, we stand all day.  Lunch from 11 to 12, & here’s something that will make your eyes pop: - we have one of America’s finest dance bands play for us while we eat!

 

Glen Miller was here until 2 weeks ago, - training the band which is made up of former big-band players.  Ray McKinley (whose orch was at the Pier [Old Orchard Beach, Maine] several times last summer) is drummer, & the pianist & trumpet leader are from Miller’s band, & the rest are from big bands.  The mess hall is a huge, beautiful hall – seats hundreds, & there is a balcony at each end.  On one of these is the band, & the acoustics are perfect – those brass sound out.  Tony Martin (bounced out of the navy, now a corporal in the army) is here as vocalist, & it’s some show.  Then, the food is excellent, - as good as anyone could ever want.  We had pre-war beefsteak yesterday.  Butter & milk all we want, also sugar.  Plenty of the best.  Moreover, it is served on trays that shine, and silverware is as clean as back home.  The final touch – pretty girl help – the wives of cadets.  They dish out the chow, & bring butter, coffee, bread etc. around to the tables.  It is positively revolting to see those fellows sitting at chow & their wives coming up and stroking their hubbies’ necks.  Ugh! Lucky dogs!

 

Of course, life has its embarrassing moments.  This morning, one of the boys was eating his breakfast, intent on his flap-jacks when one of the girls came up behind him & leaned over to put some butter on the table.  He thought it was some fellow who was about to play a trick on him, so without looking around he reached his left arm up and grabbed.  To his surprise, his fingers closed where it is naughty-naughty (at that time & place); she hollered, jumped back, & dropped the butter.  He was too abashed to do any more than pick up the butter!

 

To continue, classes again 12-2 o’clock, then an hour P.T., which is here sheer physical torture.  They intend to cripple the men although my class has escaped PT so far.  Next comes drill, & the Retreat.  Supper at 5 PM, & we are through for the day.  We get to bed about 8 o’clock – imagine that!  The time when I’d be picking you up for an evening’s fun!  It’s horrible, but this is WAR!!  Oh boy, I could do with an evening with you right now.  It was 9 weeks since last Tuesday night since we went out together.

 

It’s a darn good course in photography, & in the new system, there are no lectures and no written exams.  Everything is practical.  We started our first class yesterday handling, learning the principles of a big 8 in. x 10 in. size view camera.  We (only 9 in our class) work around a table, with 3 cameras, & we really learn the stuff that way.  Today our Lieutenant had a severe sore throat, & couldn’t talk.  He asked me to take the class for 2 hours working with them on lenses, etc. which I did.  Yesterday, he inquired about what we already knew, so that’s how he knew I was acquainted with the subject.  If it hadn’t rained this afternoon, we would have gone out & taken some pictures.  As is was, another Lieut. had us in the lab.  Also, if it hadn’t rained, I wouldn’t be writing this letter to you.  Instead I would have been at P.T.  It’s now 3:30 PM, & thank God for the rain.

 

I’m living now in “Graduate Hall” – where the graduate students used to live.  Buildings here are all like minor cathedrals, from the outside, & this is no exception.  They’re fine on the inside, too.  Set-up much like Boca Raton, but less closet space.  I expect we shall move soon to other quarters.  Here, a considerable distance from where most of the photography, cadets live, we are free from upperclassmen visits, & have practically no inspections.  Yes, I’m an underclassman again, - this time for six weeks, half my course.  Over in the other colleges where the cadets live, the upperclassmen come around just as at Boca Raton.  I hope we can stay here, as it is much nicer here in every way, better bathroom facilities (1 complete bathroom for every two rooms of cadets) & the rooms are better & less crowded.