I Bet I’ll Be a Tight Old Duck Someday

Monday February 22, 1943

About 4:30 p.m.

Dear folks,

George Washington’s birthday again. He is 211 years old today. He is really getting old. Well there won’t be many more letters from here. We expect to leave tomorrow afternoon for our camps. I go to Battery A, 501^st C.A. Regiment somewhere near Benicia. The fellow who will be our cook down there left today. He says we stay in barracks about ¾ mile from town. From all I’ve heard so far I must have gotten in about the best outfit but you never can tell about things you hear. I am back writing now after supper. About my glasses. I still have them here. The sergeant took the package but whoever had the say in the post office wouldn’t take it air mail. He said it was because they didn’t know how it was packed. Now that I am leaving I may as well keep them and get them fixed here. I don’t know yet if I can get the watch fixed or not. When I get a chance to get into town maybe I can get to a post office myself and send it out. First I’ll see if I can get it fixed here.

This morning I was up at about 6:05 and as usual dressed, made up my bunk, and shined my shoes before breakfast. I had 2 fried eggs, oatmeal and bread and butter for breakfast. I went back and got another scoop of oatmeal. After breakfast I went back and put the finishing touches on everything. Then there was a slack period when there was nothing to do, so I just sat around and took it easy. Finally we went out and drilled for a little while until about 10:00. Then we went inside for a lecture on airplane identification. We were supposed to do some more marching but it was raining so we had an informal question session and then quit for dinner. For dinner I had mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, salad, biscuits (2) and butter. All I was able to get was 2 more biscuits. Shortly after dinner we had mail call. I got 2 letters. The big one with the envelopes written Thurs. & postmarked Feb. 19 sometime & your Fri. letter postmarked Sat. at 12:30 p.m. That’s pretty good service. I still haven’t got the box. That should come tomorrow. I’ve given up hope of ever getting that last letter to McCoy. I checked back over the letters to make sure and I haven’t got it. I hate to lose confidence in the U.S. postal service but I imagine the army has lost it. It might be that it has been sent to Benicia and is still there. I may get it yet. Right after mail call we were all treated to a very nice shot in the left arm. I was lucky. They only stuck me once. Some fellows had the needle stuck in 2 or 3 times before it went in right. The fellow that shot me stuck the needle in about a half inch in and upward. Then he pressed the plunger and squirted the stuff in. Boy that really hurt for about 5 minutes afterward. Mine bled a little. The spot is pretty sore yet. I think this was for tetanus. I have had my 4 typhoid shots and a smallpox vaccination. This is the second tetanus but they are supposed to come within 21 days and I had the first one Jan. 11. I also found out that my blood type according to the army system of classification is type O. Don Ewing says that means I could give blood to anyone of any blood type. He works at the dispensary so he should know. After the shot I went back to the barracks and just finished reading the letters when we had to go over to the day room and hear talks. It didn’t amount to much. We had a little on the gas mask and some jiu jitsu stuff and finally quit about 4:00. I started this letter just before supper. For supper I had potatoes, gravy, beans, broccoli, salad, applesauce, bread and butter. I had plenty without seconds.

Now I am writing again. We are going to have a party tonight in the mess hall but I doubt if it would be anything I’ll care about. I’d like to go to the show but I won’t. I guess after 4 whole weeks I can wait a little longer. We have had typical Cal. weather today. Rain and more rain. Now about that income tax. I have filled out the blank and will return it. As soon as I can get to a post office I’ll send a money order for the 37 dollars made out to you. Then you can cash it and pay it however it has to be done. You will know because I imagine dad will have to pay too. His will be about the same amount as mine. I think I have filled out the blank as it should be. We still have 3 weeks yet anyway. I think it will be better for me to send the money and pay the tax out of present funds than to dip in my reserve. I’d like to keep that intact. Did you pay for getting my watch fixed out of your own money or did you do as I suggested: I don’t care which you did only you know me. I like to know how much I have. I’m a miser I guess. I bet I’ll be a tight old duck some day. I am writing this on the paper Mrs. C. sent. I thought I’d let you see what it’s like. I am writing small because this paper is pretty heavy. I could have gone down to Hamilton Field today if I had wanted. They took 8 fellows to help with several truck loads of mattresses. They just got back and I wish I had gone. They got a chance to go to a P.X. down there. I dropped this envelope and it looks like a mess but I’ve got to save the stamps so I’ll try to send it anyhow. Now to your letters. I don’t know what Thelma will do with my address. Yes I could write to anyone I know if I find his address in the paper. I write to Hugh and Francois & I are going to try to keep in touch after we leave here. Lots of soldiers write to other soldiers. I guess you get all possible use out of your sheets. You are doing your share regardless of how much Mrs. C. is doing. Her family hasn’t made any donations yet. C. There are a lot of dogs around here too. I laid my clothes on the grass, not on the dirty ground. You are right about the slacks and turban. I’m glad the overcoat is O.K. now.  I appreciated those cute little hearts. If you want me to leave the magazines well O.K. I had figured on sending them home but whatever you say goes. No matter how hard I had to work back there I was doing what I wanted to do and that is what is important. Maybe I can get some cards or folders from this part of the country some day. We hear the frogs every night. It never gets cold enough to freeze solid ice even here. I don’t think the lieutenant would unbutton any cuffs because he doesn’t know one of us from the other. At most inspections we stand right at the end of our bunks. I didn’t have mine buttoned. They were just as they had come from the cleaners. I got the envelopes O.K. That’s Thurs. letter. Now to Friday’s. I just threw in 25 cents toward a gift for our sergeant. This will run into money if I keep moving and getting new sergeants. So Hugh went off the deep end. He said he would but I didn’t think it would be so soon. Maybe he is going to be shipped. So your feet finally got warm. You got that first Tues. letter with the Mon. one because I wrote twice on Tues. Boy Ossie West must really be going to town. You must have nice neighbors on the south side. There are a lot of things that I eat which I never ate at home. When you are hungry there’s just one thing to do, Eat. Some of the stuff is pretty good too but boy, would your potato salad or macaroni taste good. So they have my name up out at the store. I wonder if they will give me my job back when I get back. If it is at the middle of a term I’ll want to go to work maybe. Maybe I’ll just want to take a good long rest. The 15 days starts here. That gives about 8 at home. Fellows who live nearby only get 8 days in the first place. I know nothing about life in tents and I don’t want [to] know. Our helmets are just plastic. They are liners for the steel ones. We got them at Custer. I don’t think I have put on any noticeable weight and I surely don’t over eat. Being outdoors a lot helps the appetite. I may be able to wear oxfords but I doubt it. We are supposed to wear our white socks to absorb the sweat. I doubt if we all will be sent overseas. I don’t think many L.S. men will go over myself. I never ate $5 worth of bread and butter a week did I. I sure do relax. I have learned that it does no good to worry about anything. I have a very good raincoat or slicker. There hasn’t been any cold epidemic here. I got all the math I could at Eastern but they may have special courses out here. I don’t think you have to sign the tax blank because you had no income. Well that covers your letters. To dad’s letter – that candy was really swell. So you finally got a good man. You boys must have had some fun with Russell.

