Donald V. Tappan

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

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

April 19, 1944
Wed. Noon
Hello Folks,

Perhaps I can get this started before we have to fall out again, I hope. I wanted to write last night but we had so many extra weapons to clean that it was time to go to bed before I got anything else done.

It has been a pretty wet week so that makes it all the harder to keep the guns clean. It is raining some now so I suppose it will be damp this afternoon.

Yesterday and this morning we fired the BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle). We fired part of our record fire with it this morning and we will finish either this afternoon or tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that I’ll be able to qualify with it but don’t know how good a score I will have.

The other day when we finished firing the carbine I wound up with a score that qualified me as a sharpshooter. That seems to be about my standing with most weapons. – Well that’s enough of that.

I was sure glad to get that roll of papers the other day. I don’t know how you are still getting the Baptist paper since you aren’t attending Lilly Creek but I sure like to get it. Even when you send both kinds of S.S. papers the Young Peoples’ are about all I get to read in my limited time. Of course, I always read them first and that might partly explain it. 

Mother wanted to know if May 1 was something special because of what I said about my clothes. I said that I traded a pair of khaki pants for some that would fit me on May 1. You must understand that we call our summer uniforms khakis and our winter one O.D.’s. The significance of May 1 is that we are changing to our summer uniforms on that day.

If Mary thinks that she might want to go to college I say go right ahead and take a college entrance course. With a little planning it should be worked out so that she wouldn’t have to load up much heavier than she already is. The only question in my mind is about a foreign language but since they are not so strict on this any more she might even be able to substitute her home ec. for this. Even if she later decides not to go to school there will be no harm done that I can see. This is only my opinion of course.

I am not prepared as yet to even express myself on Richard’s problem about college. By the way, I wonder how he likes chemistry by this time.

I didn’t get all this written at noon but some place back there I started again this evening. We didn’t finish the BAR but fired a little more with the carbine this afternoon.

Hope you are coming along OK.
Love
Donald

April 16, 1944 (and April 17th)
Sunday Afternoon
Dear Family,

You’ll likely get this letter at the same time as the one I sent yesterday but who cares. I feel a little homesick today and would like to have received a letter from you so the next best thing I guess is to write a letter myself.

I don’t feel quite as disgusted or discouraged or whatever it is now as I did last night. If we can work it as well tonight and get through as soon as we have from the other two meals maybe I won’t feel too badly about today. I guess there is some advantage in having a detail again so close to the last time. You sort of get to know the job and find quicker ways of doing it. I find that there is even a system to sweeping under a mess hall table. 

I got off this morning at about 9:00am and so I got to go to church. I enjoyed it but it was sure a job to keep my eyes open. Then after I got off at about 2:00 I laid down and took a nice nap. I just woke up and although I don’t know what time it is I imagine that they will be calling for supper before too long. I suppose it will be about 8:00 when we get out of there tonight. 

This is possibly a very dull letter to you but like everyone else I soon run out of anything to say.

We do about the same things all the time and if I tell you about it once I hate to tell about it again.

We had our regular inspection yesterday and in the afternoon we played softball to get exercise. We played M company and got beat but we had some fun anyway.

At the inspection yesterday the captain asked us if all our khaki’s fit us so that we will be able to wear them on May 1st. Yesterday evening one of the sergeants took a load of us over to the quartermaster depot and I exchanged a pair of khaki pants for one that will fit me. 

Do you ever write or hear from Ben? It has been quite a while since I heard from him.

It is a pretty nice day today and if it is any ways near as nice at home, I’ll bet that Richard and Jim went for a walk down at Lilly Creek. It is wistful thinking but it sure would be good to do something like that again.

I hope you are all O.K. I’ll not put this letter in an envelope yet and maybe I’ll think of something else to say when I get off tonight.

Loads of Love,
Donald

Monday (April 17th)
Hello again,
I didn’t get this sent out yesterday so I’ll try to write a little more now. I got off pretty easy yesterday evening but I just messed around and didn’t get writing.

We spent most of today dry firing but we did dry firing with the carbine and automatic rifle and I didn’t mind it so much. I have fired the M1 rifle and dry firing with it isn’t so interesting but when I can learn something I don’t mind it so much.

Well I have got another detail for tomorrow. I’ve got guard duty. I’ll go on tomorrow morning and be on for 24 hours then get the next morning off. I’ll tell you more about it later.

I got your letter this evening that you had written Saturday. Hope to hear again soon.
Love,
Donald

April 15, 1944
Saturday Eve.
Dear Folks,

I can’t decide whether I ought to be a little disgusted or not tonight. I find that I am on table waiter again tomorrow and that means that it won’t be much of a Sunday to me. I just hope that I can be off to go to church. I don’t understand why a certain few of us are drawing details so often but maybe it will be someone else’s turn before long.

I thought I might get on the bus and go to town tonight or go to a movie or something but this took all the wind out of my sails. Now I guess I’ll just sew “an acorn” on a couple of shirts, read a little and try to get a little extra sleep. I still say “This is a great life, if you don’t weaken.”

