Category: Fort Benning

October 19, 1943

Dear Grandparents (Mr. & Mrs. Alfred Carver),
Well my basic training now has a good start. So far I have been busy all of the time but I haven’t had to work too hard.

We haven’t spent all of the time drilling as you might expect. A good bit of time we have spent in learning by the classroom method, only out of doors. For instance we spent all but an hour this afternoon listening to lectures and watching demonstrations on battle tactics.

We have been learning to handle our rifles but haven’t shot them yet. We have also learned to use our other equipment such as to pitch our tents, use our gas masks, etc. Tomorrow we are going to practice using our gas masks in a gas chamber. This chamber will contain real gas but it is the kind that won’t hurt us. By wearing them in harmless gas we will be used to them if we ever have to use them in poisonous gas.

We have taken two or three short marches but they have hardly been long enough to call marches. They are just building us up gradually to the time when we will march for long distances.

The army does one thing that I like very much. Of course it wouldn’t be practical in battle but it helps us out in our training. This is that we work 50 minutes and rest 10 minutes of every hour. This makes it possible for us to accomplish as much in 50 minutes as we would otherwise in 60 and still not be so tired when the day is over.

Do you remember when Ned Trice first entered the army and was complaining about not getting paid for the time he spent at Fort Harrison. Well I want to clear up that question. You don’t get paid while you are there but you get paid for the time you spent there when you get to your next camp.

I hope that everything is coming along alright in Orestes. I suppose that you will take advantage of the vacation at the end of this week to catch up on the school house work. 

Well it is almost bedtime.

Your grandson
Donald

Oct 18, 1943
Dear Folks,

I haven’t had much time but I want to let you know mostly about my watch question. If this gets there before Thursday or Friday I would like for Dady to look in Indianapolis for a watch. I am afraid that my gruen would get broken very easily. A service watch would also have a luminous dial and let me know how the time was coming through the night. For sentimental reasons I would certainly hate to ruin my good watch. 

While I am in an asking mood I am going to ask for a few more things. I need another tooth brush and maybe my old one too (for cleaning my rifle), if it is still aournd; two or 3 more hangers; and a few pairs of khaki sox.

I am glad to hear that you got my war bond. I didn’t get any pay for last month because it took all to pay for my allotments. At least I know now that I got credit for it.

I haven’t got much news to tell except that we kept busy but didn’t work very hard today and that we are going on another short march tomorrow.

I got your airmail letter today but it wasn’t a very good measure of time since it might have been held up over the weekend. I will watch the dates on future letters so I can let you know for sure the time.

I hope everything is coming off well back there. Back on the watch question – don’t go a whole lot over the $30 mark. 

Bedtime
Love,
Donald

October 17, 1943
Dear Folks,

I had all intentions of writing to you on Friday evening, but I had to do so much work in cleaning myself up and cleaning up the hut for Saturday inspection that I never got around to it. Hereafter whenever I intend to write more than two letters a week I guess I will write on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday (If I can).

As you can guess I have been very busy this week. I haven’t worked overly hard but every minute is taken. I haven’t suffered any ill effects except being tired either. I have been feeling good and I don’t even have a cold, but maybe I’d better not brag.

I might tell you our schedule now that I have lived by it for a week. We get up at 6:30, dress and straighten up the hut, then fall out for reville at 7:15. We police (clean) up the area at 7:25 and eat breakfast at about 7:35. From 8 to 12 we have our period of instruction, drill etc. At 12:15 – mail call, 12;30 chow and then we are off until 2:00. From 2 till 6 is more work and then we have mail call and chow. This gives us from about 7:30 to 11 free, if you want to stay up late.

Besides a lot of drill and instruction we took one 4 mile hike carrying light packs. So far I have taken everything they gave me without getting many sore muscles. If I learn as much in the next 12 weeks as I did in the first, I will no longer be a raw recruit.

We certainly had a change in temperature down here. On Friday it was so hot that we actually sweat through our shirts. But when we woke up Saturday morning it was almost cold enough to frost. We had to put on our jackets and our hands got so red and stiff that they finally sent us back to get our gloves. I warmed up some today but we are supposed to put on our winter uniforms tomorrow and they won’t feel bad.

I did K.P. Friday afternoon. We only do it for half a day now. That I did it last week didn’t count to my credit since basic hadn’t started yet. The K.P. wasn’t so bad but we have to make up all the time that we lose doing extra duty. I was lucky in my make up time, though, because one hour in the afternoon had been free time to clean rifles and a 2 hour period of interior guard instruction was condensed into one hour for the make up class. So I made up a whole afternoon’s work in 2 hours between 7:30 and 9:30 last night.

I suppose you will be very busy this week getting ready for the Indianapolis trip. This makes me almost homesick when I think about how we used to look forward to the 2 day vacation during State Teacher’s Institute. Of course there are a thousand other things that make me wish I were home when I think of them.

I am thankful for your having the Tribune sent to me. The news isn’t quite so old and hard to catch up on when I get it.