Well this isn’t a very long letter but the writing is small and the pages are large. The sergeant got over $7 but we had quite a time getting him to take it. He was afraid it wouldn’t go so good if the big boys found out. We told him to use it on his furlough. I think I’ll slip into my O.D.’s and see what this party is like. I don’t imagine I’ll stay very long. I may get to bed early. Well this is it for tonight. I’ll let you know my new address as soon as I know it. Keep writing. I’ll see you next time. Lots of love to you all,

Arlington

Who Are All Those Girls Whose Pictures You Sent?

Thursday, February 18, 1943

Dear folks,

This letter will be limited by time so I don’t know how long it will be. It is about 8:30 I believe so I’ll write till 10:00. I slept till 6:30 this morning. I was up and dressed and had my bed made before breakfast. I had 2 pancakes, syrup, oatmeal, & stewed dried apricots. I went back and got one more flap jack & syrup and more oatmeal and apricots. I really like those apricots. They are the dried ones stewed up. I used to like to eat them dry when I was at the store. After breakfast I shined my shoes and fixed my bed a little better to satisfy the sergeant. Then I sat around a few minutes until we went out. First we had to do our usual morning job of policing up – picking up all the matches, etc. on the ground. Then we went out and marched for an hour until 9:30. Then we had another medical inspection. They looked at our chests and throats again. After that we had a talk on the organization and tactics of the coast artillery. I think I have given this all in the order in which it happened. After the talk we went over so those who had laundry could get theirs. I had a little spare time then until dinner. Dinner was mashed potatoes, gravy, salad and peas and bread. I went back and got more of each. After dinner we had a talk on personal cleanliness. Now that I think it over, I am not sure where that examination or inspection came but it was this forenoon. This afternoon in his talk the doctor emphasized the need for keeping our hands clean, for taking showers and washing our feet and for caring for our teeth. When I was first here our teeth were examined and I was given a number 4 but I didn’t know what it meant then. He explained that to us today. Number 4 means I have good teeth that don’t need attention. After the lecture we went on a hike which lasted up until supper time. We walked about 7 miles I believe. We went off to a little town called Fulton and back. It sure seemed swell to see something besides barracks. It was a swell hot day and boy did I feel good to get out. It doesn’t seem possible that this is February and you are having cold weather back there. We passed several lovely homes. The grass on the lawns and in the fields is green and jonquils and crocuses (I guess) are in blossom. I saw one little tree with yellow blossoms all over it. We also saw a palm tree or two and one little orange tree in a front yard. All around are plum orchards (prunes) and vast vineyards, probably those sweet grapes we like so well. There is fruit all around for miles everywhere. The town of Fulton is just a small place and we didn’t go very far in. We stopped near the R.R. tracks and rested. We saw the Fulton Box Co. Warehouse and boy was it dilapidated. A lot of fellows complained about their feet but I enjoyed the hike except for about ¾ mile over a rocky stretch of new road. Supper wasn’t too hot. Navy beans, potatoes, salad and bread. I just got back to the barracks when we had mail call. I got 5 letters but still not the one you sent to McCoy Feb. 5. The last one I got was written the 3^rd and sent the 4^th. Tonight I got 5 letters – Your regular letter written Friday, your air mail letters of Sat. and Mon., and letters from Julius & Elmo forwarded from McCoy Feb. 10 & 11. I can’t understand why I haven’t got your letter from McCoy. It was mailed Feb. 5 & Elmo’s was mailed Feb. 8. Maybe I’ll get it yet though. I got your Fri. air mail letter yesterday & the regular letter today but I also got your Mon. air mail today which was post marked Feb. 16. It only took 2 days whereas the Fri. letter took 5. Evidently the air mail schedules aren’t too steady or we just aren’t getting good deliveries. There was an awful lot of mail tonight. I sure hope that letter wasn’t lost as I have gotten all of my mail O.K. up to now. After I read your letter I got to thinking about what you said so I took a chance and did up my glasses and watch to send to you. I don’t know when I’ll get it out but I want to send it air mail and I’ll insure it for 85 dollars. Then I shaved, cleaned my teeth and took a shower and here I am.

Now to your letters. I still have 50 minutes. I threw away the boxes before I left McCoy but I did keep the papers. I have since discarded all the papers I have read. My grip was heavy with books, toilet articles, fruit, candy and everything. I have a lot of things to remember. The Swede is still in my gang. I sleep better in these beds than I did on the train. The pennant from Omaha has an Indian. I think it’s the same one I got all over Michigan. I haven’t changed my wool underwear shirt yet. It isn’t all wool. We have to wear our wool socks. I heard today that regardless of how many cans you have, they can only take ½ of your months points. Is that right? I haven’t had any shots here yet. My finger is O.K. now. I have Listerine & sinus pills. That reg. mail took 6 days. Air mail takes from 3 to 5, usually 3. You can see how long it is before my letters get started. I did up my glasses and my watch as best I could and I will try to send them out tomorrow night. The plane better not crash with $85 worth of my stuff. I should have sent them home a week ago but I was afraid maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. I can’t get them fixed here until I get assigned. I have seen everybody I could about them. I haven’t missed them too much (I’m not telling the army that though.) but my eyes have tired easier and the bright sun has bothered a little. When I get stationed I’ll get 2 pairs on my prescription free. Nobody that wears glasses for eyestrain is in L.S. They all need them here. Do you have to order meat now? Al must be in bad shape to be turned down. Gee fix things the way you want. Don’t stop just because I used to like something. I don’t take cold showers. The barracks has two oil heaters. I have plenty of tissues even after what I used on my packing in the box. I imagine we are at least 30 miles from the ocean and maybe more. I really haven’t missed my long underwear pants. They would have been too hot here. Ewing is no relation to Ferl. We will probably train for at least 5 or 6 months and maybe longer. Non-com is for non-commissioned officer – corporal or sergeant. 15 days is all I can get out here. Maybe you might better keep my good watch & send the other one. My Bulova probably should be cleaned and oiled now after more than a year. The cook didn’t get any candy bars so I got my money back. Francois got a box of 24 choc. cherries and it cost him $1.50. They were pretty good but not worth that much. My heart candy was better. I have two pieces left. 10 minutes to go. Those old men aren’t married. Anybody that wipes on an army towel is briskly rubbed. It is a swell big towel though. I haven’t got your Sunday letter yet and it looks like I’ll have to quit.

Back again early Fri. morning. This is still considered Thurs. letter though because I didn’t have time last night. This will go out just as soon though if I mail it before tonight’s mail call. I have already answered the second Fri. letter & the Sat. letter. Now to Mon. Boy the Ebright’s are meeting violent ends. Who are all those girls whose pictures you sent? Setting the clocks back will make it nicer in that you’ll have daylight earlier. I don’t care whether the envelopes are stamped or not just so I am able to mail them air mail one way or another. So you finally got the sugar book straightened out. I wonder how I would go about getting a pair of shoes if I would ever need them. I’ll probably get your Sun. letter tomorrow. I got the air mails mailed Mon. & Tues. both on Thurs. Dad is getting pretty sharp on his driver’s test. That sewing kit is something I have been thinking about asking for. I may need it sometime soon. I think a lot of your questions are probably answered by my letters before I get your questions. Is that right? That R.O.T.C. manual is for infantry and probably won’t tell you much. You are right about the anti-.  You may not get my insurance policy for 2 or 3 months I understand. There shouldn’t be anything out of my pay because they didn’t sell it to us by our orders and they didn’t take our names as we paid. They just brought out the stuff they knew we needed & first come first served. I keep the candy in my grip with everything else. We have oranges for breakfast here too. The Hodgeman boy didn’t come. I have plenty of bath towels. I don’t know my job classification. I like your confidence in my grocery abilities. Sometimes I think if I shouldn’t get back to school that I may try to get a good grocery store job. A man who couldn’t take the Olds work has no business on dad’s truck.

