Smudge,
Strange, I have been thinking about that very thing myself lately. Partly because, as you say, we were for six months completely wrapped up in the 24/7 struggle to survive the Course. We had no newspapers; the only real time news that we could have been getting would be from local radio stations: (Arcadia ? - don't think so - Sarasota (possibly) Tampa or Miami (certainly). Of course, copies of "Life" and "Saturday Evening Post" magazines would be going around. Don't think "Tee Emm" got out there. Was there an Air Corps magazine ? Can't remember one.
Letters from home would only be about day-to-day family matters. Yet in some ways we kept up to date with the war news, by a process of osmosis.
Danny.