Category: Basic Training

Tuesday Noon. – July 11, 1944
Hello Folks,

I hope you will excuse this scrappy paper but it is about the best I could find to put in my pocket this morning. Also if it is a little damp it is because it really poured rain this morning and also because we spent about half the morning walking almost to our knees in swamps while on squad problems. All in all I’m wet from head to foot and it looks like it might rain more before the afternoon is over. We had our raincoats with us but I guess they thought that we needed practice in being wet. I forgot to tell you but I suppose you have gathered that we are spending the day out in the field and I am spending part of my noon hour trying to get a little start on tonight’s writing.

Well I drilled with the company yesterday instead of going on the detail I mentioned Sunday. One of the fellows had to be in camp anyway to take some kind of physical examination so they gave the job to him.

I was sure glad to hear from you yesterday evening. I’ll have to wait till this evening to reach it over and see if there were questions you wanted answered. I also got another letter which surprised me a little. It had Charles Johnson’s name on it but of course Janetter had done the writing. She didn’t have much to say but I was very glad to hear from them. 

It sure is a wonder we don’t feel more results than we do from these days in the woods. I was just noticing this morning how much time we spent walking in and crawling through poison ivy and poison oak. But so far the worst effects I have felt are chiggers and boy I sure had a case of them the other day. I used some of my athletes’ foot stuff on them and it must have killed the varmints because the bites are almost dried up now.

EveningBoy if I had known how busy I would have been tonight I sure would have written. Luckily I did. We are going on a march tomorrow afternoon and a bivouac tomorrow night. We’ve got to get everything ready now for that. 

I had to wash all the clothes I had on today. They were covered all over with the slimy swamp mud. Then I cleaned my rifle and have got to roll my pack yet.

Well I see I’ve got a lot of new chigger bites tonight so I’ve got to get busy on them too.

I wish you could be getting some of the rain that we are. It would help us both out. Hope everything is as well as usual. Got to shut off because of lack of time.

Lots & lots of Love,
Donald

Sunday July 9, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well another weekend is here and I have spent the time just taking it easy. It seems that by the time weekend comes I am tired enough to quit. I wish I could catch up on my rest each night for the next day because I know good and well that I’ll have detail on of these Sundays and I won’t be able to to get caught up. I hope that maybe I’ll get a little more used to this work before long and maybe I won’t feel it so.

I got Mary’s 4th of July letter on Friday and it said that mother would write me a letter that night. So I expected both yesterday and today to get it but as yet it hasn’t come. It seems that none of my mail came through very regularly last week so I suppose it will come through in a lump next week.

On Friday and yesterday morning we did the usual type of training then yesterday afternoon I had to take another communication test. Taking a test every few weeks is all that we are hearing from this now. I just wonder what will come of it.

This has turned out to be a very nice day. The sun is shining but there is a dandy breeze blowing. When I got up for breakfast it was foggy and about almost rainy. But when I went to church it has cleared up and it looked like it might get hot but so far it hasn’t. This has been sort of a cloudy week as a whole but it has made it one of the most pleasant and endurable weeks as far as temperature goes that we have had for a long time.

Tomorrow I have a special detail so I won’t be drilling with the company. This is a clean up detail and I don’t know much about it but those who have been before say it isn’t too hard. I’ll be able to tell you more about it after it is over. 

I wonder how things are coming along with you. By this time I suppose Richard knows a little more about how his job deal will turn out. I hope that you have got a little rain by this time which you needed so badly.

I wonder how you are spending the time today. I suppose you had a preacher. I am wondering if you have tires to do much visiting on now. I don’t remember of hearing about how you came out with the tire deal.

Well I thought if I waited till almost bed time I would have a little more news but it seems that nothing else has happened. I sure hope I get a letter from you tomorrow. Oh yes, I was writing a letter to Uncle Paul and I started to ask something about the preacher situation at Lilly Creek. But I was so dumb on the subject I didn’t even know what to ask. Mr. Robinson left didn’t he?

Lots of Love,
Donald

July 4, 1944
Hello Folks,

This will be kind of a hurry up letter but it’s the best I can do this time. We were out on a night march last night till about 2345 and so by the time we were able to get in bed it was almost twelve thirty. We are off till ten this morning but I had to get up at 6:30 to go table waiter. We finished up on the breakfast part of our work at about 8:30. So by the time I got everything straightened up to fall out I have very little time left. I might have waited to write tonight but it may be too late to write when I get off. 

Yesterday during the day we marched for about two hours out to where we were to run squad problems. Then we had to come back that distance of course. So we spent at least 12 hrs working yesterday with eight of them being marching. And then I only got about 6 hours sleep. I feel about as tired this morning as any time I can remember. I really do ache all over and my feet are so sore I can’t hardly stand on them. I am wondering how I’ll feel after working late tonight. Boy this training is getting pretty rough if you ask me.

I don’t suppose July 4 will be much of a vacation for you this year either but I do hope you don’t have to work too hard.