Well that covers your mail I got last night. I also got letters from McCoy from Julius & Elmo which I’ll cover next time. Now I’ll try to get my glasses off to you tonight. They may be a little slower that the letter so don’t worry. I’ll have it insured for $85 and if anything is broken, collect. The lens was not broken, just the nose clip, see.  The watch is minus its stem. This is the first time I’ve had to take two days on a letter but this is Thurs. letter really and it will go out tonight as usual. I have done well to finish this since breakfast. We’ll go out to drill in a few minutes so I’ll close. Keep the letters coming. I’ll write a real Friday’s letter tonight. This will go out just as soon as though I had put it in the box last night. The Breakfast Club is on now. Love to you all until the next time,

Arlington

Throw a Lasso Around That Imagination

Wednesday, Feb. 17, 1943

Dear folks,

Well here I am at the end of another day. We were up today at 6 o’clock sharp. I made up my bunk and dressed in time for breakfast. We had eggs, corn meal mush, bread and an orange. I didn’t bother to get seconds. The meals today haven’t been bad but I just haven’t cared for seconds. Maybe it’s the influence of your big box. We fell out at about 8. First we had to police the area or pick up everything on the ground. Walking through the dewey grass is always good on a pair of freshly shined shoes. Then we marched for about a half hour. We have a new commanding officer today. He is a second lieutenant or as they say a “shavetail.” He is rather shy acting and doesn’t say an awful lot. He has a very noticeable southern drawl. I don’t know if he is one of these 90 day wonders or not. He seems to understand his stuff. Then from 9 until dinner time we studied the 50 cal. machine gun. They put it together and told us all they could about its handling and operation. It is a pretty complicated thing. Dinner today was mashed potatoes, a sort of combination stew and gravy with peas & pieces of turkey in it, salad, biscuits & butter and strawberry ice cream. The rest of the day was supposed to be off but we had to clean the barracks. That took until about 2:30 or so. We had another medical inspection this afternoon. They don’t tell us what they are looking for but they checked our throats, chests, and asked about head aches. It may be still measles or maybe scarlet fever. The latest rumor is we have at least one more week or 10 days here yet. When we finished cleaning I tried to put a polish on my shoes. Our sergeant went and got a haircut and while he was gone he bought a few things and brought them back such as stationery, shoe polish & soap. I have enough stationery and I have 2 or 3 small pieces of soap besides a whole bar of Lifebuoy yet but I did need shoe polish so I bought a can. He made us understand that he was selling them at cost. There has been a little trouble over these fellows coming up here and taking advantage of the situation and selling 5 cent candy bars for 10 cents. Then I took a shower and read a few of the pages of one of those papers. I don’t get very far very fast on them. We had an early supper tonight – Spanish rice, cooked cabbage, salad, biscuits & jam. I loafed around for awhile after supper and then some of us went out and played a little ball waiting for mail call. Even the air mail has slowed up. Your Fri. letter postmarked Sat. at 1:30 p.m. just got here. That was all I got tonight. The mail man also brought out a lot of stuff – candy, tobacco, writing paper, soap, etc. I bought 2 candy bars, a Hershey almond & a Mounds and another tin of shoe polish. I didn’t need the candy really because I have nine bars of what you sent yet and I have some coming by the cook maybe if he was able to get any. Francois owes me a bar too. You sent me 13 and so far I have eaten 3 – a Zag-nut, a Whiz, and a Powerhouse. I am started on a Walnetto. This afternoon he got hungry so I loaned him a Chicken Dinner. I won’t sell him any that you send because I know how hard it is for you to get. Boy is that Valentine candy ever swell. Umh! Umh! One box from Mon & Dad is gone and I’ve got a good start on Gram’s box. I loosened up and passed out about a dozen pieces all together I guess but I am keeping it out of sight pretty much. It is too doggone good. It must have been pretty expensive to cause the value to mount up to $5.37. Those are awfully pretty boxes and I am going to save them if it is at all possible. Boy those dates are something else good. The box is about half gone. That all helps explain why I didn’t go for seconds today although the food really wasn’t too attractive to me anyway like it is sometimes when they have something I particularly like. My penmanship is getting worse all the time. After I bought the stuff I went back to the barracks and tried to put it in my grip in the way to make the most of the room. I didn’t need the shoe polish right away either but this quarantine has taught me to be ready for things so I got it just in case. Francois bought a box of razor blades, Marlin, and when he got over to the barracks he found he had bought single edge and he uses double edge. He couldn’t use them and nobody else wanted them so finally I took them. There were 14 for 25 cents. I still have 26 Star blades. That makes 40 so it ought to last me nearly a year unless I get so I have to shave every night. I am afraid that’s what it’s coming to. We are supposed to shave every night but I haven’t had enough beard for that up until lately. It seems to be growing faster now. Finally I got my pen & ink & paper and came over here to the day room to write. They still had some stuff left so I bought a candy bar and sold it right away to Don Ewing – no profit. That brings me up to date. Time out while I unwrap a Walnetto.

Now to your letter and dad’s. I was afraid the mail might not be spaced out from day to day. You see I am writing now but this letter in all probability won’t go out from here until tomorrow night and may not start until some time Sat. I didn’t get any air mail letter from you yesterday either. The one I got from McCoy took 10 whole days. I got the stamps & everything that you sent O.K. I managed to buy & chisel stamps enough until I got them. I have written air mail every day and twice yesterday. I still have one letter coming yet from McCoy from you and any others that people may have sent which I don’t know about. I have gotten every piece of mail you have sent here so far. They must have done a pretty poor job on the coat. I thought steaming it was supposed to fluff it up after the nap got packed down. I understood that was the purpose of steaming it. I sure wish I would be wearing it soon to some event. I’d feel strange in real clothes again. I’ll look pretty sharp in my uniform when I get my blouse cleaned & get my garrison cap and belt and insignia buttons but it will never feel as snug and homey and comfortable as my own suit and overcoat and oxfords. Don’t go too heavy on the cleaning bill because you have plenty of time. One fellow in our barracks went home on a 15 day furlough but I don’t ever want one of that kind. I guess someone, his mother I hear, is pretty sick. They made the mistake of sending him a telegram telling him to come home. That just wasted time because the officer here has to wire back to the Red Cross to examine the case. If it is such that the person should go home the Red Cross wires it back. The people there at home should have called the Red Cross first and they would then have wired the camp. That would have saved time and 2 telegrams. The thing to do is have the Red Cross do the telegramming because the army will have them investigate anyway. The fellow seemed sort of indifferent and didn’t care whether he went or not but I guess some people are like that. Don’t get too excited. I’m still L.S. I don’t know where you ever got the idea that I will be in airplanes. You better throw a lasso around that imagination of yours and stop and think a little before you get so excited. We don’t fly, we knock the planes down, if we are lucky. Now don’t worry too much. I haven’t the slightest idea yet what I’ll be doing but if they have me classified as I think they have, I might be assigned to a headquarters battery. I was talking to the sergeant about it and he said it was a swell place to get because there were lots of openings. I think and hope I may get something fairly decent to do. I have never worked with machinery. Many of the others have and I think they will be the ones to go on the guns. I sure hope so. That letter from Mrs. C.’s nephew wasn’t much but I imagine it is pretty hard to write from a place like that. If my letters were censored, as his no doubt was, they would probably be a lot shorter. I hope you forget what I write because the gov’t might not like to have me tell just what I do all the time. I haven’t told any secrets because I don’t know any yet. I didn’t know the fellow who was killed. Boy your canned goods must have gone down fast. I just remembered we also had cauliflower for dinner. I like it quite well too. I can’t remember having any at home for quite a while. You have to give them credit; we get a lot of variety in vegetables. 50 cents for butter sounds cheap. Mrs. C. will probably tell you when she gets the letter I wrote Sat. & mailed Sun. That will give you an idea of West to East time for regular mail. A lot of time is lost waiting for the letters to get out of here.

