October 28, 1943
Dear Folks,
I have a very few minutes this morning so I will start a letter now as I won’t have so much time to write tonight. Well almost 3 weeks of my basic training are over. They are going faster than I expected they would but 10 more weeks seems liike a long time.
We have been working pretty hard this week. We are taking a good bit of physical hardening exercises and we are starting to study military tactics. We took a three hour march some time at the first of the week and we were out about 3 hours after dark last night. We spent about an hour and a half of that time marching and the rest of the time studying night tactics. We are also supposed to have a night class tomorrow (Friday night). I guess in real combat a lot of work would have to be done at night so they want to prepare us for it.
We are preparing to move again. This time we are going to a place in this camp about 8 miles from here. Our new place is known as “Harmony Church Area” and we are leaving Saturday. We are spending all of our spare time getting out things packed for the move.
We had a little extra excitement in our company tonight. Our company commander was raised from the rank of first lieutenant to a captain. You should have heard the undertone when he came out for formations tonight wearing his captain’s bars.
Well I hope everything is coming along alright in Orestes. I have about run out of news. So.
Love,
Donald
As you might have guessed at the place in the letter where I sharpened my pencil I started writing tonight.
Oh yes. You wondered if I could turn over in bed without falling out. I don’t have to worry about this because I sleep in a regular bed not a hammock. And about my laundry. I don’t have to do all of it by myself. What I can do without for a week while it is being cleaned I can send to a laundry here on the post. I can send all I need for only $1.30 a month. Of course what I can’t do without I have to wash myself.
Write when you can,
Donald