There are two things that I wished hadn’t turned out the way they did that now I am glad of. They are my getting into the meteorology course and my going to college this summer. If I had got into the meteorology I would be out on my ear now that it has been discontinued. I know I couldn’t pass the air cadet physical examinations Dick Lewis did. And if I had gone to college I would have had to take a harder test than I did to get into ASTP. With no more college than I would have had I might not have passed the tests and then where would I be. It seems that there must have been a divine guidance in these two matters.

Well keep writing.

Love
Donald

Oct. 13, 1943
Dear Folks,

Well today is my anniversary. I have been in the army one month. I was going to write you anyway but since I got my package today I know I will write. It arrived in good shape. I can use everything that you sent. I don’t know whether or not I mentioned face towels but I can use them. Incidentally, I liked the little packages you filled in the holes with, too. 

So far out basic training hasn’t been so hard. We have had several lectures and seen several moving pictures. We have learned to make our packs, and use our gas masks. Today we learned to pitch tents and this afternoon we went on a little hike, about 2 miles I think.

I was sorry to hear about the Noblesville football game but I am hoping that the Elwood game turns out differently. Alex sure has had bad luck with her football players getting hurt.

In your letter you sort of apologized for telling me about Charley Hale. You said maybe you had ought to stay closer home with your news. You don’t need to worry about this. I surely would rather hear about a thing from two different people than nor hear it at all. I am enclosing a couple of stamps, one from my package and one from a letter from Aunt Mary. I would like for you to drop them in my jar in the top of our wardrobe. 

Well it is after 10:00PM and I want to go to bed. So Good-night

Donald

Oct. 11, 1943
Dear Grandparents,

Well my first day of basic training is over. We had to wait till enough men came to form the whole battalion before the training could officially start. I couldn’t see any difference in basic training and what we had been doing so I don’t see why I can’t come out on top of it. It will get harder as time goes on but I will be more used to it then and able to take it.

Last week I did both K.P. and guard duty so I won’t have to worry about these for a while now. My turn won’t come up again for two or three weeks, I hope.

We are sure going to be real soldiers when we get through with this. Today we started learning to tear apart and reassemble our rifles. Tomorrow we are to start learning the use of our gas masks. The way we are going you can see what kind of training we are going to get.

Mother reminded me in a letter that I got today that Wednesday is your wedding anniversary. Of course, I wasn’t thinking about it and even if I had tried to remember when it was I probably couldn’t. Since it takes so long for letters to get there, this one will probably be a little late for your anniversary. Anyway it will have to stand for me visiting you for a time anyway.

I hope your work is coming along alright and that maybe it has slowed down a little by now.

Since I last wrote to you my address has changed a little. Maybe mother has told you about this but anyway my correct address is:

Pvt Donal Tappan 35893186
16th Co. 6th Tng Regt. ASTP
Ft Benning, Georgia

Write me whenever you can and I will try to stay in touch with you.

Love

Donald

This one is in an envelope addressed to Richard, but seems to be to the whole family.

October 10, 1943 (afternoon)
Dear Folks,

Well I don’t know how I will spend my Sundays after this but today at least I am being lazy and thus getting ready for tomorrow. I have been wondering how much harder basic training will be than what we have been doing but I guess that tomorrow I will find out.

Since I last wrote you I spent one day doing K.P. and one night on guard duty. I did KP Friday and guard duty last night. Guard duty (at present at least) is not as hard as it was at Fort Ben. It is only at night and then we only do one stretch of 2 hours. This makes it so you don’t have to have any time off the next day.

I think that I am lucky to get these extra duties done now because I have them overwith now and won’t have to do them till it comes my turn again.

I guess that I have got everything that you sent to Fort Harrison. The bunch of papers came the other day, yesterday I believe. I have already got everything read in them but one story in the Sunday School paper. 

You asked in your letter what part of the state of Georgia I am in. I told it 2 or 3 times in my letters but I am not sure whether or not I told you. Fort Benning is right on the Alabama line – in fact part of it is in Alabama. It is about half way down and near Columbus, GA. if you want to locate it on a map. About using navy time: well we are supposed to use it but it is only used in writing (official papers and things). In conversation, as far as I have heard, the regular time is always used.

The revival that you mention in your letters has me puzzled. I guess I must have missed it in the papers. Is it at Lily Creek or at Orestes?

I have been thinking about Duane Cook. Do you know whether or not he is at this camp? Even if he is, I don’t know how I could find him except by accident. There are about 2400 square miles in the whole camp. There are infantry outfits, field artillery, paratrooper, ASTP and what all else I don’t know.

We are located very close to one of the places where the paratroopers train. Almost anytime of the day you can see them jumping from the towers and once in a while we see them jumping from airplanes.

I forgot to tell you that this time when I did guard duty I carried a rifle. I don’t know what good it would have done me because it wasn’t loaded but I suppose it was just to help get us used to a gun.

I have decided that I want you to send me my fountain pen. I might as well be getting some use out of it and anyway I will want it when and if I go to school. 

