Category: Fort Benning GA

Monday Evening,

Richard ,
    This will be very short but it’ll tell you what I want to. Just in case I’m too busy tomorrow I want to get this done tonight. Sometime Wednesday I’m  leaving for Ft. Dix, New Jersey. I won’t be much, if any closer to home than I am now but at least I’ll be getting out of the South. There are a lot of regions in this country that would be worse than New Jersey, too.
    I wish I knew what my address will be but we’ll just have to wait for that. I’ll let you know about it just as soon as I can.
    I suppose school is going strong at home now. How are things coming with you?
    Well be good and lots of luck to you,
             Your brother,  
                Donald

Mon. Evening

Dear Folks,
    I’m going to substitute a short letter on Monday for my usual Tuesday letters. Then if things work out so that I can I may write you tomorrow or Wednesday morning.
    Here’s the news as much as I have of it and I think it’s official. Sometime the 12th, Wednesday, I’m leaving Ft. Benning for Ft. Dix, New Jersey. I suppose I’ll get there sometime Thursday or Thursday night. I think that Ft. Dix  is the headquarters of the second service command so I might be sent somewhere else in that area. It’ll be almost as far from home as I am here but even that could be worse. The part I’m really thankful for is that I’m leaving the South. I did want to be where I could at least get home on a three day pass if I ever wanted to but I doubt if that’ll be possible now. I won’t be in a bad part of the country anyway. 
    Well how did school turn out today? I suppose you’re ready to get started tomorrow on the real work. I wonder about the teachers but I suppose Marvin found something on the last minute. How does Jimmie-immy-immy like his new teacher? I guess that I’ll have to write Linda and find out how she likes school.
    I wish that I knew what my address will be but I guess I’ll have to wait till I get there to find out. I’ll certainly let you know just as soon as I can.
    Perhaps before I get to write you again  I will have crossed the two year mark in my army career. I feel confident though that before another September 13th has rolled around I’ll be doing something else.
    Well I’ve just about said my speech for this time. Be good and God bless you.
                      Love, 
                          Donald

Sunday - 9th
   September

Hi Richard ,
    Your last letter to me was included in one from Orestes but I don’t suppose you’ll be home to read their letter so I’d better write to you. I’ll bet that things are buzzing pretty strongly about school at home today. It wouldn’t surprise me much if Dad spends part of the afternoon down at the school house.
    How do you feel about Purdue by this time? I expect you sort of miss pharmacy but maybe the botany takes enough of your time to make up for it. How do you like the Professor?
    I thought that I’d know what would be going to happen to me by this time but I’m still waiting. It’s pretty certain that I won’t go overseas now so I do have something to be thankful for. But I’ve about lost hope (at least I’ve tried to) of being sent anywhere near Indiana. I won’t complain though even if it turns out to be Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas. One thing about it though, I’m too far away now to get home on anything less than a furlough. So if I am sent even further away it won’t make this any worse. Some of the fellows got orders yesterday for shipment tomorrow and more orders are supposed to come down the middle of the week. I think that most of us will be gone. If I find out anything for sure before I send this out in the morning I’ll add it on the bottom. If I don’t you’ll know that I am still hoping. It’s impossible to try to guess or figure out anything from what you hear because most of what is said is either idle gossip or wishful thinking.
    I went to our church services this morning and, of course, I wondered about you. I expect though, that if you were in Lafayette you attended there.
    How’s the swimming progressing by this time? I haven’t done any myself so I’m not learning much. 
    Well hope you are still getting along OK. I’ll be looking for word from you one of these days. Good luck.
                     Your brother, 
                              Donald

Mon. Morn
No news yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I can if and when anything happens.

