Donald V. Tappan

Sunday July 16, 1944
Hello Folks (letter to Carver Grandparents),

Hello Folks, I won’t promise you a very long letter tonight but I at least want to let you hear from me. It’s not too far from bed time and I’ll have to get up early in the morning so I’ll have to hurry a little with this.

I have spent most of my time today resting up from a hard week last week and sort of preparing for next week. It may sound funny to you but most of my time has been spent reading Sunday School papers which Mother had sent  to me. I also went to chapel this morning.

I never can let a week go by without wondering how things are coming back there. I suppose you saw my folks at some point or other today. How do you like the new preacher by this time. I believe someone told me that they had dinner with you last Sunday. I suppose you had a chance to get a little acquainted with them and I hope you like them.

How’s the school house coming by this time? It seems like the summer is going awfully fast to me and I’m sure it’s going a good bit faster for you. It seems that with my folks all so busy in the factory that they won’t be able to give you much help this summer but we hope they won’t have any experience this winter such as the moving around they had to do last. If they are in Orestes it should be possible tor some of them (at least Jim) to help out some on the school house.

I wonder how the weather is back there now. I wish you could be getting some of the rain that you need so badly. We have been getting a good bit of rain but it sort of gives things a sultry effect and makes it seem hotter than ever. Right now I am writing without a shirt on and the sweat is standing in great drops all over my back.

Well I hope you are coming along as well as can be expected. Let us keep looking to God for help and strength.

Your loving grandson,

Donald

Sunday – July 16, 1944
Dear Folks,

I was pleased and just  a little surprised to get a letter from you today. I thought that I had just about got my share of letters from you this week. But I am generally so rushed through the week that I have to almost rush through your letters and that takes part of the thrill out of reading them. You can bet that I made the enjoyment of reading this one last as long as possible. One of the reasons why I forget so much of the news that you mention is that I just have to go on to something else as soon as I have finished the letter and hardly even have time to think of what you have said.

I was sure glad to hear that you have had a little rain. It rained every once in a while here last week but it didn’t help the heat situation very much. Before the rain the temperature is just a little cooler but after the rain it just seems that the ground and wet clothing are steaming. The radio today is forecasting storms along the coast so I suppose we’ll have more rain before tomorrow.

I didn’t get up for breakfast this morning but I did get up in time for church. Last night and this morning I have been reading the S.S. papers that I received from you yesterday. I was about out of reading material so I have them about read through except for the continued story. And I expect to have that consumed before evening.

Oh yes. I forgot to thank you or Margaret or whoever is responsible for the picture. Although there is nothing outstanding about it, it is a very good picture of us all. I hope you can get hold of another one because I’d like to hang on to this one.

I’ve got K.P. tomorrow  but except for the longer hours it can’t be much harder than the work we have been doing lately. So I don’t dread it as much as I do sometimes and I was sure happy that it came tomorrow instead of today. I’ll stop now and write a letter to Uncle Floyd’s and maybe by that time I’ll have thought of something more to say.

7:30PM
Well about all I have done this afternoon is finish reading the Sunday School papers and done some straightening up that I would ordinarily do in the morning if I were not on K.P.

I wonder what you did today. Hope you had a good time. Aunt Freda said she had invited you there and I wonder if you went. By the way, I think I’m going to have to send my watch back to Leo to fix right. It started losing about 20 minutes a day as soon as I got it and now it runs for 3 or 4 hours and stops. I’ll give it another day or two of watching & if it doesn’t straighten up he’s going to get a chance to make it right. 

Here’s wishing you all the best wishes in the world. 
Donald

Friday 9PM – July 14, 1944
Hello,

Here’s my plight: I was on table waiter yesterday and after I got off I had to work on my rifle for an ordinance inspection today. So I didn’t get to write then. Then tonight everything has to be made ready for tomorrow and you can see how much time I have left before 9:30. But if I don’t write tonight I won’t get a letter in the mail before Monday so you’ll pardon the length of this.

I got your package yesterday and it arrived in good shape. The strap on the watch has begun to wear already but I’ve got sort of a cloth strap that will work till I can get something better.

When I got Daddy’s letter tonight it made me getting two letters in two days so I’ll have to lump some to keep up with you.

As usual the work has been pretty rough lately but we’ve been able to take it in some fashion or other. I say we because it is as hard on the rest of the fellows as it is on me.

I’ll try to get you a good letter written Sunday or tomorrow night if I have Sunday detail. All I can say tonight is take care of yourselves. I sure wish that I were home tonight.

Lots of Love,
Donald

Oh yes.  Those sox are just the stuff. Thanks a lot. Also thanks for the rest of the contents of the box. Those cookies hit the spot!

