Category: Basic Training

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).

October 3, 1943
Dear Grandparents:

I suppose you know by this time that I am at Ft. Benning, Georgia. This is a good way from home since it took us 27 hours to come from Ft. Harrison. I suppose with good connections I could make it home in 30 hours. I was surprised when I looked on the map to see where Ft. Benning is. It is almost on the Alabama line. If you want to see where it is, it is close to Columbus Georgia.

This will be my home for 14 weeks. After that if everything goes alright I may be sent to school somewhere.

We started at noon on Thursday from Ft. Harrison and got here at about 3 PM on Friday. We came through the states of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. It was dark when we came through Kentucky and Tennessee but when I looked out of the windows I could see high hills against the skyline. I don’t know what cities in Ky. and Tenn. we came through but we came through Indianapolis, Franklin, and Batesville in Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Athen and Columbus, Georgia. We ate supper in Cincinnati and the rest of the time we ate on the train. 

The part of Georgia that I saw is very hilly. Most of the homes are only shacks and a great many people are negroes. The land here is all red clay or sand. The land around Ft. Benning is all sand. When you look at the bare ground you think that sand has just been hauled there but even the ground that is covered with grass is only sand.

You don’t have to walk around but about ten minutes and your shoes are so dusty that they look as if they never had been polished. There is a little corn grown here but the main crop is cotton. I only saw one field of tobacco and then I am not real sure that that is really what it was. The cotton is now ready to pick. You could see the white bolls all over the field. In many places you would see negroes and sometimes whole negro families out in the fields picking cotton. Your cotton plants seemed to be a good sample of the size of the cotton plants. 

I have not been here long enough to be real sure about the schedule but we don’t have to get up as early as we did at Ft. Harrison. Here we have a mess hall for each company. Since we can all sit down at once we don’t have to wait in line for hours to eat as we did at Ft. Ben.

We started in yesterday to learn principles of marching and by this time next week I expect to know a great deal about it. 

I got to go to church again this morning. I have not missed a Sunday yet since I have been in the Army. We have very nice church services even though they only last an hour. They are short so that one chaplain can conduct more than one service during the morning. I am sending you the program of our service this morning but of course the best part of it, the sermon, is not given.

In Indiana we were wearing our winter uniforms but here we are wearing our summer uniforms again. It gets cool at night but is warm during the day. I could notice on the way down that the leaves of the trees changed from their bright fall colors to green. Here you can hardly tell it is fall except for the fact that the crops are getting ripe.

In Fort Harrison we had about 75 men in each barracks, but here the barracks are much smaller and we only have 6 men to each one. I like it better since things are much quieter and you can do more as you like. In each barracks (they call them hutments) there are 2 single beds and 2 double decker beds. I sleep on the top bed of one of the double deckers. 

I suppose the carpenter work at school house is about finished now and things look pretty nice. I hope that things are coming along OK. I am always glad to hear from you so write whenever you can.

Love 
Donald

My address:
Pvt Donald Tappan 35893186
16th Co. 6th Tng Regt. ASTP
Ft. Benning, Georgia

Note the incorrect year on the dateline :-). This seems to be the first letter from Fort Benning.

Sunday
Dear Folks, 

I have just indulged in a Sunday afternoon luxury. As you can probably guess, it was a nice long nap. After I woke up I took a shower so I feel pretty decent now.

I could have gone to a football game, between the divisions here in which there are some all-star players, but I am not sorry that I didn’t.

This morning I went to chapel again. Chapel for our regiment was held in a theater but we had a very nice service. The sermons in the army are short and easy to follow. I sure can’t complain about the sermons. (I will finish after chow)

I guess about the only territory that I saw in daylight that you do not know about is Georgia. The land in Georgia that I saw was pretty hilly. The only kind of soil there is here is sand or red clay. The land around Ft. Benning is all sand. When you are marching  your shoes are so dusty after 10 minutes that they look like they never have been polished. 

The people down here raise some corn but the principal crop is cotton. The cotton is now ready to pick and along the road you would see negro families in the fields picking. It seems that over half the people that you see are negros (I mean outside, not in the camp).

I was surprised when I looked on the map to see where Ft. Benning is. It is just across the river from Alabama. If you want to locate it it is not far from Columbus, Georgia.

I haven’t been here long enough to be very sure about the schedule but I do know that we don’t have to get up as early as we did at Fort Harrison. Here there is a mess hall for each company and since everyone can sit down at once we have to stand in line for hours to eat. Another thing I like about it here is the arrangement of the barracks. At Fort Harrison there were about 75 men in each barracks. You can imagine how loud and rough this many men got. But here the barracks are only about 15 ft x 15 ft and house 6 men. That is like a private room compared to what it was there. In each barracks  (hut or hutment) there are two single beds and 2 double decker beds. I sleep on the top deck of the double deckers.

It is warm here, except that the nights are cool, and you would hardly know it is fall except that the crops are getting ripe. The trees and grass are green. In Fort Harrison the trees were beginning to turn and since this happens earlier at home I suppose they are pretty about now.
Since it has frosted there, I wonder how the walnut crop is coming.

We had changed to our winter uniforms back in Indiana but down here the summer uniforms are in style.

When we got here we were issued some more equipment. We were given a steel helmet, a half-shelter tent, a gas mask, a haversack (pack), a rifle and bayonet, ammunition belt and foot-locker. You can see about what kind of training we are going to get. Our foot-locker are about like wooden trunks with locks on them. This gives us a chance to lock up some of our things.

The rifles we were issued are World War I rifles. The sergeant says that we will only use these to learn how to handle guns. When we start shooting we will be given others.

We started yesterday to learn principles of marching so by this time next week I expect to now something about it.

So far I have had to buy a free things such as soap and shoe polishing equipment for myself. I would like for you to send me my other glasses (in a case), a clothes brush, a hand brush (to scrub hands and fingernails) and 4 coat hangers. I would like for the brushes to be as small as possible but plenty tough. I could also use a few handkerchiefs, white or khaki.

I have not got any mail for several days so I wonder how things are coming. I suppose I will start getting mail sometime this week. Write me whenever you can. I am always glad to get mail.

Love,
Donald

I am not sure that I gave you the exactly correct address so here it is:
Pvt. Donald Tappan 35893186
13th Co. 6th Tng Reg. ASTP
Ft. Benning, Georgia