Gee dad, another new man. You must really have a lot of fun. That figure of 749.87 looks pretty close to what I had. You can check it against my total on that paper in my black pocket book. Who gave you the total, Ruth? She is the office worker down there, the short one with glasses. She is ass’t mgr. of the office. My social security number is ***-**-****. I don’t think you need to see Geo.T. After all if he doesn’t send out those slips to his employees, the gov’t will be on his neck not ours. You don’t have to turn your copy in with your tax return. Can you file my tax return without my signature? I hereby give you permission to sign for me if that will do any good but I don’t want you to pay for it out of your money. Let me know how much it is and I’ll send the money if I am where I can. Otherwise you know where to get it. I think the whole thing will come out O.K. If you need any other information from me, let me know. We still have a whole month yet.

Well that is that for today and today’s mail. In some ways I’ll be glad to get out of here. Other ways I don’t care. It will get us back a little more in contact with civilization maybe but on the other hand I don’t know what I’ll be doing. The main thing is I don’t want you to be upset about anything. Wait until you have a reason for sure. I heard on the radio today that Joe DiMaggio is coming into the army tomorrow. I wondered how long he was going to stay out. If we are here over the weekend maybe I can get those papers read before I leave. I had them laying on my bunk and I guess several others looked at them while I was gone. Ewing read the funnies in all of them last night. I read them a lot more thoroughly now than I ever did at home. Why don’t you & pop slip out to a show some night. A good show, Red S. or somebody, would do you both good. I don’t know how things are back home but I can see you folks going around very quiet all day until the mail man gets there. Then there is a lot of talk until the letter has been digested, when silence is resumed. Dad must go to bed early every night but I don’t blame him. I am getting so I wake up and wait for the whistle to blow mornings. When I get out of here I am going to throw the first whistle I see just as far as I can throw it.

Well I guess this is it for today. I think I’ll send the other 1 cent card to Gramp so he’ll know I got his card. He probably is wondering because he sent it Feb. 4. Well take it easy and keep writing. I hope you are getting mail every day now. I’m sending it. The rest is up to the air planes. Until the next time

Love to all,

Arlington

I Don’t Like to March With Rifles

Still Tuesday Feb. 16, 1943

About 7:30 or so

Dear folks,

Whew! I got that box and everything was just swell but that’s too doggone much money to pay for postage. $1.68 that’s awful. I know you can’t afford to do it. I appreciate very bit, the candy bars, the candy boxes, cookies, dates, stationery and stamps. That stationery is swell. It’s similar to what I had at McCoy. All I can say to all of you is thanks.

I hope the other letter I wrote this afternoon didn’t scare you too much but I wanted to get it out just in case we should be rigidly quarantined. After I finished writing the letter I shaved, washed and cleaned my teeth. Then came supper. It was a little early tonight. We had spaghetti, peas, rice and biscuits. I went back and got more of each. I am a real chow hound I guess. After supper I came back and repacked my stuff. We may be leaving Sat. I ordered 10 candy bars by the cook but I don’t need them now. I can always sell them though. A fellow was selling 5 cent bars for 10 cents tonight. You must have scoured the candy market in Lansing. They had mail call tonight in the day room because it was raining but I didn’t know about it so I stayed in the barracks. Don Ewing from Lansing brought me my mail – the box and 2 letters from McCoy. One was a card from Gramp himself and the other was your letter of Wed. Feb. 3. That leaves one more to come yet from McCoy. I didn’t get any direct from you to me here tonight. Maybe you mailed one not air mail like you said. I read the letter and looked at the card first. Then I opened the box. Francois was my shadow and had to see everything like a little kid. I haven’t opened the hearts yet but I promised him a piece of candy. Don Ewing is looking at the papers. He is from Lansing too. I went through my bag and discarded the papers I have read. I have about two weeks yet to read. It is pretty expensive for you to send them all this way. Wouldn’t they come cheaper if you sent them maybe one or two a week and just rolled up with a piece of paper wrapped around. I think you can send them for about 3 cents that way. I don’t want you folks to spend more than you can afford on me. After all you folks are just as important as I am and I know you aren’t flush with money. Boy are those dates good. The one Zag Nut bar was slightly broken so I ate it right away. I’ll have enough stationery for awhile now. I’m all set thanks, thanks, thanks. You know if I wrote home and asked for the radio I think you’d send it. All I do is mention things and I get them. You don’t know how good it makes me feel. I’ll bet I’ve cost twice as much away from home as I did at home. Please don’t go too far with it though. I realize how your conditions are and I don’t expect it. $1.68 is an awful lot of postage to pay.

