Category: Date wrong?

(Ward C-13 Station Hospital)
December 12, 1943
Sunday
Dear Folks,

This is one letter I will write in which I have nothing to say. All I know is that I am still here. As far as I know all that “ails” me now is a chest full of cold and boy am I coughing up gallons from it. This by rights should mean that it is breaking. 

This has seemed to be a very long week to me. The longer I stay the harder the job of staying gets. The worst part of staying here is my appetite. They serve pretty good meals but I have lost all desire for eating. I think the greatest reason for this is the awful feeling the medicine leaves in your stomach.

I got your package the other day and read all it contained. I tasted the candy and it sure reminded me of home but I couldn’t relish eating much of it. I couldn’t even interest those around me with it. That doesn’t need to worry youthough. When I get back to the army again it will certainly be welcome.

They are doing one thing for me here that I am really happy about. You remember that I said that my bump on the head left a red place in my eye. Well shooting a rifle didn’t help it but caused it to spread till about ½ of the white part of my eye was covered. I asked the medical man (not a doctor but more of a first-aid man) back at the company a couple of times about it but every time he would say it would heal up in a few days. Of course it never did and the doctor here took an interest in it. He said it was a ruptured blood vessel and told the nurse to get a certain kind of medicine for it. They have only been putting the medicine in for 2 or 3 days and already it is helping. About half of the redness has cleared up. 

If it doesn’t clear up any more I will be satisfied but now I have hopes that maybe I won’t always have to wear around a bloodshot eye.

I have about decided why I should get sick just after they gave us those pills which were supposed to keep us well. They told us that they were supposed to kill disease germs by raising the “temperature of our body” slightly. I imagine that just that little bit of fever lessened my resistance enough to let “whatever I have” set in.

Well I wish I knew what to ask you about that is happening back there. About all I can think of is “How is Richard coming with his job?”

I guess I have gut a little letter written anyway. So –

Love
Donald

Tuesday Night
Dear Folks,

Time is very short so this might not be much of a letter. I had to work in the supply room until after 8:00 and then I took a shower. This leaves me very little time before 10:00.
I was glad to get your letter today which contained the sale bill. I had a great time trying to decide which description belonged to which cow.

I have been working in the supply room so far this week. All my boys in the sick hut have recovered so I am rid of that job at least until someone else gets sick.

The most real news is that I got my pay today that I missed getting at the first of the month. I wonder if my bonds are coming through alright.

I suppose that you must be getting back to some kind of routine by this time. I suppose that there is still work to do but I’ll bet you feel lost without all the stock to take care of. I wonder if you kept the one little cow that you mentioned about.

Some of these times (no hurry at all) when you want to send me something I  would like a couple of tee shirts. For one thing they have told us that we can’t wear our sweaters outside of our shirts any more because they aren’t part of our uniform. With a tee shirt I could wear it under my shirt without having it next to my skin. Tee shirts would also come in handy for lots of things. 

I hope you are all well. I am feeling fine.

Love, 
Donald
Your letter had 6th Regiment instead of 5th on it

This one may be out of order. There is another letter dated the 10th.

This one is only dated “Sunday afternoon”, there was another next to it with similar dating style which seemed to be written in December. I’ll leave this one here for now, but will try to figure out placement based on later letters.

Sunday Afternoon
Dear Folks,

Boy is this a nice day! We have had so many cold rainy days this week that it is really hard to find fault with anything on a day like this. This morning it was frosty and cold but the sun was shining so brightly that it really made you feel good. The sun has shined ever since and now the temperature is very pleasant. If I were at home on the farm I know I would want to go for a walk in the woods or out to the old orchard. Or if I were in Orestes I would want to walk down to Lilly Creek or down to the Arch and see if our dam is still there. But here weather like this makes me want to talk to you in a letter.

I went to church this morning and of course this always helps to make me feel better. We had a communion service this morning. I guess several other people must have felt good today too because we had a very nice crowd out.

My life has been spent very much as usual the last few days. Yesterday morning I worked in the mess hall because they needed extra help. The colonel of the regiment was going to make an inspection and everything had to shine. Incidentally the colonel said that our mess hall was the best one that he found and he had the other mess sergeants down looking at it.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the main post with Sgt. Steele (my boss or in other words the supply sergeant) to get the laundry.

We had a better than usual dinner today and I am setting down to an afternoon of reading, writing and sleeping so there is no reason why I shouldn’t feel good. For dinner we had cork chops, dressing, sweet potatoes, ice cream and cake. Of course a meal with pork chops and cake would have been more tasty if mother had made it but nevertheless, it tasted good. Although I am not especially fond of working for the cooks in this company they are a lot better cooks than are generally found in the army.
I hope you are finding it possible to get as much kick out of today as I am getting.

Love,
Donald
Bed Time:
Well I am still in a pretty good mood. I haven’t succeeded in writing many letters but I have done considerable reading. I have read about half of the book on China that you sent me. I didn’t think it would be overly interesting but  it is anything but dry. When I get started in it I can hardly stop.
Goodnight.