Category: Basic Training

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?

With several other letters from Feb/Mar in an envelope postmarked March 6

Tuesday Evening (probably February 29, 1944)
Dear Folks,

I have about 15 minutes before supper so I’ll start my letter now and have part of it finished before I have to quit. The main thing on my mind right now is that I am so tired it isn’t funny. We took a 22 mile march today and just barely got back. This is one of the feats that must be accomplished in the 13th week. On Thursday we are supposed to make a forced march of 4 miles in about 40 minutes. On a forced march you run and then walk to rest yourself.

We started on our march early this morning and even though 22 miles doesn’t sound like much it sure is. Besides just covering the ground, of course, we must carry about 40 lbs of pack and 9 pounds of rifle. Even the steel helmets which we wear weigh 4 or 5 pounds. The worst part of the march is climbing the hills. There are hills around here that compare to those of Brown County and we sure spend a lot of time going up.

My feet have taken a lot of babying the last couple of weeks but so far they have been ready to go when the time arrives. I soaked them last night and put on clean sox and powdered them good this morning. They sure feel like a soaking again tonight, too. We can’t send laundry any more so I think they will get plenty of water on them while I am washing clothes under the shower.

Yesterday we had 6 hours of tests on things we have learned during basic. Three of the hours were spent in practical tests such as operation of different weapons and the other three hours were written tests.

(After chow) I am afraid this is going to be a pretty hard week so I’ll be glad when it is over. But I sure wish I knew what is next. There are some pretty strong rumors that we will be leaving out of here next week and that we will likely be sent to Louisiana to an infantry outfit. This sounds anything but interesting to me.

I wonder if you got moved Saturday. I don’t quite understand how you are going to get along. Are you staying with Grandma Carver’s?

I got Dady’s letter yesterday. I was sure glad to get it. I won’t make any promises but I’ll try to get a letter written that can be read to the class. I would sort of like to know what I should write about. I don’t want to paint too dark a story but I don’t feel like bragging on the army. Maybe if you give me some ideas, I won’t have to paint either kind.

I would like to get home as well as you would like for me to but I don’t think there is any chance. Keep your chin and hopes up.

Love, Donald

With several other letters from Feb/Mar in an envelope postmarked March 6

This mentions the Magnolia leaves from the envelope postmarked March 1, so possibly it belongs with them

Sat. Eve
Dear Folks,

Well I hope that today you are getting your moving done. Maybe by this time the worst of it is over with. At least I hope so.

We finished up our bivouac at about 7:00 this morning. We finished up a week of night problems with an all night march coming home. We left the bivouac area at 10:30 last night and then instead of marching straight home, we marched all over the country (a good bit of the time not on roads) for approximately 8 hours. We had had 8 hour night problems last week but never before had they been devoted entirely to covering territory. We were so tired when we got here that it was sure not funny. We ate breakfast and most of us went to bed before we had even had a bath. You can’t imagine how good it felt to sleep on a bed after two weeks of lying on the ground.

Since I wrote you last we had a couple 4 hour night problems and a couple that lasted 8 hours. For two nights the 11th and 12th companies attacked the  9th and 10th companies and then for the next 2 nights the 11th and 12th were enemies while the 9th and 10th attacked.

I got your box this morning that contained the stationary, handkerchiefs, Reader’s Digest, etc. That sure is a nice box of stationary and I am thankful for everything in the box. I guess you must have sensed my wishes for a Reader’s Digest even before you got my letter asking for one. It has already helped me a lot in catching up on my relaxation today. Of course I slept most of the morning and then this afternoon I made a break for the barbershop (which we all must have done by Monday). Afterwards I gathered up my Reader’s Digest and paper and came off into the woods behind our company area. Some of the fellows went to into town to get away from it all but I can think of better ways to relax than getting drunk.

I have spent most of the afternoon sleeping but I got in an article or two before I dozed off.

Richard asked if I found the woods down here about like those at home. The woods all winter down here have reminded me of fall. Everything is brown except the pine trees which make up a good percent of the trees. Of course then because of this instead of the ground being entirely covered by leaves, part of it is spread with pine needles.

In our bivouac area there was one green tree besides the pines. It is the magnolia. I would like for you to look in a tree book and find out what time of year it leaves out and if the leaves stay on all winter. I brought back a sample of their leaves which I’ll send you one of these times.

You can begin to see signs of spring already. Some of the underbrush is beginning to leave out and there are a few spring flowers. I have seen a few violets and something that reminds me of bloodroot. We have also run into a patch or two of wild plums in bloom.

Well I have a lot of clothes I want to get washed tonight so I’ll stop and get busy at that.

Love,

Donald

I am including the magnolia leaves. They are so different from anything at home that maybe they will interest you.

