(16th Company 6th Trng Rgmt ASTP)
Sunday
Dear Folks,
This is the first half day off I have had in 2 weeks. I even go back to work this afternoon. We have been learning about shooting our rifles in battle conditions for the last few days. You would be surprised how much harder it is to hit the image of a man at an unknown distance. This week we will have moving targets. We will also shoot the mortar and machine gun before the week is over.
I am going to church at 10:00 this morning and get a few letters written. Since we leave before daylight & get back after dark you are the only ones I have written to this week. I’ll bet everyone else thinks I have forgotten them.
I had the misfortune of losing my pocket knife last week so maybe you can tell it to someone who wants to send me something.
I haven’t had a chance to do any reading for so long that I don’t have any idea of what is happening outside. We really had an easy schedule for the last few days as far as hard work goes so you needn’t worry about that.
Oh yes I almost forgot. We have been taking medicine for the last few days. It is a member of the sulfa drugs family. Sulfathiozol or something like that. It is supposed to cost about $50 and be impossible to get in civilian life. It is supposed to kill and cure colds. I have got some cold now (the first I have had since I was down here) but maybe this will help me.
Well I hope you are all ok. It is cold & damp down here but I’ll bet it’s a lot colder there.
Love, Donald
P.S. Richard will be interested in knowing that our rifle really hardly kick at all. As far as I can remember our shotgun kicks a whole lot harder than they do.