Evening
Well to tell you the truth if I’d had to work very late tonight on table waiter I wouldn’t have got to finish this letter today. But I got off at about 7:30 so I consider myself pretty lucky. I’m going to hit the hay as soon as possible tonight and see if I can’t sleep a little of this ache out of my bones.

We had a pretty hard day today as usual. We spent all afternoon studying war gases. They threw tear gas on us 6 or 7 times so that we would get reality into our gas mask training and all of us were about sick from the stuff before the afternoon was over.

We had quite a treat for dinner today. I guess they were getting liberal on the fourth. They gave each one of us a pretty good sized slice of watermelon. And boy it sure did taste good.

This isn’t much of a letter but I am about out of news. I surely am still thinking of home. I hope to hear from you tomorrow. Take care of yourselves

Love, Donald

Wed morning,
Well I am feeling better now but I am still tired. I don’t know any more news so I’ll drop this in the box on my way to breakfast 

DVT

July 01, 1944
Hello Folks,

Well I’ll try something a little different this time; it’ll be something like your weekend letters are. I’ll start it tonight and finish it tomorrow. And thank goodness I don’t have detail tomorrow.

I got your letter on Thursday evening that you had written on spaghetti box paper (that was the easiest way I could think of to distinguish between it and any other letter). I was sorry to hear that the Chev. is giving trouble. Hope it can be fixed without too much difficulty. You mentioned about being hot and I saw in the paper that you have been having some record breaking weather. I can see how Richard would have quite a time sleeping through it. It’s been pretty hot here part of this week but I don’t know that it’s any worse than usual. In fact, the last couple of days have been sort of cloudy and the temperature has been almost pleasant. Much like Georgia the nights are a good bit cooler than the days.

Our training has been along the usual lines but, at least for me, there has been a little extra outside of drill hours. On Thursday evening I got off KP before too late and so I went to the show. Of course, I wouldn’t have gone if it hadn’t had some special attraction to me. The attraction to me was that the name was “Home in Indiana.” It was built around the horse races at county fairs but outside of that there was very little resemblance in it to Indiana.

I don’t know whether you saw it or not but I read in a paper (when I was home on furlough, I think) where Heck Kirk had gone over into Ohio to take part in a movie and I am almost certain that this was it. Although I don’t know him, if this was the picture, I knew which one he was. He 

Was an announcer at the horse races and had about the most important of the smaller parts. This was a fairly good sized man considerably past middle age. He was a pretty good looking gent with hair gray or almost so and some “bay window”. Do you know enough about him to tell me if this could have been him?

Last night the company had a beer party in the mess hall. This didn’t hold any excitement for me but I suppose you could say that I got some good from it. It sure gave me some first hand information on the results of drink. It sure made a mess out of several people and even went so far as to cause several brawls throughout the company before it was over. 

The third thing just a little out of the ordinary for me was that we went swimming this afternoon. My suit hadn’t come yet but everyone had to go so they had to let us swim in our underwear trunks. I didn’t learn to swim but I was in enough to sort of get the feel of the water and with a few more hitches at it  I think I’ll be able to accomplish the feat. At least it gave me a little confidence.

It’s pretty late now so I’ll try to write a little more tomorrow.

Sunday afternoon (July 2)
I feel just a little disgusted with myself this afternoon. I wanted to get up for church this morning and when I woke up this morning some way or the other I had the idea that it was about 0800. I was waiting for someone to call breakfast. But when I looked at my watch it was two hours later than I expected and church had already started. It was cool this morning and was raining part of the time and I suppose I was a little extra tired. I felt bad about it but it was too late and so I had to hold my own service out of my Bible.

I got the bathing suit in the mail at noon but my heart sank when I saw all the expense you had gone to in order that my silly request might be carried out. I should have been kicked for even asking you to get me something so quickly. The suit fits perfectly and I thank you a lot for it. But here is something I want you to remember whenever you are tempted to go to so much expense or trouble again. The army is supposed to furnish anything I need and anything I ask you to send me is just something extra and I don’t really need it. For instance, as long as going swimming was optional, bathing suits were required but when they made it compulsory the had to let us go in our underwear shorts since no bathing suits are issued. Therefore don’t get too excited over everything I ask you to send. Don’t worry about those sox I asked for. Just pick them up if you happen to find them.

The rain this morning cooled down the temperature and it is now a very pleasant day. I have spent most of my time reading the Sunday School papers I got from you this week. I was sorry to hear that Mary’s ear has been giving so much trouble. I wish she could get straightened up as quickly and easily as I did. 

Hope you are all coming along OK.

Loads of Love,  Donald

Wednesday Evening, June 28, 1944
Hello,

It may seem strange that I am writing tonight but here is my situation. I have K.P. tomorrow and that fixes the chance of writing tomorrow night. Then you know the usual story of Friday night so that means if I am going to write before this weekend it will have to be tonight. So you’ll have to imagine that this letter was written a day or so later or just forgive me for not writing you for the next few days.

I was very glad to get your weekend letter this evening. I was pleased to hear that Daddy is coming along OK with his job. It sounds to me like you will have a few cherries to eat next winter that you wouldn’t have had otherwise. I suppose you won’t have to be buying milk now. Maybe you could get a picture of the calf for me before you sell it.

