This letter is datelined “Saturday Night July 12, 1944”, and also “7-13-1944”, but was in an envelope postmarked August 14, 1944. July 12, 1944 was not a Saturday, and August 12, 1944 was, so apparently he forgot what month it was.
Roosevelt did give a speech broadcast on the radio on August 12, so that is consistent.
Saturday Night,
July 12, 1944
Hello,
Well I’ll try to get you a letter at last and hope you are not too disgusted with me to be glad to get it. You can be sure I have been glad to get your letters and I wish I could have kept up with my share of the writing but this week it was just impossible. This week we have just been so busy that I doubt if I’ll even be able to remember it all.
I was out on that bivouac on the range Wednesday night when I get your first letter this week and then I didn’t get your second one till today at noon. I don’t know whether or not I’ll get a letter from you tomorrow as I usually do on Sunday or not. But I sure hope I do. I am really anxious to hear how Daddy comes out on his job. I wish him all the luck possible.
On Wednesday we spent most of the day running problems out in one of the training areas not too far from here. Then we came in just a little early, rolled our packs and trucked out to the range where we bivouacked over night. Then we ran plateau fire problems the next day. We fired live ammunition in the problem and I carried an automatic rifle (BAR). This weapon has the most fire power in the squad and I fired a total of 196 rounds of ammunition that day (a round is one shell). I have been working on the rifle ever since trying to get it clean and I didn’t get it into really satisfactory condition till noon today. Besides being a very hard weapon to clean, it is also heavy to carry (22 lbs and I also had 12 or 15 lbs of ammunition). But it can really spit the lead and I sure would hate to be on the opposite end of it.
We got in late that night then with straightening up everything and cleaning weapons, the evening was shot before I got any writing done.
On Friday, yesterday afternoon, we went out to an area that was far enough away you could almost call it a hike going out and coming back. Then in the middle of the afternoon we came in and rolled our packs to start out on another problem. We were out till about 11:30 last night and four hours of the time was spent hiking. So you can see why I never did any writing yesterday.
We got up at 0600 this morning and we were sure a sorry, sleepy mess for a while around here. We spent the first hour or so cleaning up our rifles for an inspection. Then after the inspection was over we went out and spent the rest of the morning doing formal drilling and taking physical training. This afternoon we went swimming again and we got in from that sometime around 3 or 3:30. I jumped right into my weeks laundry then and got it over with before night this time. I had enough dirty clothes and equipment that I either couldn’t or don’t dare send to the laundry that it took me almost two hours to get everything washed.
After supper I went to the PX and got a Science Digest to read but instead of getting very much reading done I dropped off to sleep. It was so miserably hot that I woke up literally laying in a puddle of sweat. By the time it was about eight o’clock and I started right in on this letter.
It is now 9 o'clock and I’ll have to sign off for tonight pretty soon. While writing this letter I heard the President’s speech over the radio. If you heard it maybe you remember hearing him tell about the Aleutian Islands. Well some of the fellows here were up there durinmg the time they were being taken from the Japs. Most of them were in the anti-aircraft artillery at that time and have been transferred to the infantry since coming back to the States.
One of the fellows was sitting here listening with me tonight when the President thanked the men who had taken part in the Aleutian campaign.
Goodnight and I’ll “see’ you again tomorrow.
Sunday Afternoon
7-13-44
The date today reminds me that I have spent 11 months months in this army. It seems like an awfully long time and the worst part of it is what I would have accomplished during the last year. But I guess there is no use to even think about that.
It sure is amazing what a little relaxation can do for a person. I suppose that the climax of a nerve shattering week came yesterday morning. In the first place I hadn’t had much sleep and I was trying my best to get the BAR cleaned up. Generally the whole squad cleans it but everyone else was trying to get his own rifle cleaned. (There is one of these to a squad and it is so much harder than the rest of the rifles to care for that everyone usually has to help clean it up. Last week was just my week to carry therefore be responsible for it.) Well every time I would start to work on it there would come up something else to do. I was about at the end of my patience.
But today after just resting I feel like a new man. And even last night you can see by my letter that just the lifting of the pressure without rest yet I was beginning to feel better.
I got up for breakfast this morning but when I came back I couldn’t even stay awake to read so I slept till church time. Then after church I read the funny paper and otherwise messed around till lunch time, I didn’t hear from you at mail call today so I’ll be expecting a letter tomorrow.
So far this afternoon I haven’t done anything but just enjoy myself and I don’t expect to do much else for the rest of the day.
I hope you folks were able to have an enjoyable rest of some kind today. If you went down to Uncle Ernie's, how is everything down there?
Mother asked if I am still getting the Tribunes and I can tell you that I am. I generally get them two at a time but the news is just as good even if it doesn’t get here every day. I am sure glad that the insurance took care of Richard’s accident.
That just about takes care of my news for now but maybe I’ll have a little more before night.
Love
Donald
6:45 PM
We had another little shower here this evening. It started raining on the Sunday evening I got back from furlough and it has rained about half the Sunday afternoons since then. Of course I would just as soon see it rain on Sundays as any other day. It should be a little cooler for sleeping tonight.
There are several new men coming into the company now from Camp Craft, SC. They have just had basic and it is my opinion they are just coming here for maneuvers. So unless I miss my guess we’ll be maneuvering next month.
God Bless You All,
D.V.T
Oh yes. I wanted to tell you that my bill fold is just about shot. The leather is still good but it is coming apart. I’ve sewed it up several times but my thread is too weak. Maybe I could get it fixed sometime. But until then do you suppose that you could find me something not very expensive to serve this purpose. The treatment is too rough for one with anything. Five years is pretty good for a bill fold, I guess.
