Says Basic Training has ended
March 12, 1944 – (written on “United States Army” stationary)
Sunday Afternoon
Howdy Folks,
Well basic training is now over at last. And even though it hardly seems possible, I will have been in this army six months tomorrow. It seems now that a very few more days will end my stay at Ft. Benning and I sure wish I knew what the future holds for me. There is no use worrying about it and some way I just have a feeling that everything will be for the best. Although it is often hard to find there is usually a bright side to all our seeming misfortunes.
For instance: I had a very bad piece of luck last night but I think maybe it was for my own good. When I was dressing after taking a shower my watch slipped out of my hands and dropped on the cement. It stopped running immediately and I have not been able to get it to go again. But while I was trying to catch it I discovered that the strap was all but in two. I knew that it was a very cheap strap and that it was wearing out but I had no idea it was that far gone. There is a chance that maybe even tomorrow the strap might come apart and the watch get away from me entirely. This way I still have the watch even though it will have to be watch even though it will have to be repaired.
I imagine I had better wait till I get to my next camp so that I’ll have a permanent return address before I send it home. And there is a chance that maybe there will be someplace there where I can have it fixed.
While it is on my mind – if you remember I asked for a belt one time when you asked what I wanted. Well I found one in the PX yesterday for $.65 which answers very well. So you can forget about this.
And now for a little news of what I have been doing. On Friday we took our physical exams. They included such things as doing 33 push ups, doing 300 yard dash, etc. It wasn’t so bad until we came to doing the 4 mile forced march in 50 minutes. We had to carry full field packs and rifles and it was necessary to run most of the way. Boy maybe you think we weren’t tired when we got in. In fact I can still feel the effects of it.
We spent yesterday morning turning in equipment and in general straightening up our stuff. Then we wound up in the afternoon with a parade. Of course we weren’t perfect but it seemed to me that the parade went off pretty smoothly.
I spent three hours yesterday evening doing my laundry so I have clothes strung all over everywhere.
This morning I went to chapel services and I am spending the rest of the day just being lazy. I am a little behind on my letter writing so maybe I can catch up some on that.
We have a little better idea as to where we are going, but nothing is certain. I hope everything is alright back there. I was glad to hear in the letter I got this morning that you finally got your stuff moved.
Love, Donald