I got your letter tonight that contained the letter from the 7th grade. This shows how well I remember things. I had forgotten about Mr. Tappan having only one grade and addressed my letter to the 6th and 7th grades. I don’t know who wrote it but I got a great kick out of hearing about Blackie. It reminded me of old times which Richard will remember too. I wonder if the teacher realized that he gave away the fact that he proofread the letter  when he wrote a little 3 above the 37 pupils. (I got quite a chuckle out of how easy it was to tell his characteristic way of writing such a simple thing as that.)

Well I’ll sign off and maybe write a little more tomorrow. Hope all is well with you.
Donald

April 12, 1944 and April 13, 1944
Wed. Eve.
Hello Folks,

This will be a very scribbly letter because I am standing in the barber shop line and writing it. This will give me something to do while I am waiting and also will get this letter off my chest.
By the looks of things I may have an hour to wait.

Well we had our big parade today. We practiced on it Monday and thought it would be pulled off yesterday but it was called off till today. The occasion was that Sec. of War Stimpson was here to inspect the 87th division.

I can say that I got to see the “old boy” but it was from such a distance that I wouldn’t about to know him from anyone else.

We didn’t parade so long but we stood in ranks almost all afternoon so I am at least as tired as I would have been if I had worked.

This afternoon we also took a test to see if we are ready to start training with the regular company. It was fairly easy and I don’t have much doubt about passing. If we made it OK we go in with the company next week. 

About the only other thing besides the usual run of things that has happened was a night problem last night. We got back a little before ten o’clock so it wasn’t so bad.

Well I am back in the barracks again. I didn’t write all the time I was in line but I got to talking and just couldn’t get to writing again. I got my hair cut so now I can pass inspections for at least another week. That is one of the worst things about it here. They have so many inspections that it isn’t funny. Every night at retreat they inspect our rifles. I used to more or less enjoy retreat but here it is a worrisome thing.

The weather has got pretty snappy again. The wind was blowing hard enough that we had to wear our overcoats to the parade.

It’s not too late but I can’t hardly keep my eyes open.
Goodnight with Love,
Donald

April 13, 1944
Thursday Night
Dear Folks,

That was such a sad letter last night that I want to let you hear from me again tonight. It will be a very great miracle if I should get a chance to write tomorrow because as you know all Friday night must be spent scrubbing, etc. getting ready for Saturday’s inspection. I washed my ammunition belt and field jacket tonight so that they will be sure to be dry by Saturday.

We are going to go out on the range tomorrow to fire some sort of a combat problem. We are going to get up at 5:15 in the morning so by the time we get to bed tomorrow night it will be a pretty long day.

It looks like those of us that just came into the company are going to be about the entire company in a few days. About 4 out of 5 of the old men have been taking examinations for the last couple of days in preparation for shipment to the P.O.R. (Port of Replacement). They will be placed into units somewhere on the other side.

You can easily imagine what one of the great topics of conversation is now. “When are we going to get our furloughs?” Most of the fellows either haven’t been in as long as I have or they have been in school and got furloughs through that. So I hope when the time comes that I’ll have as good a chance as anyone. I don’t have enough news to start another sheet. So –
Love,
Donald

April 9, 1944 (Easter)
Sunday Afternoon
Dear Mother and All,

By this letter I want to thank you the best way I can for what I received yesterday evening. I wasn’t exactly surprised to get a package but when I found out what was in it you can be sure that I was very pleasantly startled. Everything arrived in excellent shape and in fact the icing was hardly even cracked on the cake. If one of Mother’s angel food cakes was a treat at home I don’t have any words to describe it here. “We” enjoyed it so much that now it is a thing of the past. I spent almost all morning reading the funnies but haven’t found time to start on the S.S. papers yet. 

Although I haven’t seen too much of Easter I have had more than you might imagine. They brought us in from the range at noon on Friday and then let us off for a little while in the afternoon so that we could attend Good Friday services. Then this morning they held a special Divisional Easter service. It was held in sort of an amphitheatre on a hillside with a very beautifully decorated stage and a band for music. I am sending the program so that you can see a little about what it was like.

We had our regular Saturday inspection yesterday and we are supposed to have the big one tomorrow. I don’t know whether it will be the Colonel or not who will inspect. I am expecting them any time now to tell us to scrub the floor yet this evening. These inspections consist of personal inspection, rifle inspection, inspection of our barracks and inspection of all our equipment. Here lately we have started to call this the P and I (parade and inspection) division. Some of this is necessary, of course, but since so much time is required in preparation it is easy to run it into the ground.

We haven’t been told for sure but likely we will start training with the regular company tomorrow. Even at that though it won’t be much of a change since most of the old fellows are scheduled to leave some time this week.

Maybe you weren’t very surprised but the story of Janette and Charlie sort of startled me. I guess I have been away long enough that I can’t realize the true state of things. Things are happening so fast anymore that it makes my head swim to think about them.

About suggesting what to send the boys in service I hardly know what to say. Besides something to eat most any little thing would be appreciated. If I get any great ideas I’ll let you know. The main thing to remember is that it isn’t so much what is received as it is the idea of just getting something.

Well keep plugging and I’ll do the same.
Love,
Donald