Page 3 of this scanned letter belongs to the May 2, 1944 letter
May 4, 1944
Dear Folks,
You know how much I’ll be able to write tomorrow because of the usual Friday night work. So I’ll write this letter tonight and leave it open so I can write in a couple of lines in the morning. I am starting this at noon because I’ll have to get a haircut tonight and that may take most of the evening.
I have been going to radio school every day since I started. I even had to go back after supper last night. They showed us some training films that the companies had seen but we had missed because of not being with the companies. They don’t want our military training to stop even though we are studying radio.
When I first started I thought we would learn Morse Code or some means of communicating lke that. But these work just like a regular radio and merely talk over them. The two drawbacks to these are the way you must speak to be understood over them because they are so weak and the ease with which the enemy can intercept your messages. To overcome both of these at the same time the messages are translated into code and are spelled out by the phonetic alphabet. The code for deception of course and the spelling for clearness. The phonetic alphabet is merely by a word starting with that letter that you say instead of the letter. Letters sound so much alike and there are enough words that there can be a set picked out that no two sound alike. For example instead of saying “a” you say “able”, for “c” you say “Charlie”, for “f” you say “fox”, etc.
Then of course since these radios can be picked up by any receiving station you must use regular procedure which must be practiced and learned.
Tonight.
Well after getting my hair cut, cleaning my rifle, taking a shower and exploring and sampling my package I am at last ready to start writing again.
The package arrived this afternoon in excellent shape. Right now I have one hand in the popcorn and the other on the pencil. It certainly reminds me of studying on Sunday evenings. I sure wish I was in a position to do some more of this.
Furloughs still seem to be on the way so I may be seeing you one of these days. I only hope this radio school doesn’t interfere with a furlough when it comes up.
I have a couple of acorns left so I am sending you one to see what they are like. Of course it isn’t the newest one in the world but it will give you some idea of them. Jim can put it on his khaki jacket if he wants to. It goes on the left sleeve a half inch from the shoulder.
May 5
Good evening people,
I feel tired as usual but otherwise pretty good this morning. I sure wish you guys were here to help me eat my birthday cake.
I’ll be seeing you,
Donald