Saturday Evening

Dear Family,
    If I wait till tomorrow evening or Monday morning to mail this I might have some definite news  to tell you. In fact there are supposed to be some orders come down this afternoon. There have been no passes given out for this weekend yet just as a precaution against any shipping orders for tomorrow. It would be sort of bad for someone to be gone on Sunday and be supposed to leave that day.  Things seem to be pretty definite that most of us will be gone before the end of next week. But there is a little catch in it now just as you might expect. Someone tried to make us believe at first that we’d be sent to camps close to home. But from what I hear now it’ll be somewhere in the states. Anywhere on this side will be better than it might have been so I’m going to be thankful. The good Lord hasn’t forgotten me yet so whatever happens will be OK.
    It usually happens that I get your letters on the days that I don’t write to you. Then by the time the next day rolls around about half of what I thought of to say when I read the letter has slipped my mind. That’s one reason why I wanted to be sure to get this one started today. I certainly wasn’t unhappy to get your letter of the sixth at noon.
    I am very well pleased with the way my Eversharp writes and thank you for writing a letter with it to give me a sample. This one is plenty good enough for now but it always has had a tendency to let to let the ink drip out (there’s a sample of this on the other side of this page). I ought to be fixed pretty well now for pens.
    I don’t think that you can complain at all about the way your potato crop turned out. As far as I can remember that’s about the best potatoes that have ever been raised there.
    I was afraid that you were getting into another all week job when you were talking about painting the benches at school. But if that’s over, it’s done now  and it makes one more thing that won’t have to be worried about later. How does the teacher situation look at this stage of the game?
    Now since my money order has arrived OK I don’t want you to forget to spend $18.75 of it as I told you to. Thanks a whole lot for the clippings that you enclosed in the letter. I get a bunch a lot of enjoyment from them and that’s one thing that you don’t have to write yourself. I suppose that by the time I get settled for good my subscription to the Tribune will be expired. Don’t subscribe to it until I think about it some more. I hardly think it is worth the price. How much would it cost for postage for you to send it to me a couple times a week?
    Well so long for now. I’ll write more later.

Sunday Noon
    I got a letter written to Richard this morning after I returned from church - then before I could get a start on this I dropped off to sleep. It doesn’t make much difference anyway, though, because I haven’t anything special to do this afternoon. In fact I sort of wish that I had something to do instead of just wasting the whole afternoon. I feel better off with a little to do then just nothing at all. Since we’re leaving they won’t lend any more books from the library so I can’t even read a book. I did get a couple of books read, though, since I’ve been down here. I’ve been thinking seriously of signing up for one of those government sponsored correspondence courses when I get to the next camp. That would depend, of course, on how much free time I would have and what sort of job I get. With all the free time I’ve had in the last two weeks down here I could have done quite a bit of studying.
    I wasn’t wrong about orders coming out last evening but it just happened that I wasn’t on them. There’s nothing to do but wait and maybe I’ll know something yet before I get this finished. If I do I’ll let you know - otherwise I can’t think of anything else that I want to say. Hope everything is coming OK in Orestes and that school gets off to a good start tomorrow. I’ll bet there’s a lot of school talk flying around today and it wouldn’t surprise me if Dad didn’t spend some time down there this afternoon. Be good and luck to you, 
      Donald

Mon. Morn
    No news yet. I’ll inform you as soon as possible when I learn anything.

Thursday Eve
The 6th I think

Hello Family,
    My address is still Ft. Benning and you know the rest of the story. I know just one little fact about my moving though than I did before. We were told that we would ship between the 8th and the 14th. So by this time next week I’ll possibly be on my way. Maybe in a few more days I’ll know some of the details.
    Of course you’ve seen in the paper that people with more than 45 points on May 12 will stay in the states. Well that just about does me up right. I only made it by a margin of two points. But on something like that I guess a miss is as good as a mile. Maybe I’ll get a break yet.
    Before I forget it I want to tell you about something that you may be getting through the mail one of these days. There is a book containing the history of our regiment being made and I ordered one. It could either be payed for now or after it is published. That may be several months in the future and so  many things might happen that I decided to pay for it when they are finished. But I had to give an address and the only permanent one I have is Orestes. When the bill comes send in the four dollars. If I haven’t provided for it before it happens, don’t forget to remind me of it. That’s a good bit to pay for something like that but I hope it will be worth it.
    It made me happy to get a letter from you yesterday. And since it was one of your longer weekend letters, there was a little extra reading and it made me just a little happier. After Labor Day I’ll bet that the garage looks a little more like the finished product. If you get the coal moved then it won’t be very long before you can put the car inside. 
    I think I finally got my books straightened up the other day. At least I hope so anyway. Since most of it would go into bonds anyway, it made little difference to me how they fixed it. There was less changing to be done to make it one $18.75 and one $7.5 bond. So that’s the way it stands now. If they keep coming as they have in the past, everything will be alright.   
    Well I think when I started I had at least one more thing to say to you but I can’t think of it now. If I don’t think of it before I mail this in the morning, I don’t suppose it was very important anyway.
                       So long, 
                             Donald
Fri. Morn.
    I know now what one more thing I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you. I wanted to inform you about my sawed thumb. There’s no scab at all on it now and only a little area about half the size of the end of a lead pencil even looks unnatural. I think all of that will come off eventually and then you’ll have to look close to see that anything happened. Even the notch in the nail will be grown out in another couple of weeks.