Tuesday Noon. – July 11, 1944
Hello Folks,

I hope you will excuse this scrappy paper but it is about the best I could find to put in my pocket this morning. Also if it is a little damp it is because it really poured rain this morning and also because we spent about half the morning walking almost to our knees in swamps while on squad problems. All in all I’m wet from head to foot and it looks like it might rain more before the afternoon is over. We had our raincoats with us but I guess they thought that we needed practice in being wet. I forgot to tell you but I suppose you have gathered that we are spending the day out in the field and I am spending part of my noon hour trying to get a little start on tonight’s writing.

Well I drilled with the company yesterday instead of going on the detail I mentioned Sunday. One of the fellows had to be in camp anyway to take some kind of physical examination so they gave the job to him.

I was sure glad to hear from you yesterday evening. I’ll have to wait till this evening to reach it over and see if there were questions you wanted answered. I also got another letter which surprised me a little. It had Charles Johnson’s name on it but of course Janetter had done the writing. She didn’t have much to say but I was very glad to hear from them. 

It sure is a wonder we don’t feel more results than we do from these days in the woods. I was just noticing this morning how much time we spent walking in and crawling through poison ivy and poison oak. But so far the worst effects I have felt are chiggers and boy I sure had a case of them the other day. I used some of my athletes’ foot stuff on them and it must have killed the varmints because the bites are almost dried up now.

EveningBoy if I had known how busy I would have been tonight I sure would have written. Luckily I did. We are going on a march tomorrow afternoon and a bivouac tomorrow night. We’ve got to get everything ready now for that. 

I had to wash all the clothes I had on today. They were covered all over with the slimy swamp mud. Then I cleaned my rifle and have got to roll my pack yet.

Well I see I’ve got a lot of new chigger bites tonight so I’ve got to get busy on them too.

I wish you could be getting some of the rain that we are. It would help us both out. Hope everything is as well as usual. Got to shut off because of lack of time.

Lots & lots of Love,
Donald

Sunday July 9, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well another weekend is here and I have spent the time just taking it easy. It seems that by the time weekend comes I am tired enough to quit. I wish I could catch up on my rest each night for the next day because I know good and well that I’ll have detail on of these Sundays and I won’t be able to to get caught up. I hope that maybe I’ll get a little more used to this work before long and maybe I won’t feel it so.

I got Mary’s 4th of July letter on Friday and it said that mother would write me a letter that night. So I expected both yesterday and today to get it but as yet it hasn’t come. It seems that none of my mail came through very regularly last week so I suppose it will come through in a lump next week.

On Friday and yesterday morning we did the usual type of training then yesterday afternoon I had to take another communication test. Taking a test every few weeks is all that we are hearing from this now. I just wonder what will come of it.

This has turned out to be a very nice day. The sun is shining but there is a dandy breeze blowing. When I got up for breakfast it was foggy and about almost rainy. But when I went to church it has cleared up and it looked like it might get hot but so far it hasn’t. This has been sort of a cloudy week as a whole but it has made it one of the most pleasant and endurable weeks as far as temperature goes that we have had for a long time.

Tomorrow I have a special detail so I won’t be drilling with the company. This is a clean up detail and I don’t know much about it but those who have been before say it isn’t too hard. I’ll be able to tell you more about it after it is over. 

I wonder how things are coming along with you. By this time I suppose Richard knows a little more about how his job deal will turn out. I hope that you have got a little rain by this time which you needed so badly.

I wonder how you are spending the time today. I suppose you had a preacher. I am wondering if you have tires to do much visiting on now. I don’t remember of hearing about how you came out with the tire deal.

Well I thought if I waited till almost bed time I would have a little more news but it seems that nothing else has happened. I sure hope I get a letter from you tomorrow. Oh yes, I was writing a letter to Uncle Paul and I started to ask something about the preacher situation at Lilly Creek. But I was so dumb on the subject I didn’t even know what to ask. Mr. Robinson left didn’t he?

Lots of Love,
Donald

July 4, 1944
Hello Folks,

This will be kind of a hurry up letter but it’s the best I can do this time. We were out on a night march last night till about 2345 and so by the time we were able to get in bed it was almost twelve thirty. We are off till ten this morning but I had to get up at 6:30 to go table waiter. We finished up on the breakfast part of our work at about 8:30. So by the time I got everything straightened up to fall out I have very little time left. I might have waited to write tonight but it may be too late to write when I get off. 

Yesterday during the day we marched for about two hours out to where we were to run squad problems. Then we had to come back that distance of course. So we spent at least 12 hrs working yesterday with eight of them being marching. And then I only got about 6 hours sleep. I feel about as tired this morning as any time I can remember. I really do ache all over and my feet are so sore I can’t hardly stand on them. I am wondering how I’ll feel after working late tonight. Boy this training is getting pretty rough if you ask me.

