May 17, 1943

To the Chellis household ( That should include everybody)
   Aviation Cadet James R. Chellis has completed his first day of school. It was a beast. Probably the worst part of all was the heat. The sun was out plenty strong and the air was sticky. First period starts at 0715 and the subject is plane recognition. I bet Jerry would get a kick out of this subject. Within three weeks I have to be able to distinguish a plane withing 1/15th of a a second. They flash a plane or a ship on the screen for the alloted time and Chellis should be able to tell them what kind of a plane or ship it is. At present there is a series of 40 different type ships. The projector they use is so valuable they have a guard with it 24 hours a day.
  Next two period we have math. In the short time I have been here I have found out that all the profs here are characters. No kidding, they are just like the wild and punchy type that you would see in the movies. Well, the prof I have for math is a cross between and Englishman and an Italian.
  The following period is gym. All I can say about that is I will either be a super-duper man or a good 4F. They had us out doing cal ( no one in my room knows how to spell the rest of the word. You know what I mean- I hope)  What a workout.
  The best part of the day follows immediately. One guess. Chow- we have an hour off and then back for a study period. Two navigation periods follow and then communication. I am taking the Morse code. Dit Dat Dot Dit Dat Dat Dat Dot and all that baloney. This winds up school at 1650 Chow again 1736 and we can knock around until 1900. From 1900 to 2130 there is a study period. We hit the sack at 2200 and sleep like little babies untio 0545. Then the routine starts all over again.
  I though you might want to know what Chellis was doing up here.
  Thanks for the card everyone. I received two other cards, one from the Executive Dept at the Dime and another from Muriel.
                                                                                     With best regards to all
                                                                                                               Jim
P.S. Will get a letter of to Bobby as soon as possible.