Donald V. Tappan

May 30, 1944
Tuesday Evening
Dear Folks, 

Well I’ve got a little news to tell you about my ear. It wasn’t bothering me any worse than it had but I felt something should be done so I went on sick call today. They didn’t do a thing to it so I sure am glad that it isn’t too bad. They did give me some drops for it and sent me to the ear, nose and throat clinic. They were so busy over there that they could only give me an appointment for June 5.

I suppose my ear will be well by then and they won’t do anything about my throat but at least it will put it in their records so that it will impress it on their minds if any more trouble comes up. I have made up my mind though that if either ear or throat gives any trouble before the 5th I’m going to just drop everything else and go on a sick call.

I drilled with the company Monday and like everyone else felt the effects of furlough. I went to sick call this AM and the clinic this PM so today wasn’t very hard. Tomorrow promises to be a full day. I have table waiter and also we go to mine school where we study booby traps, mines and such explosives. It’s just a period of training which each company must go through. I don’t know about the radio but I think I’ll get back to it.

Pardon this scribbly little letter but I want to go to bed as soon as possible.

Love,
Donald
Hope to hear from you tomorrow. I got my dogtags Mon. noon – No one even knew I didn’t have them.

Just returning from furlough. Mentions arriving by train

May 28, 1944
Sunday 8:00pm
Hi,
I’ve got more to do than I dare think about but I must take time to write. Maybe some of the work will just have to go and be done some other time. Everything has to be hunted up from all over the place and then be straightened up and cleaned up.

We got here at almost on time this eve (5:15PM) so that worry is over. My ear just ran and ran and I all but ran out of cotton wadding. I bought some more as soon as I got here.

My ear doesn’t and hasn’t felt too bad so I may wait till things get running normal again before I see about it. Of course if it gives much trouble tonight I’ll get to attention. So don’t worry.

I slept an awfully lot on the train so I have been tireder than I am now. But I want to get around and get to bed pretty soon.

Love,
Donald

May 11, 1944
Thursday afternoon
Dear Folks,

While I am off duty a little while this afternoon I’ll get my letter written so I can hit the hay early this evening. The reason I am off is that I have a nasty detail coming up tomorrow. Twelve of us from this company are on a prisoner guarding detail. Since some of the prisoners are held for pretty serious crimes this is a very responsible job and there is some larger danger connected with it. It is a very serious offense to let a prisoner escape. The last bunch from our company that were on this detail were on it for two or three days so I don’t know just when I’ll get off. We report at the guard house at 0610 in the morning so that will mean getting up pretty early.

I went to the radio school this morning and it seems that this will be over before much longer. They are going to start giving us tests Monday and so we’ll come back to drilling with the company about the middle of the week. I don’t know what we’ll do except just go ahead training with the company as we did before. There is no need for radio communication in the type work the company is doing now. If they don’t forget they’ve got radio men I suppose that we’ll go back to that whenever maneuvering time comes.

I wonder what kind of weather it is up there now. It’s pretty hot down here and I can just about guess what it’ll be like when summer comes. I wonder if you could get me a pair of sun glasses that fit over regular glasses. All I have been able to get is a pair of regular sun glasses. Since the glasses I am wearing now fit pretty close to the face and the sun glasses are sort of loose I can get by but it isn’t  too satisfactory. I didn’t notice it so much at home but down here the sun shining on the sand almost blinds you to be out in it.

I am getting along as well as usual and hope you are doing the same. Don’t know any more news about when I’ll get to be home. Regiment has announced though that when furloughs start we’ll be allowed 8 days at home. That doesn’t include traveling time.

I’ve made up my mind to send my watch home so you’ll be getting that one of these days. I’m afraid that by the way things are looking, if it takes 5 or 6 weeks to fix it we might be moved out of here for maneuvers when it is ready. Of course, all of this is supposition but I’ve a hunch and a lot can happen in that many weeks. I’ve two or three things I’ll put in this letter that you can put away for me and they’ll stand less chance of getting lost if I hold onto them any longer. Thanks.

Your son & brother,
Donald
Hope I get a letter from you tonight.

May 9, 1944

Tuesday Eve
Hello Folks,
As usual I haven’t much news but if you feel any ways near the same as I do you will be glad to just get a letter. I got your Sunday letter this evening.

I hope Richard is able to get on at Remy’s for the summer and that he likes the work better than that of his fuzz factory (this makes me think of Linda’s fozzy blankets- ha ha)

It looks like the inspector is really going into the bees right this summer. At least feeding his bees and buying more colonies makes it look suspiciously in that direction. I don’t see any reason why there shouldn’t be a good market for honey this year so I wish the bee business all the luck in the world. I know another thing too – that gardening at home will be a whole lot more pleasant than it has in the past.