September 2 was officially declared VJ Day, by Truman, because that was the day the Japanese formally signed the surrender. However, the country had already celebrated on August 14 (halfway though Donald’s 30 day furlough) after the Japanese Emperor Hirohito broadcast a surrender message. This probably explains why Donald notes the day, but it seems to have been fairly low-key.

September 2,‘45
Ft. Benning
VJ Day

Dear Family,
    I just got back from church service and perhaps I’ll be able to get a letter written to you before dinner time. I haven’t heard from you yet but I did get a letter from Richard on Friday. I’m hoping that the mail today or tomorrow will bring me news from Orestes. Since this is the Sunday before Labor Day, I am wondering about the reunion this year. I expect the crowd will be pretty thin although there might be more than you’d expect. I just wonder if Richard got to come home over Labor Day.
    Well I’ve been down here for over a week now and I know very little more about how long I’ll be here than I did this time last week. Everyday you hear something else but it can’t be depended upon any more than the story (stories) you heard the day before. Even though there are no visible signs of it, I suppose that every day brings us just one day closer to leaving here. I’ve even gone so far as to hear that most of us will be sent to camps near home to await our discharges. But that’s far too much to expect and I’ll be satisfied with a good bit less than that. 
    I guess that added to our almost complete vacation that we’ve had since we’ve been here, tomorrow will be a holiday. Of course I had to get CQ (Charge of Quarters) tonight and tomorrow but I don’t feel too hurt about it. If it weren’t for missing the day off, getting it tomorrow would be quite a break. To explain the job, it’s just a duty that non-coms pull instead of KP. It consists of taking charge of the office after the officers leave, making out passes, getting the guys up in the morning, doing any odd jobs that need to be done, and just being general run-about for the office during the day. There won’t be anything going on tomorrow so I expect I’ll have the orderly room (GI for company office) to myself most of the day. I’ll be able to get some reading or writing or something done. I’ve been sort of hesitant to write everybody because I wanted people to have a more or less permanent address. But I guess that I’ll just “shut my eyes” and write and take a chance on how long I’ll be here.
    I wonder what’s been going on back there the last few days. I’ll bet that school looks pretty near now. And by the time that this gets there it’ll be less than a week away.
    Just in case I do hear from you this afternoon, I’m going to sign off now and finish this evening. I’ll be seeing you.

6PM
    Well I’m on my job now but that’s just about all the news I know. Sitting here a little while ago I had sort of a funny feeling come over me. I think it was a slight touch of homesickness. I suppose the reason that it’s kinda’ easy to get homesick even in times like these is because it’s hard to keep from hoping - especially when you hear - a good rumor once in a while.
    Hope you’re getting along OK. I’ll be looking for word from you tomorrow.
         Good luck and God bless you,   
                Donald

August 30,1945

Hello Folks,
    I actually don’t suppose I’ll be able to think of enough to make this look like a letter but I’ll try anyway. I don’t know a bit more than I did the first day about how long I’ll be here. We’re not doing enough though to make any difference. I’ve been spending most of my time working on the mail but there has been very little time spent in training. The company drilled yesterday morning and as far as I know that’s the only work of that type that’s been done since we’ve been here. If the higher-ups don't start pushing it I expect it’ll continue this way. After next week when the number begins to diminish there’ll be less incentive than ever to try to look busy.
    Now just a little explanation about the money order. We were paid our ration money and for the month of July when we got back to the reception center. I got $19.80cents for furlough ration money and since you guys fed me I want you to have a $25 bond out of it. I don’t care whether Mother’s or Dad’s name or both is put on it. I also want a report on the matter so I’ll be sure you did it. Of course, if you have a real need to spend it otherwise it’ll be alright. The check will be about $1.25 short in buying me a 37.50 and the 18.75 bonds but there should be enough left from the money I left in the bank to finish it. The post office wouldn’t cash the check they paid me with at Camp Atterbury1this would have been where he was sent prior to the 30 day furlough or I’d have sent the whole thing.
    Well I wonder if the garage looks any different than it did this time last week. I know you’ve been doing something whether you’ve got much done on that or not. It shouldn’t be very long before I’ll start getting mail now - I hope.
                God bless you,   
                   Donald