Gramp sent a cute card and he wrote it himself. I finally got your Feb. 3 letter telling you got my Sun. & Mon. letters and cards from McCoy. I had been wondering if maybe the cards had been too heavy to go free and I’m glad you got them O.K. I’ll probably get the last letter from McCoy tomorrow. This one was p.m. at Lansing Feb. 4 – 11:30 a.m. and at McCoy Feb. 6 – 6 p.m. It took 10 days for it to get here from McCoy. It took Gramp’s card the same length of time. That isn’t very doggone fast either. Today is the first day I haven’t gotten an air mail letter since I got the first one last Sat. The ones I got last night were written Thurs. last. I read your letters pretty fast the first time too and sometimes miss things but I catch them the second time through. So pop is your sansilk buyer now. I really do like it here if we were not confined. The country is pretty and today has been the first rainy day in a week. This must be a fruit growing region because there are orchards all around and we ran on to several berry patches on our maneuvers yesterday. We didn’t go out in the fields today. I think it is probably nicer here than down near Frisco. They say it is foggy and damp down there. The fellow who had the measles came back tonight. He was in the hospital at Frisco and stopped at Vallejo last night on his way home. He says it is all swell down there. Did dad have to stand in the rain to wait for the bus? Couldn’t he have stood in a store? Gramp was at Los Angeles I believe and then he went on north into Canada on his way home. I don’t think the fellows ever picked on that other fellow. He was just going off gradually. Some of the things he did showed that. I know what you mean but you didn’t know him and what he did. I don’t know where they would get a picture of me to put anywhere. My picture wasn’t taken for the Wolverine if you’ll remember. It must have been someone else. Nate didn’t get all A’s I know. I’m not holding my breath till I get a pay raise. A Pfc. (private first class) gets only $54 a month. He has one stripe. I have some soap powder left yet but most of it is in a sack. It spilled out on the trip. I had everything in one bag and it was pretty heavy. I am going to divide it into the two bags this time and see if it is any easier. There will be more weight because I’ll be carrying my overcoat instead of wearing it. I have and will save all the magazines you send. I want to keep Red’s picture. It will go good on the wall with Harry James. I wish I could play a little tennis someday. Maybe I’ll be able to when I get a pass. To me a postcard doesn’t carry a lot [of] meaning unless it is a picture card. It looks as if the person is in too big a hurry to write. I’ll admit I feel that way when I write a card to people. I hope Gramp has written to you by now. I don’t know if I’ll ever be a p.f.c. or not. I don’t think I’ll ever make much of a soldier but I might make good on a technical job. It’s hard to tell. I don’t mind the marching but I don’t like to march with rifles.

Well that covers the day’s activities and my mail This letter has been split in two installments but I wanted to make sure you would know why you didn’t hear from me in case I had to quit writing. Thanks again to everyone for everything in that swell box. Keep writing and I’ll write as often as I can. Mail must be slow to take 10 days from McCoy here. The first ones only took 7 days. Well I guess this is it for tonight. Until next time thanks and love to all of you.

Arlington

Things Looked Pretty Black Although This Ink Is Blue

Tuesday, February 16, 1943

Dear folks,

Whew! This has been a rather hectic day but I guess I better start at the beginning. I got up at about 6:30 this morning and made up my bunk before breakfast. Breakfast at 7:00 was oatmeal, French toast (2 slices) & syrup, and prunes. It was swell and I went back and got more oatmeal, prunes, and another slice of toast and I drank what milk was left in the bottle. Then I went back and did the usual shoe brushing & straightening up. Then we fell out for the mornings drill. We got the rifles and spent a couple hours marching and tossing them around. After that we had talks on courtesy and discipline and on guard duty. Then we had dinner. That was swell today too. Mashed potatoes and gravy, kidney beans, salad, jello, bread and butter. I went back and got more potatoes and gravy and jello. In fact I went back again and got more jello. I guess I am getting to be what is known as a chow-hound. We had a little spare time after dinner and then the lieutenant got us together to answer any questions we might have. There is where the fun began. He informed us that [as] of this noon we were under a 21 day quarantine. No one could even drive past our barracks, and we couldn’t write or anything. It made us all pretty down because we all knew our folks would wonder what had happened if we didn’t write for 3 whole weeks. I knew how you would feel. The lieut. said he had got orders to report to his battery this noon. You see he has a regular outfit to which he belongs and he has been sent up here only temporarily with us. He just got started to pack when he got orders that it was changed. We were all pretty discouraged. A week of quarantine at McCoy, a week on the train, a week and a half here already and then 3 more weeks was just too much. They wouldn’t tell us what it was for. The doctor came out and examined us. He asked who had headaches and he looked at our chests. We think it was either spinal m. again or maybe scarlet fever. They examined the sergeants and the lieutenant too. About 4 fellows were carted off to the dispensary and things looked pretty black although this ink is blue. I ran out and mine is over in the barracks. The sergeants were mad and we were mad. They finally lined us up to take us inside for a lecture on plane identification. We just got started when the Lieutenant stopped us and had us gather around. He said he had got word that his outfit is going over and he is going with them. Then he told us that the 21 day quarantine had been lifted. Boy, were we happy. So was he. He really wants to go across and so do the sergeants. After he had said goodbye to everybody we started off to the lecture again but the Lieutenant came back and told the sergeants to give us the afternoon off. So here I am. The day room is full of fellows writing letters. We aren’t taking any chances of getting caught again. They might put the quarantine back on again. As it stands now we will leave here Sat. but don’t stop writing at all. I’ll be only a short distance from there probably at Benicea wherever that is. I’ve learned one thing. If at any time my letters stop don’t get too excited as there is probably something beyond my control wrong. It definitely does not mean that I am sick. I don’t know if it will ever happen but I will prepare you in advance just in case. I know how you would have felt if you hadn’t heard from me in 3 whole weeks after I have written every day. I don’t suppose you are getting letters every day now. The one I wrote last night is still here in the box. You see I wrote it after the mail call and so it won’t be collected until tonight. I imagine you will be getting them maybe two at a time. I would have written every day even if the quarantine had been for good. I would have mailed them all at the end if not before. I had already figured a way to get them out. You see we would have had to keep a guard at all the roads and I would have had to stand guard sometime to keep all cars etc. out. I figured I’d be able to give a letter to some civilian to mail for me but that won’t be necessary now I hope. If they should suddenly put the quarantine back on this might be the last letter for awhile. I doubt if they will but you can be prepared. Well that’s enough for that.

Its 3:15 and we have the rest of the day off. It will give me a little time to read and to get a shave. I have those papers and the magazine you sent to McCoy to read yet. I wouldn’t care about the quarantine if they would let us write. I’d just as soon stay here for the duration myself. The sgt. was telling us that at our regular outfit certain men are chosen to take a 6 week course in Math at Berkeley High School. This course gives one the necessary math requirements for O.C.S. If these other fellows go over our chances for promotion will be a lot better I imagine. The educational angle is beginning to creep in. I sure hope it will mean something. I think I can handle math as well as anyone I’ve seen here so far. The only college graduate that I know of majored in English and he is 42. I always could get math and I don’t see why it should be any different here. Whether I’ll get a chance I don’t know but I emphasized my math training when I turned in my educational status. I’ve had about 4 ½ years of higher math believe it or not. Men with only an 8^th grade education have qualified for O.C.S. (Officer Candidate School). There is one thing I think I better do. I think I better study my soldier’s manual. I hate to do it but it might help me sometime to get a promotion.

Well I am going to quit on this letter. It isn’t much but it covers the days’ activities thus far. I am going to shave and clean up a little before supper. I am going to get this finished and out as soon as I can. I’ll probably get one or more letters from you folks in tonight’s mail call which I will answer in my next letter. I’ll probably write again after supper but I want to get this out to warn you that if you don’t hear from me for an extended period of time it is because they have slapped the quarantine back on again. I hope they won’t but they might. They brought the fellows back whom they took to the dispensary so maybe things will be O.K.  I sure hope so. Anyway you write to me even if you don’t hear from me. I’ll write just as often as I can. Until next time love to all of you,

Arlington

Babe Still Doesn’t Like the Light Man

Monday, February 15, 1943

Dear folks,

It’s about 4:30 and I’ll start this while waiting for supper. They better have plenty because we are all tired and hungry. Dinner wasn’t very heavy either. I was up as usual and had my bed made by time for breakfast but it was late today and we stood around a long time waiting. It must have been past 7 when we got in. We had creamed dried beef on toast, a soft boiled egg, oatmeal, toast and jam. After eating I came back and finished straightening up my things and brushed off my shoes. We were quite late falling out for drill. We marched some and the lieutenant talked to us for awhile about furloughs and stuff. He told us after we had been home about 3 days we’ll want to get back but I don’t believe it. The most we can get is 15 days so that would give me about 7 at home. Then they showed us how to pitch our cute little tents before dinner. As yet they haven’t issued tent equipment and I hope they don’t. Dinner was pretty slim. Stew, pickled beets & onions, diced fruits and bread & butter. They have a lot of tea here and I think I’ll try drinking some of it. After dinner we were issued packs (empty) and belts. Then we had a little free time and I read some of “See Here Private Hargrove.” It is pretty good. It is a private’s experiences and they are pretty much the same as we’ve all had. When I send it home you ought to read it. Finally we went out with helmets (green plastic. They are liners for the steel ones which we haven’t got.) leggings & belts. First we learned how to run and fall with the rifle. Time out for supper.

