Letterhead – 5th Training Regiment – Army Specialized Training Program – Fort Benning, Georgia
Feb. 20, 1944 – 5:00pm
Hello,
Once again I am about ready to set out for the woods. There is very little doubt in my mind but that we will have some cold, wet weather but for some reason I am not worrying about it. The main reason I guess is that it wouldn’t do any good. We leave at 8:00 tomorrow morning and we are supposed to come back in next Sunday to get washed up and then go back out again.
Because of our night problem Friday night and, of course, because of next week we were off both yesterday and today. Yesterday I spent getting straightened and cleaned up. Of course I also found time to do some reading and write a little.
Then last night I did something very unusual for me. I went to the movie. I did it just to be doing something to break up the monotony but I really enjoyed it. It was definitely one of the comic order. In the previews the story of “The Bridge of the San Lois Rey” by Thornton Wilder was scheduled to play today. I had studied about this in literature class and since it was such a good book I decided to see it this afternoon. It was a very good story but a trifle hard to follow.
This morning I went to church. It was the first chance I had had to go in several weeks. I don’t know but I doubt if I’ll get to go next Sunday.
I answered Richard’s question about my arm patch but I forgot to answer those about qualifying as a sharpshooter. Here is how the points are counted. Five points are given for a hit in the bull’s eye, 4 in the next ring, 3 for the next, 2 for the next and 0 if you miss the target. If you hit all bull’s eyes you could get a score of 210. Well I can’t remember just how many of each one I hit but I hit enough 5’s out of the 42 shots to overbalance the 2’s and 3’s that I got to make the average considerably over 4 points for each shot.
There are medals that are sometimes issued for sharpshooters but I don’t know whether or not we will be issued them. In fact I sort of doubt it.
Well I want to finish packing and go to bed early so I’ll sign off. Don’t expect anything from me for a while but I’ll do my best.
Here is a lead penny I ran on to and have been carry(ing) for a good while. I don’t know how plentiful they are around there but if you don’t want it just drop it into my stamp collection or someplace where I can find it.
I’ll be seeing you, Donald
Did you receive my letter with the (?) in it?