Donald V. Tappan

Sunday Afternoon, June 25, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well I didn’t expect to be free today but because of some miracle I didn’t get any details. So I am enjoying a very pleasant day of doing very little. The only trouble is that I find it hard to keep from being just a little homesick. I got a letter from you today so that helps out quite a lot. The box hasn’t come yet but no doubt it’ll be here tomorrow. I had plenty of “extras” anyhow today. I got a cake from La Vera and we just got through finishing it off. She had made it for Ben but the box was too large to comply with postal regulations so instead of unpacking it she just put on a new address and sent it to me. Of course, it didn’t come amiss here.

I went to church this morning and got a letter written to Uncle Everetts’ and that’s all I’ve got done except sleeping and reading. I am feeling sort of in need of a nap so I’ll probably not stir around much this afternoon.

Well it seems as if communications school is over for me. We finished up on Friday evening so I suppose I’ll go back to training with the company tomorrow. They talked as if we would have to carry on communications within the company whenever problems or maneuvers start so I don’t know whether or not they’ll try to keep us in touch with the subject until that time comes. 

I was very sorry to hear about Mandy King’s death. I wonder how it will effect Pappy. 

I saw in the paper that the church had hired the preacher from Rosedale.  I wonder if he started preaching for you today or if he had asked for a few weeks to finish up with his other church.

I am beginning  to wonder how Leo is coming on the work with my watch. He should at least be almost ready to get  around to it. I don’t know how hard this been on my good watch but if as much dirt has got into the works as is between the crystal and face it must be about ready to stop. I have also broken my good strap and a cheap one that I got here. I’ll either have to get another strap or quit wearing it. Drop in and see Leo one of these times just so he won’t forget this will you?

I was just looking over some old school letters and I see that Richard wanted to know a little about parades. Well a parade for us usually means a lot of practice for a very few minutes of parading. We march for about a mile out to the parade grounds and then stand for about an hour in formation while the whole division assembles.

The parade itself only lasts for about 15 minutes while each battalion marches past the reviewing stand. Usually the only spectators are the general and whatever dignitaries happen to be around. But on infantry day we were viewed by, I suppose, 4 or 5 thousand visitors. I think about half of them were soldiers’ wives. In fact the whole area was open to the public that day and there  were several displays and demonstrations put on for the public here in the division area.

About Daddy’s job: although I don’t know the exact function of armatures, I wonder if he knows just what those he handles are off of.

Well I started this letter this morning and have written on it whenever I thought of something all day. It’s now about 1830. I’ll not seal this now but since I am about out of paper I’ll not write any in the morning unless something important happens. 

Lots of love and good wishes,    Donald     

Tuesday Evening, June 20, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well I certainly am living a great life this week. If the army was always like this it wouldn’t be half bad. Since there is no one here hardly we don’t have to stand reveille, retreat or anything. We just get up, go eat and go to work. Then after we get in at night we take a shower at our leisure, go down and eat and have the whole evening to ourselves. 

If things work out as we have been told they will, our radio school should be over in the next few days. After that I’ll go back to work for sure I suppose. But I feel like that since the company is going over about the same stuff I have had anyway that I haven’t lost much, and maybe I have learned a little that will be useful some time.

As you can see, I all but ran out of my stationary that you sent me so I had to buy some of this stuff (“United States Army” imprint). I don’t know where you got that other stationery but I sure got a great kick out of using it. Someway it just suited me. But of course I don’t want you to send me any more right away because I have this to use up.

Since news is kind of short tonight I’ll tell you a little about what rumors say about our going on maneuvers. The general opinion seems to be that they will start sometime in August. It is also rumored that in September we might go to Louisiana for a little training there. But don’t take this too seriously – there are also rumors about going to North Carolina for maneuvers so there is no use believing anything. It does seem though that, unless we are shipped out in small groups instead of as a unit, we will be here for a while.

They got mail to us today and I got the letter you had written Friday. That was the first letter I had received since about Friday so I was glad to get it. I am getting all the mail but it goes out to the range and comes back here so it takes quite a while to get here.

I think those sun glasses got broken while laying around here instead of in the package. But I just stuck them in anyway. Just chuck them in the junk. 

I’m anxious to hear about Daddy’s job and how Richard is coming with his.

This is sort of irregular, writing on two sides of one sheet and not on the other, but I just didn’t have enough to start another sheet.

Loads of love and good wishes,   Donald

Sunday June 18th, 1944
(Written to Alfred and Grace Carver)
Dear Grandparents,

Well how are you coming in the school house work by this time? I hope the trustee has started letting you have supplies, etc. so that you can get some of the work done before bang-up school time. I’ll bet the lawns won’t again look like they did the first week of my furlough.