Sunday will be Mother’s Day and I certainly would like to be home for it. But since I can’t, I certainly want to wish my Mother and very happy Mother’s Day. Even though I don’t express it I  certainly am thankful for all that mother has done and still is doing for me. Thanks a whole lot.

Richard wanted to know a little about the walkie-talkie business and by this time I may have explained  what he wanted to know. At least I have talked about the broadcasting so now I’ll tell you the purpose of ever having these dinky little radios.

A radio and its operator are assigned to each platoon and we are taken right with it to its offensive or defensive area. Then since the company commander also has a radio, he and the platoon leaders can keep in touch with each other. Orders may be sent out, information of the enemy may be sent back or any other important communication may be made. When necessary a radio may be sent out with any smaller unit on patrol, outpost or any other duty.

I hope everything is still OK with you. Thanks a lot of times for the stamps.

Donald

May 7, 1944
Sunday

Dear Folks,
I got the letter you wrote the middle of the week yesterday noon and the one you wrote on Friday today. Even though I wasn’t expecting one today I was just as glad as I ever am to get it.

I hope you are having nice weather and are enjoying yourselves whatever you are doing. The sun is shining brightly down here but the temperature is a little lower than usual. It is cool enough that you shouldn’t need a jacket when you go out. The papers today say that there is quite a cold wave somewhere.

I had K.P. yesterday but there was one thing that I was very thankful for. You can’t tell how glad I was that it came yesterday instead of the day before. I was also happy that it came yesterday and not today. You are so busy through the week that when you don’t have a free day on Sunday you sure miss it.

After yesterday I was tired enough that I didn’t get up till about nine thirty this morning. Of course I had to do my washing after I got in last night so I would be able to do this.

I went to church at ten o’clock this morning and the rest of the day has been spent sleeping and reading. Oh yes, I did do a little mending on one of my fatigue suits so that I’ll have something to wear tomorrow.

I have ben glad to hear about Uncle Pauls’ getting moved. I just hope none of them get down over it now. It was nice that Daddy was in a position to help them.

I’ll bet you’ll feel a lot better about going out there now that the place is occupied by someone. Boy my whole career of life in the country sure was short. I guess it consisted of one whole week. Home will be good to me even if it isn’t the place I left. I don’t know any more about a furlough but I am still hoping.

That’s about all I know now but maybe I’ll think of a little more before tomorrow.

Monday
I am OK this morn but time is too short to write much.

Love,
Donald

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

Page 3 and 4 of this scanned letter belong to the May 4 1944 letter

May 2, 1944
Tuesday
Hi People,

I’ll start this letter now at noon and maybe I’ll be sure of getting it finished tonight.

For the first time in a good while I have something to tell you that I am happy about. You wouldn’t guess in a long while what it is. Yesterday noon they came around asking for men to become radio operators. This is just a fancy name for operators of the little walkie talkies, but nevertheless it was a chance to learn something.

I volunteered and started right away yesterday afternoon. There are five or six of us from each company taking the training. The classes are conducted by the communications sergeants from each company and by the regimental and battalion communication technicians.

Yesterday afternoon we learned about communications in an infantry regiment, battalion and company. We started right in this morning learning about ham radio and a little about sending messages.

This is supposed to be a ten weeks course but it seems that we are going to complete it in about half that time. It seems that we are going on maneuvers or something soon in which we will be using the training.

Tonight.
I suppose that by the time you get this letter Ben will have started back. By the way at what port is he stationed?

There are a lot of rumors about our getting furloughs. I only hope that this radio school doesn’t mess it up. I don’t really think it will though. I got a box of cookies from the ladies aid so I am not out of something to eat now. 

Well, I hope everything is ok with you.
Love, 

Donald

Sunday April 30, 1944
Hello Family,

Well I finally succeeded in getting what you have been asking for. The close-up picture of me isn’t so clear but the other one will pass. Even the expression in the larger picture is silly so I won’t care a bit if you just chuck it into the fire.

I had these taken a couple weeks ago but I didn’t know when I could get them so I didn’t dare say anything about it. Since you must have a permit to take pictures here on the post there are hardly any cameras here. The fellow who took these got his permit just a little while before we went out on the range. He is in the same squad as I am and I jumped at the chance to get him to take my picture. He went on an emergency furlough last night but when he gets back I’m going to try to get hold of the negatives.

We got back from the range about noon yesterday. We didn’t have such a bad time (except for wet weather) but, of course, we were glad to get back. 

On Thursday I went through the mental conditioning course both during the day and at night. This is the course where you crawl on the ground under barbed wire obstacles etc. while they shoot live machine gun bullets over your head. Then on Friday we did a little firing with the M1 rifle and finished with the BAR.

