Month: March 1944

March 9, 1944 – Letter to Carver Grandparents
Thursday Noon

Dear Folks,

I folded my little note book up and put it into my pocket this morning so that I could get a letter started during my noon hour. It seems that at night I either have something else to do or am just lazy to get much writing done. I will ask you to share this letter with my folks and in this way I’ll be killing two birds with one stone.

This week we have been mostly just going over the things we have already had. We also have had to take some tests both mental and physical to see how much we have accomplished.

We are out in the field all day today practicing tactics. We didn’t even go back in for our noon meal but the mess truck brought it out to us.

Only two more days now and one phase of my training will be over. I sure do wish I knew what was coming next. They tell us that we will be moving almost immediately after our basic is over. There have been a lot of guesses as to where we will go but no one but the officers knows for sure. At least it is pretty certain that not many of us will stay here.

They are certain enough that we are moving that they want all of our correspondence shut off as soon as possible. I hate to stop getting letters but since orders are orders, I’ll have to ask you to stop writing until after I get settled again. I’ll write you as long as I can but even that will be shut off before long, I imagine.

Thursday night:
As you can see I got cut short. We had a fairly easy afternoon but I had a funny thing happen to me that I want to tell you about. We were practicing tactics and had a little stream to cross. I was about 8 ft wide and 6 inches deep in most places. Well I started across in what I thought to be a shallow spot. But instead of being shallow it must have been the deepest spot in the whole thing. I sunk in at least up to my knees and splashed enough water to get myself wet up to the hips. The afternoon was warm, luckily, so I soon dried off.

We have been having some really cool nights lately but it gets pretty warm in the daytime. It is getting to look an awful lot like spring now. The season is about a month and a half ahead of that at home.

Well I’ll sign off and try to write some more before too long.

Love, Donald

March 1, 1944 (Wednesday)

Dear Mother and All,

I started to write you yesterday but I only got about a half dozen lines written, before I was interrupted so I merely tore out that page and started over. I realize it has been almost a week since I wrote last but please consider the situation.

Well yesterday was the extra day of Leap Year. I don’t believe I heard it’s significance mentioned at all. It was also pay day for me. I got my usual $23.35. I am not sending any home just yet till I find out whether or not we will have any chance to go home before we start in on something else. I truly doubt if there is any chance for a furlough but I want to be prepared if the opportunity comes.

We had an eight hour night problem last night so we are off today. Right now we are doing most of our work at night and we are trying to sleep in the day time. By this time we are getting better at going through dense woods at night. Last night we didn’t have any means of guiding ourselves except our general sense of direction and our knowledge of the stars. The problem itself was to infiltrate through enemy lines (without their knowing it of course) and then attack them from the rear. We got in about 4AM and had breakfast and then slept through till noon.

On Sunday we marched back to camp and then came back out here before evening so we had barely enough time to take a bath and catch our breath a little while we were there.

Monday we had a full day of work and then a 4 hour night problem. But instead of resting yesterday morning as I should I had to go back to the dispensary and get my blood typed. They took us back in trucks but it took most of the morning. By the way it is a very uncomfortable experience to be crowded into a small 1-½ ton truck with about 20 other men and to be taken any distance at all.

I got your package and boy did those homemade cookies taste good. I don’t believe mother’s cookies ever tasted as good to me when they were freshly baked as they did this time even though they were 3 or 4 days old.

That little whetstone sure is a dilly. Where did you ever run across such a thing as that.

I sure have enjoyed that last Reader’s Digest you sent me. I have kept it with me most of the time and have read it in my spare moments. It is almost finished already. Be sure not to forget me on the March issue.

I am beginning to wonder how the sectional came out. Your last letter said that Alex had won her first game but that is the last I have heard. I’ll likely hear more about it this evening when the mail comes. I also wonder if you got moved alright.

Well the afternoon is about half gone and I want to clean up a bit and clean my rifle before our night problem tonight. We have been having almost ideal weather so our experience out here hasn’t been too trying. It has cooled up a little to what it was but even yet it is very pleasant.

The end of basic is only a week and a half away now. I sure hope I can make it (and I have very little doubt but that I can).

I forgot my lead penny the other day and now I also have a zinc nickel (or at least I believe that is what the new nickels were to be made of).

You will have to pardon my scribbling because I am writing from the prone position and my pencil is only a stub.

Lots of Love, Donald
Did you have my Gruen taken care of?