Speaking of furloughs, I understand that Duane Cook is at home. I wonder if you have got to talk to him yet. Ben’s furlough was just a little before mine and his is a little after and I turn out missing everyone. But even at that it was sure good to be at home.

I haven’t heard from Daddy yet since he started his new job. It will be something different from what he has done in a few years but I hope he can get along alright with it. 

Going to communications school brought me quite a lucky break for this week. There have been so many new men come into the company since we were out on the range that the company had to go out again yesterday for them to fire. But those of us going to school got to stay back in camp so that we could go this week. You really appreciate barracks and the conveniences of camp when you know the other fellows are sleeping out in tents.

I wonder if the church had a preacher this morning. Since most of the fellows were out on the range, services were held out there instead of here so I didn’t get to attend any service today.

I sure hope it isn’t as hot back there as it is here. You just bake out in the sun and even when you aren’t stirring at all the sweat just runs off you. I hope mid-summer doesn’t get any hotter than it is now.

I got my teeth fixed up this week and my ear has stopped giving me trouble so I am in pretty good shape now.

Monday and Tuesday of this week we went out several miles from camp and had a little tactical problem. We took our radios with us and got a little practical experience in using them. Of course, it wasn’t like combat but it gave us some idea of how really useful they could be under combat conditions.

Have you heard anything from Ben lately? I believe Mother said that she had read one of his letters but she didn’t make any mention of what he had been doing. 

Well I hope you are as well as usual and are coming along alright with your work.

Your grandson,  Donald

Sunday 18th (June 1944)
Hello Family,
I am writing with about an inch of pencil so you’ll excuse the writing, I hope.

Boy I struck a lucky break. The company went out on the range yesterday and will be out there most of the week. Any of the ones who came in since we were out before have to fire but everyone had to go. The rest of the company will pull details and do regular training the remainder of the time. But here’s where I was lucky. Those of us who are going to radio school stayed back here in camp so that we could go to school next week. You really appreciate the barracks and the conveniences of camp when you realize how most of the fellows are living. Back here we get today off but those out there will work this morning and get only half a day free; that also makes me feel glad to be back here. The one disadvantage of not being with the most men is that church services will be held out there this afternoon instead on here and I’ll not get to attend.

Our mail will be sent out there so we may not get mail all week but I can mail my letters from over at the service club and they’ll go out from there.

I wonder how Daddy is coming with his Remy [*see footnote] job by now. I haven’t heard anything except that he got the job so I’m anxious to hear a little about the job staff. I’m surprised that he found someone so close to home to ride with. In fact, I didn’t know that “Coffee” drove. As I remember it he left his car at the state road and went on the bus.

With everyone working I’ll bet you’ll find yourselves just going around in circles with the garden, bees, and other work. I just hope that you can get along alright. But I don’t know how I can help out much unless I could give suggestions.

I’m glad to hear that a little better arrangements have been made about the janitor job this year. I hope that they can get along (well) enough better (now) that it won’t be such a drag to them as it was before (his Carver Grandparents).

The variety of my work doesn’t change a whole lot so I don’t have very much news to tell you. As usual I’ll not finish this till evening and maybe I’ll think of a little more before then.

[*footnote –  In 1944, the General Motors Delco-Remy Division in Anderson, Indiana, was a massive wartime manufacturer employing roughly 20,000 people. The plants produced crucial electrical components for military equipment, including starters for trucks, aircraft generators, and aluminum castings for P-38 Lightning engines.]

Sun. Evening,
Well I have really got a few things done today. It’s a whole lot like studying. If you can go off and hide you can get something done but with a lot of people around you can’t accomplish anything. In the absence of the company here’s what I have got done: slept a whole lot later than usual, written four letters including this one, went to a pretty good show this afternoon, and done quite a bit of reading in the Sunday School papers and Science digest.

You don’t mind seeing evening come when you feel that the day hasn’t been a total loss.

I wonder if you could get something from the drug store and send me for my athletes foot. It is hard to keep it under control in this hot weather when your feet sweat so. Maybe Mr. Bailey would have some suggestion that would help me out. Don’t send too large an amount. Thanks.

Well so long with love,  Donald

June 15, 1944

Dear Parents,

This is a day for great celebration. Not only is it your wedding anniversary but we also get considerable time off because of Infantry day. No doubt I’ll have more time to really celebrate than you. We scrubbed up everything last night but they really got kind hearted today. We went to a lecture this morning for about an hour and then we get the rest of the day off except a couple hours this afternoon for a parade. I never expected anything like this to happen.

