At Sea
Dear Folks,

I imagined there would be times when I couldn’t write often and this is sure it. I should and could have written you sooner but I guess there wouldn’t have been much point in it anyway. Even this won’t be sent out till we land.

Boy our stay was sure brief at the last place. I feel lucky to have written you just one letter from there. I didn’t expect to leave so soon but it’s the real thing now. You might think that on the boat ride would be the ideal time to catch up with your sleeping, reading, etc. but even that doesn’t work out.

There are lots of jobs that have to be done and, of course, our company would have to get one of these. And if that’s not enough excuse for writing, I’ve been so seasick that it’s not funny. It makes me feel about like I was perpetually coming out from under the effects of ether. The wobbly way this letter is written will bear witness to that fact.

After so long a time they say you get over this but right now I wouldn’t make much of a sailor. Eating has just about been out of the question for me that last day or so. If this continues solid ground is going to look mighty good to me. I’ll never be able to say now that I haven’t seen the ocean. I’ve seen plenty of it.

Next time you see me, remind me to tell you the name of this ship. I don’t suppose I’ll be able to tell you before then. When you do find out it’ll surprise you as much as it did me.

From now on I expect a good bit of our corresponding will be by V-mail. You can’t put a whole lot on them but at least for me I expect they’ll hold enough. We’ll also have to see how air-mail works.

Well this has been a little starter of a letter and maybe I can have more to say next time. What I haven’t said will have to go unsaid. I’ll be glad to start getting mail once more. I hope you have continued to write.

God bless you all. Love, Donald

Co. K. 346 Inf APO 448
℅ Postmaster New York, NY
October 13, 1944
Hello Folks,

This will be my first attempt to write a censored letter but I’ll make some kind of stab at it. From now on out I guess both our outgoing and incoming mail will be subject to censorship but I doubt if too much of the mail I receive will be censored. With all the regulations about the only thing safe to talk about now will be happenings at home.

I’ll tell you what I can about my location and a little later on a little about my trip. I am going to have to start using the “somewhere’s”. I am somewhere on the eastern coast. If I were to tell you how long I’ll be here, it would be a guess and even that wouldn’t be allowed anyway.

They have told us that its alright to say we went through Washington, D.C. Just that in itself was a thrill to me. Of course, we had to stay on the train but we were lucky enough to see a few of the sights. I can say now I have seen the Potomac. The other famous places we could see were the Pentagon building, the Jefferson memorial, the Washington memorial, and the Dome of the Capital. I got a good view of the first two but the others were more or less in the distance.

In Daddy’s letter he mentioned about a Mrs. Willis being the Health Nurse and I wonder if it’s the one in Orestes. I don’t suppose it is though. It sure sounds like you are having some of the usual troubles at school.

I can just imagine how things are stirring at high school today with the Elwood game coming up tonight. I sure wish them a lot of luck. Richard said that Miss Hieatt was grumbling some about her English Fundamentals class and I wonder what he thinks about the subject. I got a great kick from it when I took it. Maybe it’s because a good bit of it came pretty easy for me.

Don’t send me the stationary at present. I don’t need it now and maybe I’ll be a little more settled later. If that be possible now. If anything comes up that I need, you needn’t worry about me telling you about it.

Well I’m not quite run down so I’ll start another sheet. I wanted with all my might to get a letter written yesterday but I won’t have to stretch it one bit to say that I just didn’t have time. It looks like they are really going to keep us stepping here.

After we arrived yesterday they handed out mail and I received your weekend letter. Evidently they had brought it with us on the train. I sure never expected to get mail that soon. That’s what I call a very pleasant surprise.

The trip here added just a little more to my travel experiences. I guess my total of states I’ve been in adds up to about 13 now. That’s quite a bit more than it was a couple of years ago.

In connection with that – I can only write on one side of the paper now so if sometime I happen to be extra windy I may have to make two letters of it in order to keep the weight down. I doubt if this ever happens though because the usual page of my letter telling you about what I’ve been doing will either not exist or be very limited. It’ll also be harder on the stationary box this way.

No doubt you’ve received the change of address card by now. Just for my own information I’d like to know when they were mailed. If you haven’t you can get the slight change of address from the one on the outside.

I hope this being Friday the 13th doesn’t hurt the football game. Write soon and often.

Lots of Love, Donald