I don’t suppose July 4 will be much of a vacation for you this year either but I do hope you don’t have to work too hard.

Evening
Well to tell you the truth if I’d had to work very late tonight on table waiter I wouldn’t have got to finish this letter today. But I got off at about 7:30 so I consider myself pretty lucky. I’m going to hit the hay as soon as possible tonight and see if I can’t sleep a little of this ache out of my bones.

We had a pretty hard day today as usual. We spent all afternoon studying war gases. They threw tear gas on us 6 or 7 times so that we would get reality into our gas mask training and all of us were about sick from the stuff before the afternoon was over.

We had quite a treat for dinner today. I guess they were getting liberal on the fourth. They gave each one of us a pretty good sized slice of watermelon. And boy it sure did taste good.

This isn’t much of a letter but I am about out of news. I surely am still thinking of home. I hope to hear from you tomorrow. Take care of yourselves

Love, Donald

Wed morning,
Well I am feeling better now but I am still tired. I don’t know any more news so I’ll drop this in the box on my way to breakfast 

DVT

July 01, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well I’ll try something a little different this time; it’ll be something like your weekend letters are. I’ll start it tonight and finish it tomorrow. And thank goodness I don’t have detail tomorrow.

I got your letter on Thursday evening that you had written on spaghetti box paper (that was the easiest way I could think of to distinguish between it and any other letter). I was sorry to hear that the Chev. is giving trouble. Hope it can be fixed without too much difficulty. You mentioned about being hot and I saw in the paper that you have been having some record breaking weather. I can see how Richard would have quite a time sleeping through it. It’s been pretty hot here part of this week but I don’t know that it’s any worse than usual. In fact, the last couple of days have been sort of cloudy and the temperature has been almost pleasant. Much like Georgia the nights are a good bit cooler than the days.

Our training has been along the usual lines but, at least for me, there has been a little extra outside of drill hours. On Thursday evening I got off KP before too late and so I went to the show. Of course, I wouldn’t have gone if it hadn’t had some special attraction to me. The attraction to me was that the name was “Home in Indiana.” It was built around the horse races at county fairs but outside of that there was very little resemblance in it to Indiana.

I don’t know whether you saw it or not but I read in a paper (when I was home on furlough, I think) where Heck Kirk had gone over into Ohio to take part in a movie and I am almost certain that this was it. Although I don’t know him, if this was the picture, I knew which one he was. He 

Was an announcer at the horse races and had about the most important of the smaller parts. This was a fairly good sized man considerably past middle age. He was a pretty good looking gent with hair gray or almost so and some “bay window”. Do you know enough about him to tell me if this could have been him?

Last night the company had a beer party in the mess hall. This didn’t hold any excitement for me but I suppose you could say that I got some good from it. It sure gave me some first hand information on the results of drink. It sure made a mess out of several people and even went so far as to cause several brawls throughout the company before it was over. 

The third thing just a little out of the ordinary for me was that we went swimming this afternoon. My suit hadn’t come yet but everyone had to go so they had to let us swim in our underwear trunks. I didn’t learn to swim but I was in enough to sort of get the feel of the water and with a few more hitches at it  I think I’ll be able to accomplish the feat. At least it gave me a little confidence.

It’s pretty late now so I’ll try to write a little more tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon (July 2)
I feel just a little disgusted with myself this afternoon. I wanted to get up for church this morning and when I woke up this morning some way or the other I had the idea that it was about 0800. I was waiting for someone to call breakfast. But when I looked at my watch it was two hours later than I expected and church had already started. It was cool this morning and was raining part of the time and I suppose I was a little extra tired. I felt bad about it but it was too late and so I had to hold my own service out of my Bible.

I got the bathing suit in the mail at noon but my heart sank when I saw all the expense you had gone to in order that my silly request might be carried out. I should have been kicked for even asking you to get me something so quickly. The suit fits perfectly and I thank you a lot for it. But here is something I want you to remember whenever you are tempted to go to so much expense or trouble again. The army is supposed to furnish anything I need and anything I ask you to send me is just something extra and I don’t really need it. For instance, as long as going swimming was optional, bathing suits were required but when they made it compulsory the had to let us go in our underwear shorts since no bathing suits are issued. Therefore don’t get too excited over everything I ask you to send. Don’t worry about those sox I asked for. Just pick them up if you happen to find them.

The rain this morning cooled down the temperature and it is now a very pleasant day. I have spent most of my time reading the Sunday School papers I got from you this week. I was sorry to hear that Mary’s ear has been giving so much trouble. I wish she could get straightened up as quickly and easily as I did. 

Hope you are all coming along OK.

Loads of Love,  Donald