I also have some pretty good news to tell you about my ear. I went to the clinic yesterday afternoon and they gave a pretty thorough examination. Although he knew there had to be a hole there the doctor said he was unable to see it. When I first went to the dispensary the doctor there didn’t look very hard and he found it so you can see there is no need to further worry. I myself had noticed that the secretion had almost stopped in the last few days and this morning it seems not to be running at all. I am supposed to go back over there next Monday just for a check up.

I was sure glad to get a letter from you yesterday. I was very glad to get the pictures but there is only one of them that I am willing to claim. In most of them I look scared and my uniform looks messy. In the ones with Daddy and Mother I look like a skinny, drawed up rail. The one with Jim is alright because you can’t see me. The one with Richard and Mary isn’t too bad but the one I really like is the one with Richard. It was taken far enough away that you don’t notice too many faults in my uniform and then I don’t have that old poppy sticking out of my pocket. I think the way I am standing also helps out. That is the one I want you to have prints made of to give away. I’m going to send most of the rest home and they can be hidden as far as I’m concerned.

I’m glad to hear you are coming so well with the honey house. Maybe you can send me a picture of it one of these times. I wonder if Daddy has gone to the factory yet. 

I hope the preacher you had Sunday can be hired and that he proves to be satisfactory.

I have run across a couple of new stamps. I think there are a couple of more new ones out – maybe you’ll run across them.

I hope to get some reading done today – especially in the Sunday School papers. I’ve not had hardly any time to read at all for a couple of weeks. We go out on the range again this Sunday so I’ll have to rest hard today to make up for time both past and future.

Maybe I’ll think of something else before night.

Lots of love,  Donald

Evening,
Well I got a letter from you this evening. I hope Daddy gets along alright with his job. I want to hear more about it.

We had our parade this evening and it just about fixed us. We stood for about an hour in the boiling sun and several men passed out from the heat. I was going to go to a show tonight but I feel so shot that I am hitting the hay. You can see from the way this paper is wrinkled how I I am sweating. I had a letter started to Uncle Floyd but I’m not even going to finish it tonight. 

I like it quite well for you to paper my cigar boxes and I did get the box from the Ladies aid but I haven’t even got letters written to my relation let alone to them.

Goodnight with love,   Donald

June 13, 1944
Tuesday Evening
Dear Folks,

In my last letter I told you that I was to be on some kind of detail yesterday but I didn’t know what it was. Well little did I dream what it was. About a dozen of us were sent over to the dental clinic to get our teeth fixed. I guess they knew we needed work done because of the records that were made from the physicals we were given when we first got here.

I had two teeth filled. They were some of those teeth that already had fillings in them. Those big fillings had to be taken out and it made quite a lot of drilling. They were pretty rough with the work and I was sort of mad about it last night but I feel better about it now. At least that is over with now and my teeth should be in pretty good shape once again.

Last night we went out (in the trucks thank goodness) and spent the night with the company on the problem. I spent a pretty restful night on the bare ground with nothing but a raincoat between me and the sky. 

This morning our position was attacked by a regiment of tanks. And since our anti-tank weapons could only simulate firing at them they were not stopped and we were theoretically captured. There was so much make believe in it that it turned out to be almost a farce. 

We came in about noon and have spent the entire rest of the day getting ready for an inspection which is supposed to come either tomorrow or the next day. We should have got the afternoon off since most of the fellows were up about all night on the problem but of course they couldn’t possibly give us any time.

Maybe you have read that Thursday is Infantry day. We are going to celebrate it by scrubbing, scrubbing on Wed night and then parading for the public on Thursday. We’re doing all the work for something supposed to be in honor of us. Ha.

I was going to tell you a little about the church service we had Sunday in my last letter but I forgot about it. There was a new chaplain, a sort of young fellow, and he sure suited me. In the first place he sang songs that I was familiar with and that made it more enjoyable to me. Then he preached a sermon that really contained something and was still easy to follow. I got more good from the service than any I have here in a long time.

I was reading in the paper today about Harold Swain’s wedding. Boy there sure are very few weddings now that are anyways near that much like weddings in normal times. It was a peace time wedding even down to the last detail of “The couple will reside on a farm northwest of the city.”

By the way I saw about the marriage the other day of Alva Thurston of Summitwille. I suppose it is “our boy” isn’t it?

It will be quite alright for mother to send me my shoe trees if they are still around. 

Well, I’ll sign off now and maybe think of a little more before I go to bed. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Donald