Back much later in the evening. After we finished falling around, one of the platoons hid and we had to reconnoiter I guess you call it. Anyway we had to hunt them. After we found them we did a little with camouflage. You’d be surprised how much a man can be hidden by a little clump of grass. If he keeps his hands & face out of sight and doesn’t move you can’t see him. We were out about 2 hours but we aren’t used to it and we got tired, dusty, and hungry. I got up at the head of the line for supper so I’d be sure to get seconds. Supper was good. I didn’t take meat so I got a double shot of mashed potatoes the first time. Besides that I had peas & carrots, stewed raisin sauce which was swell, salad, bread and a biscuit. I went back and got the last of the potatoes, more peas & carrots, a biscuit & some more salad. The fellow from Port Huron, Aaron Francois, said he was stuffed but I told him I could still have eaten more. I’m a regular pig, aren’t I? Tomorrow morning we are going out in the fields again and do some with this camouflage training. After supper I took a shower to get some of the dust & sweat off. Mail call came while I was dressing. I got there when it was about half over so another fellow got my mail for me. I got 3 letters – one from Gram and a real one too, one from You, and the one from dad with the air mail envelopes all written Thurs. & p.m. Fri. at 8:30 a.m. I still haven’t got those last 2 letters from McCoy. The last one I got from there was written Tues. night Feb. 2. You said you mailed the last one to there Fri. morning Feb. which means I have the Wed. night & Thurs. night letters coming yet. That also agrees with what you said about my having 10 pieces of mail coming. I have 8 so far. Maybe they will come tomorrow. I haven’t got your big box yet but I expect that about Wed. It will take about a week for parcel post to get here. Gee that must be some box to be insured for $5.00. I’ll have to watch all that candy because it is scarce around here. I don’t mind sharing a little but I know how hard it is for you to get a hold of and that you mean it for me. I never passed out very much at McCoy. Probably Francois will be the only one who will get any here. He got his share of my candy bars I got last week. He bought 6 and I gave him one. He really isn’t a bad sort of fellow. He never went to town while at McCoy and so far as I know he doesn’t drink. He does smoke but is talking a lot about quitting. He is about as decent as I’ve found. There are a couple dandies in our outfit but they know too much for me to pay any attention to them. I think you know what I mean. Francois has a box of cookies coming from New York but I told him they would be crumbs when he gets them.

Who is that homely girl whose picture you sent? I don’t know her. The one on her left used to be Kircher’s girl friend. A lot of people are making some big jumps if you ask me. It looks as if there will be a change of students at M.S.C. before long. I mailed a letter to you yesterday free so you can tell by that how long it takes. It wasn’t a letter just some junk I’d accumulated. I imagine you did read between the lines on that first Sun. letter. I was feeling pretty low and I guess most of us did. I’ve gotten over it now I guess. I don’t think it’s spoiled my spirit any but I don’t like to think that you folks are aging just because I’m gone. I hope I haven’t changed any. Sometimes I get a little afraid wondering if I have. I remember how restless Ricketts used to be when he came home. I don’t want to be like that and I don’t think I ever will. I was a lot closer to my home than most fellows are even if I was out to shows a lot of nights. It’s hard to take a fellow away from all he has ever known and cared for without his changing a little I suppose. I don’t think they’ll make an old man of me unless I am here until I get to be an old man. I think I can outlive Hitler though, don’t you? I don’t know if I look my age or not but some of these fellows who are 20 & 21 I’d swear were at least 25. I can pass for about 19 and after all I’ve been 20 only 4 months. I don’t think I’ll look worried or scared when you see me. We are getting sugar O.K. now. You see they just opened up this mess hall for us and everything was new. We have all the sugar we want. As for butter, we get it when they can get it. I heard on the radio that they can’t ration butter because there isn’t enough to go around. When we don’t have butter we have jam. We are on field rations I understand. It costs about 65 cents a day to feed us. The bottom bunk is swell. I like it a lot better. Yes the measles could last a long time but we have only about 5 days to go now unless there is a new case. These scrap books are made by the U.S.O. with their emblems on the covers. Then women & groups fill the pages with stories & pictures. Don’t send any puzzles to the U.S.O. or to me. You keep them. I doubt if I’d have time to work them if you sent them & I wouldn’t want to leave them. I tell you I’m Scotch. No kidding though I haven’t even had time to look at those last papers you sent yet. There are all kinds of puzzles here but I just haven’t cared to fool with them. The first thing that counts on my spare time is my letter to you folks. Other things come second. I’m glad you told me to throw those papers away. Otherwise I’d have tried to decide what to do with them and I’d have carried them around with me. I’ll sort them out and dispose of the ones I’ve read. What do you do for newspapers in your work if you send them all to me? I was thinking today that since it’s so doggone far I wouldn’t send anything too bulky because it will cost you so. Also don’t send anything that will spoil in less than a week or anything easily broken. Boy will I go to town on those dates & cookies & Valentine candies. Oh, Boy. I hope I get it tomorrow. I imagine I’ll have a few interested bystanders when I open it. I’d be very glad to come home and do a little sweeping or mopping although I doubt if the army way of doing things would meet housekeeping standards. That second case of measles wasn’t measles. I wouldn’t care really if we did stay here under quarantine till the war was over. We’d still do a lot of training though. I sent the slip to Mitchell as soon as I got it and I assured him on the back that I intend to return as soon as possible. I got my O.D. pants, shirt & tie & my field jacket cleaned. It cost me $1.15. I did my own laundry. We have been having un-typical Cal. weather lately. Nothing but sunshine for a week. It’s easier for a person to keep happy himself when he is trying to make someone else feel better and that’s the truth. The mud and water is beginning to disappear although we went in about 3 inches today when we went thru a fruit orchard. I got a chance to see a little different view of the mountains and countryside. From what I’ve heard of the Frisco area I’ll rather stay here if we could be out of quarantine. I got those 2 air mail envelopes for nothing. They were here in the day room. Probably from the U.S.O. It sure is funny they don’t send those pictures unless they weren’t any good. The stationery & stamp situation is fine right now. I could walk to the P.X. if I could leave here but I understand they don’t have much and the limit is 2 candy bars. We have a 3% sales tax here like in Mich. There wasn’t any in Wisconsin. I cant’ seem to spell anything tonight. I hope you can read this. The anti-aircraft is on the ground maybe on hills or on the tops of buildings. L.S. is not gone. There must be a coffee shortage there. We get tea here about once in three times. Three pairs of shoes will do me O.K. for a year. I wonder if I could buy a pair of civilian oxfords without a ration book. It doesn’t seem possible that we have 18 prs. of shoes. Did you count house slippers? I only left two pair. My black ones & the tu-tone brown ones and the black ones were nearly gone. They came and fixed the floor so it is solid now. I don’t suppose I answer everything in your letters either but I read every bit. Francois told me the other day I’d have the letters read off the paper if I read the letter again. It was that first big one you sent air mail. I finally found out if you got the last bunch of scenery cards from McCoy mailed Feb. 1. Gram mentioned them in her letter. You must have a nearly complete collection. I got all I could find. Don’t worry about the income tax. I have the total in my pocket book there. You can go by that. It was taken from my pay envelopes and has to be right. Check their figures against my total. If my signature doesn’t have to be on the blank you can file it for me. The money is there to pay it or you can send me the stuff and I’ll try to take care of it. I don’t have to pay it but I’d rather. I suppose I’ll have to pay on $100 next year. We don’t pay the V-tax because we only get $600 a year. I don’t know any more that you do yet about what I’ll be doing. The best thing is to wait until I’m assigned. I don’t like that 6 mos. stuff you mentioned. The fellows we are replacing have been here nearly 2 years. It may not be actual non-combat but our chances of any fighting on this side are pretty slim. Personally I don’t think we will ever be sent overseas unless the U.S. has its’ back to the wall. As I said I don’t know whether I’ll have to fire guns or not. Some of these fellows will. I may do better. I have a bad eye but I at least have it. One fellow has a glass eye and others are blind in one eye. Without his glasses Francois is practically helpless. Don’t talk about these things with anyone outside of the house, See.  I don’t know for sure why those 1-A’s were put in L.S. some are too old and other have bad eyes and things which got by before. Some of these guys are corporals and Pfc’s but they aren’t anything but buck privates so far as they are concerned here. After all we should have as much chance as they. They don’t know everything just because they have been in the army 6 or 8 mos. I know you haven’t missed writing and it means a lot to me. Any letter under an ounce will go air mail if it has 6 cents regardless of what kind of stamps. Why did you put the extra 6 cents on the big envelope? Did you ever stop to think how much you spend on postage?