I hope you are still keeping a lookout for a watch for me. I have looked in the largest post exchange on the post and I can’t find any so I don’t suppose I will be able to get one down here. I need a watch pretty bad and my old watch only works right about half of the time. I never know when I can trust it and when I can’t. You don’t need to go out of your way but keep your eyes open for one.

If my graduation money hasn’t been spent for bonds, I have decided that it would do me as much good in the form of a watch as it would any other way. Be sure, of course, not to spend the 2 dollar bill. I think that out of my first two or three pays I will be able to finish paying for a not overly expensive watch.

I went to church again this morning; although it may be impossible for me to attend every time, I have not had to miss yet.

Well write me whenever you can. I am always anxious to get letters. I guess you can see that I had to get some more writing materials.

Love,

Donald

Thursday Eve.
8:45 (2045)
Dear Folks,

I wrote yesterday but I have some more things to tell you so I will simply write again.

In the first place I got my first letters today. They had been sent to Ft. Harrison so they were more than a week old but I was very glad to get them. I was glad to get the  newspaper clippings and to hear that at that time Richard had already played a whole football game. I certainly would have liked to have seen you as we had planned in the letters but maybe it is better that I didn’t.

You mentioned my shots in your letter and it reminded me that I got a tetanus shot since I have been here. I am not so mad about my tooth as I was last night.

This morning I was officially signed up for ASTP. If I finish my basic training OK, I will enter a basic engineering course. If everything goes well in this after 36 weeks I will start in some specialized branch of engineering. I wasn’t especially anxious for engineering  but that is what the army needs so I am going to like it.

This evening a group from the 13th Company was moved to the 16th Co. Since they took the last 50 of the alphabetical list I was one of the group. I hated to leave since I was beginning to get lined up and since I liked the officers, but I had no choice in the matter.

The only change in my address is 16th Co. instead of 13th Co. Spread the news around about this. 

Love 
Donald
Pvt. Donald Tappan 35893186
16th Co. 6th Tng Regt. ASTP
Ft. Benning, GA

October 6, 1943
Dear Folks,

Well I certainly have learned one lesson. I have learned to have my teeth worked on by a civilian dentist. As soon as I get a furlough I am going to the dentist and let him get my teeth in good shape so the army dentists can’t find anything wrong. Of course the army has good dentists but they work so fast that they are actually rough and they don’t take any personal interest in you.

The reason I am saying this is because I went to the dentist today. There is a regular dental clinic here. They found one tooth that had a hole in it. (I think a filling had come out). First one dentist drilled it out in a helter skelter fashion (boy did it hurt) and then he decided that he couldn’t save the tooth. He sent me to another dentist who gave me two shots in the mouth, then he pulled the tooth. I felt awfully sick for a couple of hours but I feel better now.

For the first couple of days of this week we took several tests and had an interview or two. These were to decide where (and if) we would be placed in ASTP.

We have also been learning a little about drilling, caring for our rifles and making our pack. These things are just to give us a head start on our 13 weeks basic training which starts next week.

I can easily see why soldiers begin to enjoy the army as soon as their basic starts. It is because they are given encouragement, which keeps their spirits up. One of the first things out lieutenant said to us was that we were going to have the best platoon in the company.

I think that we do have the best officers in the company. This means our lieutenant to sergeant and corporal. We were drilled a little the other day by another lieutenant and he was not near so pleasant and helpful as our own.

I wonder how Richard is coming in football and how everything is going along. I haven’t heard from you yet since I have been here, but I suppose the letters will start coming through soon.

Love
Donald

Tuesday Evening
Dear Folks,

I had K.P. yesterday and I am very surprised that I don’t have to do make up work tonight. I suppose that will come tomorrow or the day after. Yesterday night after I got off K.P. I came to the hut and laid down on my bed and started to read in the Readers’ Digest. The next thing I knew I was waking up and the night was more than half gone. I was still Lying on top of the bed with my clothes on. That is almost as bad as the trick I pulled two or three times by falling asleep when studying.

Yesterday and today we have begun to learn about firing our rifles. We are learning the different firing positions and the principles of sighting. This practice is known as dry firing. I don’t suppose it was named so for this reason but it might well have been because it is so monotonous or “dry”.

This morning we had 4 hours of practice with the mortar. We are about through with this weapon until we get to the range. Tomorrow we are supposed to spend the morning learning camouflage. This will likely turn out to be more digging as the biggest part of camouflage seems to be.

At about the time I am writing this letter the Tigers will be playing their second basketball game. I am wondering how the games are coming out.

It was pretty warm last night but it is really going to be cold before tomorrow morning. We thought we were going to get some rain this afternoon but it turned out to be cold wind instead.

I am glad that my bonds are coming  so regularly. Sometimes things like this from the government are delayed for quite some time

Hope everything is coming OK in Indiana.
Love
Donald.

I happened to remember that in one of my old notebooks is a good bit of typing paper that might as well be used for writing letters (to me).