I have a little more good news for you. Again my name was on an unexplained list on the bulletin board. When we fell out at 12:30 today we were taken down to the eye clinic and examined for G.I. glasses. So that means in a week or so I’ll have some new specs. Now that my ear has straightened up and my teeth have been fixed, I should be in pretty good shape when I get my glasses.

I spent all afternoon over at the clinic but outside of that time we have been doing the ordinary type of training. We have mostly been running squad problems, and just a word  of explanation: these are just situations set up that we must meet which are likely to be met in combat.

Richard asked if we can only attend the church services of our own organization (in this case regiment). No – there is no restriction of that sort. I just  wasn’t sure where to find another chapel anyways near close and I didn’t know anything about the time of services. But there is no use denying the fact that if I had really been on my toes that morning I could have attended services somewhere.

I have been eating the hard candies tonight that you put into my package. I want to thank you again for them. That kind of candy really goes good for a change.

Well I’m about run down and I’ll have to be getting up at about 0500 in the morning. So goodnight and good wishes.

Donald

Tuesday morning – June 27, 1944
Hello Folks,

I am cheating just a little on my time but I wanted to get this letter off to you. What I mean is that I should be sleeping right now. We did a full day’s work yesterday and then had a night hike last night of 10 miles. So we are getting this morning off and I should be sleeping now. But something or other woke up and I decided to try something.

Here it is: I received your package yesterday and tried on the bathing suit. But there is no stretch to it and it just wouldn’t go on. The legs were too little around to allow it to come up to my waist and the waist was too small. All the tags are still on it so you should be able  to exchange it.

I would like to have a suit for this Saturday so I thought that if this letter happened to reach you tomorrow and you sent the suit on the next mail (likely Thursday morning) there is a chance that it might get here by Saturday noon. It would be worth a try and if it didn’t work there will be no harm done.

I didn’t quite understand what you meant about the buckle on the other suit but it would please me better if it wasn’t quite so elaborate as this one.But I’ll not send this one back till I heasr form you just in case you meant that there was no buckle at all on the other suit.

Thanks a whole lot for the cigar box and what it contained. I think the green thread will simplify the sewing on of patches for me.

That hike last night convinced me of the need for heavy sox. I wore wool sox and still I got two great big blisters on my feet. What would it have been if I hadn’t worn them. I wonder if you have been able to locate any of them for me. I am in no especial hurry so, if you don’t have them, don’t hold up the sending of the bathing suit while you are getting me them. See what I mean.

As you might expect going back to the hard work was pretty tough on me. I had been working but, of course, communications school was nothing like hiking etc. Last night we walked on hard surfaced roads (about like the road past our house) for the entire 10 miles and everyone had pretty sore feet. In fact, I woke up twice last night and my feet hurt so bad I was afraid I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. 

This hasn’t been much of a letter but at least you will have heard from me. Hope you are all coming along OK.

Love,  Donald

Partial letter. Pages 3 & 4 got separated – (see March 30, 1944 – pt2)

March 30, 1944 – Thursday Eve
Dear Folks, 

Here I go again. I’ll try to answer some of the questions that you have asked me and get them off my mind as well as using them as something to write about.

To start with I got my first Tribune today. It was Monday’s paper so I missed about two weeks of them. I believe that the last paper I got told of Gertie Young’s death. You don’t need to send me all these papers but I would appreciate any important clippings that I missed. As for your letters I have received all of them since the 23rd but I haven’t got the one you sent before you knew my address.

Dady asked if I have gained or lost since I have been in the army. Well I haven’t been on a scales since Sept. 13 but I do know that I weigh more than I did then. I am not a fatty yet but my pants that were issued to me fit pretty tightly around the waist. The pants with 30” waist fit good in Sept. but just before I left Benning we were issued some cotton khaki pants to wear for work and a 32” waist wasn’t at all too big.

Here is my advice on what Dady should do this summer. I once thought that the bee jo was great stuff but I have about changed my mind. It is awful hard work and not too pleasant at times. If you decide not to take it again don’t worry about it and just think of yourself as being better off without it. The Aladdin deal sounds alright to me and if you couldn’t do the work there will be plenty of farm

work or even papering to do.

It has been raining here for the last couple days and it has given me just a little bit more reason to like it here. Back in basic we would work out even in a cloud burst but yesterday afternoon we had classes inside so that we wouldn’t have to work in the rain. At least they give us a fair chance to keep well. Of course, we will be out in a lot of bad weather before this is over but there is no sense of going to extremes at the expense of health.

It cleared up this afternoon and we had an unusual class in airplane identification. We had a couple of classes in Benning on this but it was mostly from pictures and we didn’t get too much from it. But today we went out about a mile to the airport and saw the actual planes. We didn’t get to see them on the ground but they came down to 25 feet or less for us to get close ups of them and they did a lot of performing to show us their stuff. Boy some of them sure have got power.

I wonder what the chances of you getting my watch fixed are.

Well I’m pretty sleepy and I think I had better do a little reading before I turn in.

Love, Donald