Note the incorrect year on the dateline :-). This seems to be the first letter from Fort Benning.
Sunday
Dear Folks,
I have just indulged in a Sunday afternoon luxury. As you can probably guess, it was a nice long nap. After I woke up I took a shower so I feel pretty decent now.
I could have gone to a football game, between the divisions here in which there are some all-star players, but I am not sorry that I didn’t.
This morning I went to chapel again. Chapel for our regiment was held in a theater but we had a very nice service. The sermons in the army are short and easy to follow. I sure can’t complain about the sermons. (I will finish after chow)
I guess about the only territory that I saw in daylight that you do not know about is Georgia. The land in Georgia that I saw was pretty hilly. The only kind of soil there is here is sand or red clay. The land around Ft. Benning is all sand. When you are marching your shoes are so dusty after 10 minutes that they look like they never have been polished.
The people down here raise some corn but the principal crop is cotton. The cotton is now ready to pick and along the road you would see negro families in the fields picking. It seems that over half the people that you see are negros (I mean outside, not in the camp).
I was surprised when I looked on the map to see where Ft. Benning is. It is just across the river from Alabama. If you want to locate it it is not far from Columbus, Georgia.
I haven’t been here long enough to be very sure about the schedule but I do know that we don’t have to get up as early as we did at Fort Harrison. Here there is a mess hall for each company and since everyone can sit down at once we have to stand in line for hours to eat. Another thing I like about it here is the arrangement of the barracks. At Fort Harrison there were about 75 men in each barracks. You can imagine how loud and rough this many men got. But here the barracks are only about 15 ft x 15 ft and house 6 men. That is like a private room compared to what it was there. In each barracks (hut or hutment) there are two single beds and 2 double decker beds. I sleep on the top deck of the double deckers.
It is warm here, except that the nights are cool, and you would hardly know it is fall except that the crops are getting ripe. The trees and grass are green. In Fort Harrison the trees were beginning to turn and since this happens earlier at home I suppose they are pretty about now.
Since it has frosted there, I wonder how the walnut crop is coming.
We had changed to our winter uniforms back in Indiana but down here the summer uniforms are in style.
When we got here we were issued some more equipment. We were given a steel helmet, a half-shelter tent, a gas mask, a haversack (pack), a rifle and bayonet, ammunition belt and foot-locker. You can see about what kind of training we are going to get. Our foot-locker are about like wooden trunks with locks on them. This gives us a chance to lock up some of our things.
The rifles we were issued are World War I rifles. The sergeant says that we will only use these to learn how to handle guns. When we start shooting we will be given others.
We started yesterday to learn principles of marching so by this time next week I expect to now something about it.
So far I have had to buy a free things such as soap and shoe polishing equipment for myself. I would like for you to send me my other glasses (in a case), a clothes brush, a hand brush (to scrub hands and fingernails) and 4 coat hangers. I would like for the brushes to be as small as possible but plenty tough. I could also use a few handkerchiefs, white or khaki.
I have not got any mail for several days so I wonder how things are coming. I suppose I will start getting mail sometime this week. Write me whenever you can. I am always glad to get mail.
Love,
Donald
I am not sure that I gave you the exactly correct address so here it is:
Pvt. Donald Tappan 35893186
13th Co. 6th Tng Reg. ASTP
Ft. Benning, Georgia