It looks as if Dad has a secretary. I was glad to get your air mail envelopes. That insures a speedier delivery of your mail. That wasn’t too expensive but I bet I’m costing you more now than I did at home. You’ll have to get some women to work on the garbage truck. We saw some women railroad workers in Colorado. You sure are getting me in suspense waiting for that box.  I got the book & 2 air mail stamps in yesterday’s letter. One of them is on this envelope. That letter I wrote to Stachel was long. I wrote him a real short one Sunday in answer to the one I got from him about an hour before I left McCoy. We can’t send by air mail free. It seems as if we ought to be able to send for 3 cents though. We had mail call yesterday Sunday. We seem to have just one mail call a day here but it has to be brought out to us in a jeep.

Gram’s letter is swell. You know I hope you folks don’t feel I don’t appreciate letters from Gram & dad. Maybe you wonder why you don’t get letters when you hear I’ve written to this one & that one but golly, I write everything I can think of in my main letters & if I wrote separately it would just be repetition. I hope you understand what I mean and won’t feel that I don’t appreciate hearing from you. Thanks for the clippings Gram. Your letter covered quite a space of time and gave me a chance to see your reactions to my different letters. I read it twice and enjoyed every bit of it. Don’t let spelling worry you. I seem to be having trouble with it tonight. I don’t give fruit a chance to spoil. All those fellows you mentioned are O.K. now so far as I know. I saw my shadow Feb. 2. We have had very few beans. I ate them when I could see the pan and there was no meat. We have a good variety of vegetables. I didn’t help with lunch this time. We had real food on the train.  “Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer.” We had a radio but it wouldn’t play on the train because of the steel top. I don’t want to be big enough for size 44. Babe still doesn’t like the light man. I hope she’ll remember me when I get back. Geo. T. sure is taking his time gathering those cans. Are the buses as crowded as they were? You really have been getting dirty weather there. It must be hard on dad combined with bum help.

Well I guess that covers it for today. It is getting late and I think I better close for tonight. I’ll need my sleep for tomorrow morning’s workout. We had calisthenics again this morning but the ones that made me stiff before didn’t seem to bother.

Well this has been a pretty good day. Any day is good when I hear from home and when I get 3 letters I had a real good day. I suppose you are in bed by now. We are only 2 hours behind you since they went to Central time there.

Good night and love to you all. Till tomorrow,

Arlington

That was some Valentine I drew but I had to have you get something.

This Must Be Where Prunes Come From

Sunday, February 14, 1943

Dear folks,

Sunday and Valentine’s Day. I hope you have enjoyed the day. I have spent most of my time writing. Since last night I have written to Mrs. C., Stachel, Frank Webb, Kircher, Nate, Aunty, Elmo, Julius, Hugh and to Mitchell at M.S.C. and cards to Gramp, Aunt Edna, and Dick Hollingsworth. That’s a lot of writing but I had a lot of answers due them for their letters (most of them). From now on I’ll write only when written to unless I make a major address change. When I move from here it will only be a short distance unless – it might be to some school.

