This V-Mail letter, dated October 21, 1943, was written by Lt. William Hoyt from a Pacific theater airfield to his friend, Aviation Cadet Val Henderson, then undergoing preflight training at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Hoyt recounts a near-fatal dogfight during a bomber escort mission, in which a fellow pilot's timely intervention saved his life, offering a vivid firsthand account of the stakes of aerial combat conveyed to a cadet still in training back home. Project: 218167