I got quite a shock this evening when I realized what Friday is. I hadn’t forgotten about it and I had thought of Ben’s birthday but it hadn’t occurred to me that mine was so soon.

April is all but over. I wonder if you got my KBF medal sent to Marion. It had slipped my mind for the last couple of weeks. If you haven’t sent it, take a chance at it now.

I got up early this morning and did a big washing and got it hung up to dry just a little before time to go to church. I went to church and then came back and mended some sox before dinner. I haven’t got as much resting done as I would have liked but maybe I can go to bed early tonight.

Lots of Love,
Donald

8PM
I just woke up from a nap so I feel like writing a little more even though I don’t have anything special to say. In a letter I got a day or so ago, Richard wondered how the details were handed out. Well they are supposed to be given out by just taking each name as it comes on the roster. I think the details are passed around fairly but the trouble a week or so back was that after the old men had gone there were only the few of us new men to take the details. Now there have been several come into the company from the air corps and more are coming  in all the time so even though I’ll still get them maybe details won’t come quite so often.

I wonder who you had for a preacher today and what Dady will do now that school is out. Wish I could have seen Ben.
Donald

Sunday April 23, 1944
Leesburg Range
Fort Jackson, S.C.
Hello Family,

You couldn’t guess what day this is, I’ll bet. Well it is Sunday evening. Besides being on K.P. I believe that this is the first Sunday that I have had to do a day’s work. We got up at 5:00 this morning and was out on the range at daylight.

I didn’t put in a very hard day’s work but it was a pretty long day. All of the firing I did was this afternoon and this morning we drilled a little just to fill the time till our time for firing came. Of course I was on a couple of little details.

We fired the carbine today and we have about half of our record firing done with it. In case I never have told you a carbine is a small 30 caliber rifle. Although it has a 30 caliber bullet the shell is only a little over an inch long. 

I suppose we will finish the carbine tomorrow and then be ready to start on something else.

I sure spent a great day yesterday. I was on K.P. again. We got off for a couple hours in the afternoon while we came out  here but we didn’t get off last night till about 2130. Of course after that getting up this morning was quite a task.

This is sure a nice place out here compared to the range at Ft. Benning. We sleep in tents but they have floors in them and have electric lights. We also have mess halls here and don’t have to eat out in the rain as we did before.

And speaking of rain this sure has been some day. It started out with fog and then began raining about the middle of the morning. After that it rained off and on all the rest of the day (in fact it is raining some now.) Of course as you will probably guess it was raining almost all the time I was firing. Part of the time it was raining so hard that I would have to stop and blow the water out of my sights before I could shoot.

I don’t know whether you are in the habit of it or not but I wish you would share this letter with Grandma Carver. It has been quite a spell since I wrote and I doubt seriously if I’ll have any time to write her this week. This is to Grandma: I got your letter last night and was sure glad to hear from you.

I hope everything is alright back there. I’m still hoping and I think maybe I’ll be seeing you before too many weeks.

Lots of Love
Donald

P.S. We didn’t have to walk out to the range this time. We rode in trucks. I’m thinking of more to say now than I did before I signed off. I am getting my first taste of sleeping on camp cots. They are pretty good sleeping but since you can’t tuck the covers in it is pretty hard to stay covered up. I’ll figure up some system to overcome that though.

April 20, 1944

Hello Folks,

I’ll start this at noon and maybe get a little written. I had all intentions of writing last night but the lights went out just as I was ready to start so no writing was done. I mended a pair of leggings, sweden the last acorn, worked a little on my rifle, took a shower and the evening was gone before I realized it.

On Tuesday night when I was on guard the company had a night problem so they got yesterday morning off and then we didn’t work too hard in the afternoon. All in all it was a pretty easy day.

When I was on guard I walked two hours during the day and two two hour shifts at night. That wasn’t such a long day but just the strain of the job makes it hard. I was really worn out when the 24 hours were over.

NIght:
Well I got wreckless tonight but I feel a good bit better. Just as soon as chow was over I went to the PX and got a hair-cut then I went over to the movie. I just felt like getting away from  things a little and I saw a pretty good show so maybe the entertainment value of it was enough to keep the time from being wasted.

This morning we had dry firing again and this afternoon we had classes in range procedures which were of course old stuff to me. Tomorrow we do more dry firing and then Saturday after the inspection we go out on the range. I suppose the next time you hear from me it will be from there. We start firing on Sunday so I may be pretty busy next week. 

I’ve been having an awful time getting writing done lately so I suppose I’ll get further behind next week. I finally got letters written to Janette and Mr. Rayment the other day while I was on guard. You can just about guess what a time I had writing both of these.

I’ve got to quit because the lights are going out. Hope everything is OK back there.
Love,
Donald