Christmas Afternoon (to Carver Grandparents)
Dear Folks,
This is Christmas but it is sure different from my other Christmases. I wonder how you folks back home are spending your Christmas. I hope it is possible for you to enjoy it.
This morning I went to a Christmas church service and I came away feeling a lot more like Christmas. At noon we had a very good meal and of course we all enjoyed ourselves. I have spent the afternoon just being lazy, reading and otherwise enjoying myself.
I suppose the folks told you that I spent a few days off duty trying to get rid of a cold. Since you must get all of the training in order to complete basic, I was supposed to be put into another battalion that was just at the same place in their training where I lost out. But instead of doing this they put me into a battalion that is just in their second week of training. This army sure does funny things sometimes. Since I am about 6 weeks ahead of this battalion in my training, I am just doing extra duty around the company area here until they catch up to the place where I left off. This will mean that it will take me an extra 6 or 7 weeks to finish my basic. I hate this and don’t understand the necessity of it but if the army wants me here, I guess that it is the best place for me.
Right now I am spending my time doing all kinds of jobs. I spent one half day helping haul coal, another part of an afternoon cleaning up the area, part of a morning working in the kitchen and a couple of days working in the supply room. In the supply room I helped with the equipment and also did some paperwork. It takes a good bit of bookwork to keep track of all the equipment of a company of soldiers (250 men).
This is a pretty uncertain life not knowing from one minute to the next what job I am going to be put on, but I am not going to let it worry me. Of course, the worst part of it is that I am spending time that if I had been put into the right outfit could have been used to finish my training.
It is a cold, nasty, rainy day outside. I suppose that if I were up north this cold rain would be snow and then I would have a white Christmas. Anyway I am glad that I can be inside today instead of being out in this slop.
I hope things are coming along at least as good as usual back there. I would surely have liked to come home for Grandpa Tappan’s funeral but the army thought otherwise about it. I tried to get off but it couldn’t be done. They said that the death had to be your immediate family before an emergency furlough could be given.
It takes a good bit of time for mail to start coming to a new location so I haven’t got any mail for over a week. Therefore I don’t know how things are coming back there. I hope OK.
Love and keep writing,
Donald
My new address:
Pvt. Donald Tappan 35893186
12th Co. 5th Trng Regt. ASTP
Ft Benning, GA