With several other letters from Feb/Mar in an envelope postmarked March 6

Friday AM (probably February 25, 1944)
Dear Folks,

Again even with the morning off from training there is so much to do that I must hurry. In fact if I wasn’t afraid that I may be too busy to write at all on Sunday I would not write today. We go back Sunday to wash u but with ourselves, our clothes and our equipment in such bad shape we likely won’t have much spare time.

As you probably guessed by my being off this morning, we had another night problem last night. We were given practice in walking silently at night through woods, through bushes, up hills, through swamps, through gullies and over any other imaginable obstacle.

All in all I really had a great day yesterday. To start with I got up at midnight and pulled guard (or as we call it out here “listening post”) from 12 till 3. Boy did it rain too. It rained for the entire 3 hours and was I wet. Then from 3 till 6 I slept. We got up at 6 and since we had a night problem till midnight, I got exactly 3 hours sleep in 24 hours.

So far it hasn’t been cold out here but it rains almost continually (off and on) so our biggest problem is keeping dry.

Well I’ve got some news to tell you that isn’t so pleasant. From what we are being told now, we have about one chance out of ten of going to school. ASTP is being almost completely eliminated. Most of us will be sent to combat outfits probably infantry with the rest going to wherever they are needed.

We will just have to hope and pray that I can get into something that I can do. If it is some outfit bound for overseas I just hope that I can take it and help get this job done.

I hope you get your moving done tomorrow and have decent weather for it.

I hope all is well back there.

Your son & brother, Donald

With several other letters from Feb/Mar in an envelope postmarked March 6

Wednesday (probably February 23, 1944)
Dear Folks,

Now I am living in the woods. You should see where we are bivouacked! It is really a jungle. It is pretty heavily wooded and just covered with bushes. And on top of this all of the area is full of holes and ditches of every imaginable kind. You can hardly get through in daylight and boy what a job of it at night!

We took all morning Monday to get out here then on Monday afternoon we each dug us a fox hole by our tent. Everyone must have a fox hole in order to protect himself from a tank attack (under combat conditions so we must do it).

Monday and yesterday we had the most beautiful weather you could want. But it rained some last night and it has been raining off and on today.

I had the honor(ha!) of being on K.P. yesterday so I wasn’t out with the company. But of course they let us off to go on the night problem last night. The night problem consisted mostly of a march.

We were supposed to get this morning off to rest up from last night but since this is the first time we have had daylight to even wash we aren’t resting much.

I have spent the morning mostly on details with just enough time off to wash, shave and clean my rifle. It is just noon now and I am expecting any time to have to stop writing.

I got 2 letters and a package from you on Monday night. We can’t have lights out here so the batteries won’t do me much good for the next two weeks but boy the candy bars sure will. I may not get much of the reading done but I am going to grab every second I can.

I am still well and coming along O.K. and I hope you are too.

Pardon my scribbling.

Love, Donald

I forgot to tell you that they cook the meals back at camp so we rode back there to do K.P.

Letterhead – 5th Training Regiment – Army Specialized Training Program – Fort Benning, Georgia
Feb. 20, 1944 – 5:00pm

Hello,
Once again I am about ready to set out for the woods. There is very little doubt in my mind but that we will have some cold, wet weather but for some reason I am not worrying about it. The main reason I guess is that it wouldn’t do any good. We leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning and we are supposed to come back in next Sunday to get washed up and then go back out again.

Because of our night problem Friday night and, of course, because of next week we were off both yesterday and today. Yesterday I spent getting straightened and cleaned up. Of course I also found time to do some reading and write a little.

Then last night I did something very unusual for me. I went to the movie. I did it just to be doing something to break up the monotony but I really enjoyed it. It was definitely one of the comic order. In the previews the story of “The Bridge of the San Lois Rey” by Thornton Wilder was scheduled to play today. I had studied about this in literature class and since it was such a good book I decided to see it this afternoon. It was a very good story but a trifle hard to follow.

This morning I  went to church. It was the first chance I had had to go in several weeks. I don’t know but I doubt if I’ll get to go next Sunday.

I answered Richard’s question about my arm patch but I forgot to answer those about qualifying as a sharpshooter. Here is how the points are counted. Five points are given for a hit in the bull’s eye, 4 in the next ring, 3 for the next, 2 for the next and 0 if you miss the target. If you hit all bull’s eyes you could get a score of 210. Well I can’t remember just how many of each one I hit but I hit enough 5’s out of the 42 shots to overbalance the 2’s and 3’s that I got to make the average considerably over 4 points for each shot.

There are medals that are sometimes issued for sharpshooters but I don’t know whether or not we will be issued them. In fact I sort of doubt it.

Well I want to finish packing and go to bed early so I’ll sign off. Don’t expect anything from me for a while but I’ll do my best.

Here is a lead penny I ran on to and have been carry(ing) for a good while. I don’t know how plentiful they are around there but if you don’t want it just drop it into my stamp collection or someplace where I can find it. 

I’ll be seeing you, Donald

Did you receive my letter with the (?) in it?