Note from: An Historical and Pictorial Record of the 87 Infantry Division in WWII
The Division left the maneuver area by motor convoy on the 18th of January 1944 to begin a trek to its new post at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, a post commanded by Brig. Gen. D. G. Richart. Upon arrival at Fort Jackson and until 21 February 1944, the Division conducted a “pre-post maneuver” training period. Its objective was the immediate correction of deficiencies disclosed during earlier periods of training and during maneuvers. The fourth period of training, “Final Preparation for Combat,” began on 21 February 1944.
Thus DVT was transferred to the 87 Infantry Division one month into this period…
Sunday Afternoon
Dear Folks,
Well here I am in Ft. Jackson, S.C. So far I am not very elated about it but anyway I am not any further away from home. I am in an infantry rifle company at present and it seems very likely where I will stay. This was about the least of my ambition but we just got a bad break, that's all. I am not with any of my close buddies but most of them landed in the same kind of place that I did so I am not the only one who didn’t get anything fancy.
We are going to take sort of a refresher basic for the next few weeks to get us into the swing of things. After that we will go into training with the regular division.
This division has been organized for about a year and part of it has been sent overseas. We are filling in the vacancies that were made by those who left. I don’t know all the details of our situation but I’ll let you know more as I find out myself.
At least we have barracks to live in here and there are a few more conveniences that we didn’t have before.
We left Ft. Benning on Friday about noon and got here about 10:00 yesterday morning. It usually wouldn’t take that long to travel over this distance but in the usual style of troop trains, we zig-zagged back and forth across Georgia and South Carolina instead of coming straight here. There were a little better accommodations on the train than my last train ride and we even had pullman beds to sleep in. Of course we had to sleep two in a single bed but it wasn’t too bad sleeping. We got to see a good bit of scenery but it was a whole lot all the same. The territory here is just about the same as where we came from. The ground is hilly and the soil is sand or clay. The only difference is that the clay isn’t quite so red as it was down there.
We spent all day yesterday waiting to be classified, having our equipment inspected, getting settled in our barracks and getting our clothing straightened out. We took a physical examination this morning at 9:00 and I have been busy about all after - getting my rifle cleaned. I was hoping that maybe I wouldn’t be using a rifle for a while but it seems that I’ll be doing it regularly from now on.
I am sure anxious to hear from you so here is my address.
Pvt. Donald Tappan 35893186
Co. K. 346th Infantry, APO 448
Fort Jackson, South Carolina
Write me as soon as you can and I’ll probably be sending you a lot of short letters for a while.
Lots of Love
Donald