August 28, 1945

Hello Folks,
    I’ll get this started now but I’ll have to quit in about 20 minutes and go after the mail. I took over the mail job again and as usual I get it when the big jobs are on hand. I arrived here before the regular mail clerk did so it fell to me to take the job. The first thing that I found was a dozen bags of mail most of which was old and for fellows who are or have been in the hospitals. Just the thought of all that sorting and re-addressing is frightening. And as usual when it settles down to a task of merely tying the new letters in bundles and passing out the mail that comes in, I’ll be giving it to someone else. I’m not complaining though but just letting off a little steam.
    I understand that some of the fellows are supposed to start shipping out the first of next week but some of us may be here for several weeks yet. It’s just impossible to guess how things will turn out. Don't be surprised at anything.
    The training situation has turned out just about as I expected or even more so. Yesterday we spent about two-thirds of the morning listening to the general talk and hiking back and forth from the meeting (about ¾ of an hour walk from here). Then the rest of the day was a vacation. I was working on the mail but most of the fellows were off. Then it was almost the same story over again today.

 Evening
    Today’s mail is given out but it was mostly old stuff. We should be getting new mail in a day or so now. As always you get anxious to hear. Now for what I was telling you about what happened today. We started out this morning by just cleaning up the area in general - cutting the grass, raking up the pine needles, cleaning up the trash, etc. That lasted not quite all morning and although we haven’t been officially off, there’s been nothing going on for the rest of the day. Since we get tomorrow afternoon off so we can have only half a day at best. There's supposed to be a short hike and a couple of other things in the morning but I don’t know how that will turn out. I’ll have mail work to do anyway. 
    It would really tickle you to hear all the wild tales about what’s going and not going to happen to us. It’s the same old story of wishing a thing so hard that it almost begins to seem like a fact.
    Well that just about runs me down for the time. Hope things are still rolling back there.
    Oh yes. I wanted to tell you about my bonds. The mixup seems to have originated when I had the address changed on my bond. I took it up with the personnel office and the records there show 2 bonds of $18.75 each. But the payroll shows that they have been deducting $18.75 and $7.50 so that must be on the records wherever the thing is controlled from. All their records aren’t in yet so I couldn’t get it finished just yet but I expect I’ll continue with one $18.75 an one $7.50. It doesn’t matter so much about the additional bond just so everyone is straight.
   Be good and God bless you. 
                             Donald
Don’t forget me if you find some good reading.

Ft. Benning, GA
Sunday Afternoon

Hello Richard,
    Maybe if I write you’ll find out at least where I am a little sooner than if you waited for mother to tell you. I’m here now but it seems that I won’t be for long. They are going to deactivate this division and send us in all directions. You might expect that though. Some will have the rare privilege of traveling again so you can imagine what sort of guesses are being made.
    Until then we’ll be training but I’m not very worried about it. We have already been told that we’ll have Wednesday and Saturday afternoons off so it looks as if things will be a little different.
     When I read Eulen’s letter that you had, he said it was hot down here. Somehow that did not mean much to me then but it sure does now. It’s almost like spending all of your time on top of the garage roof. Remember how hot that can get? I know I’ll be able to stand it but doing very strenuous work is really going to be a hot job.
     I wonder what you have been doing to spend this afternoon. I wrote a letter home and besides that have been alternately napping and reading in the Reader’s Digest.
    We are supposed to hear a talk tomorrow by the colonel. I sort of hope that he knows a little about our future to tell us. - Until then it will be quite alright to write but just don’t put in anything that would be any difference if it got mixed up in the mails. I just mean anything that we wouldn’t want lost. Good luck.
                             Your brother, 
                                     Donald 
    Now I’ve got to hunt for an envelope before I can mail this.