I got to bed last night at about 9:30. We slept late this morning until past 7. I got up and dressed before breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, oatmeal, toast (2 slices) and grapefruit. I was hungry and went back and got more oatmeal, another slice of toast and another half of grapefruit. After eating I went back and made up my bunk and dusted my shoes and straightened things up. Maybe I shouldn’t say I made up my bed because really I tore it apart. You see we fold the mattress in the middle and then fold the comforter and blankets and put them on top of the mattress. The pillow goes on top [sketch]. When the sun got out enough I put my clothes back out to finish drying. I just brought them in at about 5:30 but they still aren’t completely dry. The rest of the morning I spent catching up on my correspondence. Besides the mail I mentioned I am sending you a letter by free mail containing napkins and other stuff I accumulated on the trip. Dinner today was swell. I was too far back in line to get seconds but I had enough anyway. Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, string beans and peas, biscuits, cake and ice cream. The ice cream was vanilla with orange thru the middle [sketch]. That was a pretty swell meal. After dinner we had mail call. I got your second air mail letter written Wed. night and post marked Thurs. at 1:30 p.m. There wasn’t much mail but the fellow said we might get some more tonight. I sure hope so. I spent the rest of the afternoon until about 3 writing. Then I finished and went and shaved and cleaned my teeth and washed a little before supper. Supper wasn’t so hot. It was a sort of picnic meal – cold meat, bread, veg. salad, potato salad and dill pickle. Oh it wasn’t too bad. I took a chance on eating a little of the meat. It tasted like it was all right. After supper I got my washing in and then came over here to the day room to write to you folks. I don’t have a chance to do much here so I don’t imagine my letters are very interesting reading. It sure makes me feel swell when you tell me how good my letters make you feel. I feel as if I have accomplished something. When I finish with this I think I’ll read some of those papers you sent and the magazine. These are the ones you sent to McCoy. This envelope I bought from a kid before I got your letter. Boy was I glad to get those stamps as I had none left. Of course when you send me stamps you are really getting them right back. I wonder how much time air mail saves. You did pretty well to get that letter all the way from Sacramento in 4 days. Today’s letter was full of surprises. The stamps, the picture, the little hearts & everything. I got that cute whirling Valentine Thurs. I believe it was. That surely was nice. That picture of you folks is something I’ve been wanting. I showed it to a couple of the fellows, and they both said I looked like my dad. That is a swell picture but I’ll be doggoned if I can remember when I took it. It was last summer some time after July 1 because you got those slacks and the turban for your birthday, right? Anyway thanks for everything. I have tried to think of some way of making you a Valentine but I haven’t come across anything yet. You know I’d remember the day if it were possible. What do you want me to do with those papers? Shall I send them back or just throw them away? So Babe is all licensed up for another year. You’ve got all your tags now I guess. Boy they sure are taking the fellows fast now. There were 20 on that list that I knew. Many of them graduated with me. Hugh’s cousin Harley is in the Navy group. I heard on the radio today that they will draft 12,000 a day for the rest of this year. That college setup is finally beginning to take shape and I’ve got my fingers crossed. They came and got our slips giving information about our college training today instead of waiting until tomorrow. I’m hoping this may lead to something good. I probably wouldn’t get back to M.S.C. but at least I might get back to school. I got to thinking today how really easy I had it. I was going to school, working, and still I had time for lots of movies and fun. I guess we don’t appreciate things until we can’t get them or do them. It seems funny for Ted Baxter to be engaged. He must be about 9. I’ll have plenty of writing paper now but I didn’t know about any of it when I wrote and asked for some. I can’t tell you much about this L.S. because I don’t know much. Forget what I do tell you see. We are the 8^th bunch of L.S. men to be sent to the pacific coast. It is evidently the opinion of the top men that there is little likelihood of an invasion or an attack but they must be prepared. The men who have manned these anti-aircraft batteries and coastal batteries have had from 1 to 2 years training. The plan seems to be to put L.S. men on this coast and thus make it possible for the regular men to go overseas. That is as much as I know. You don’t remember any of it either. I don’t think it would be good to publicize the fact that L.S. men are protecting the West Coast. Of course they aren’t yet. I got your first air mail and I have taken care of Dean Mitchell. I have 8 of the 10 pieces of mail from McCoy. (2 packages, 1 letter from Mrs. C., 3 letters [Sun., Mon., & Tues] from you & the Valentine, and a letter from Dad) That leaves your Wed. & Thurs. letters which I expect tonight or tomorrow. That must be a real package at $5.00. I don’t imagine it will get here until about Tues. I’ll get it O.K. and there is nothing in it which will spoil. You’ll have to cut down on the weight of your boxes. It’s too much postage to pay. I can’t think of anything I want you to leave out though. About the only thing is the newspapers. I could get along with maybe one or two a week. It’s so far to send them. I’ll be glad to get that candy. I had a lot but I ate a lot and got generous and sold some of it. I shan’t sell any that you send because I know how hard it is to get. I understand the limit here is 2 bars. It’s not like McCoy where you could buy all you could pay for. I’m glad you got all the mail although you still haven’t said anything about the picture cards I sent the last day. They were in an envelope all by themselves I think. I can’t remember for sure. Anyway did you get them? I got your letter post marked Wed. on Sat. about the same as McCoy. I sleep O.K. on these bunks. In some ways they are better than the ones at McCoy. They keep your back straight. I was lame but it was from the calisthenics we had. I wish we would have them every day so I could get loosened up and stay that way. I wasn’t stiff when I was at M.S.C. I’ve gotten that way in the army from no exercise. I don’t mind having the toilet in another place because I never have to go during the night. It’s the only way they could do and have it accommodate 3 barracks. They had the same type setup at Custer but I was lucky enough to get in a different area. The salmon loaf was pretty good. All the cooking here is good. I never take a shower when I still have to drill and it isn’t cold out during the day. I have about 2/3’s of a package of sinus tablets. I hear we may have a case of measles tonight but nothing is certain. If there aren’t any we may leave next Saturday. I don’t think anyone lives in the farm house. Our buildings are all around in the orchards and all over. I understand they are plum trees so this must be where prunes come from. We get lots of stewed prunes and stewed apricots. I like them both. I didn’t get everything I sent for but I can get along O.K. Those stamps you sent me are the big things. How about maps in your old geography book? I am in L.S. I am in the Coast Artillery. Personally I doubt if I’ll ever be on the big guns. The anti-aircraft are the guns on the ground which attempt to bring down enemy air craft. There are 3 types – the big babies, 90mm, the 40mm, and the 50 cal. machine guns. Forget that too. You’ve got to get a hold of yourself. You know better than a lot of these things if you’ll stop and think. So does Dad. This place isn’t so terrible once I get used to it. I rather like it. When I went back to the barracks last night all kinds of frogs were singing. One big fellow must have been right near the building. I was never reclassified.  When I said I didn’t see any sense of ever classifying us at Custer I was a little disgusted. At that time they talked as if we would all be put on the guns regardless of what we had done or what we knew. It sounds a lot different now. All I changed was my underwear pants. I put on my shorts and I haven’t missed the others. They would have been too hot for drilling. I am still wearing my winter underwear shirt. I might better change when I first get here than wait a while. I’d have missed them more then. It’s a whole lot warmer here than it was in Mich. when I left. That R.O.T.C. training was a good thing. I wish I’d had more. I left all those boxes at McCoy. Back in the barracks. I ran out of ink. I still have the papers. I hated to throw them away. I didn’t have a chance to send my stuff home from McCoy because of the quarantine. It’s just 7 o’clock. Fred Allen just signed off and Take it or Leave It is on now. It must be 9:00 back there since you turned back the time. I have all the letters. The other fellows nearly all have theirs yet too. I haven’t any ladder but I sleep on the bottom now anyway. There are no bayonets here. We had them at McCoy only while we had the rifles. The quarantine here isn’t quite so stiff because we are by ourselves and can go out when we want to. I haven’t any fear of getting the measles. They didn’t mention my eye. There is nothing that can be done to improve it. At least I can see a little out of it. If some of these fellows lost their glasses they couldn’t get along at all. Don’t be too quick to think I have been gypped. Guy must live in your neighborhood now. That’s only 2 blocks away. No mail is censored inside the U.S. The stations we get are all in California so far as I’ve noticed – Los Angeles, Frisco, Santa Rosa, Pasadena, Oakland, etc. Our radio is a combination electric or portable. Who is Bob Burlingham? I can’t place him. I don’t sleep cold. I guess that covers your letter.

When I get stationed, if it looks as if I’ll be in one place for awhile I may buy myself a radio. We may not get paid this month but I still have all of last months pay and some besides. You can’t spend much when you are in quarantine. I had my O.D.’s cleaned and pressed and boy they look nice. Maybe some day I can have some pictures taken. I’ll get me one of those caps and a belt as soon as I get set in one place. I haven’t many pimples on my face and for awhile they were all gone. Would you care for pictures of me in uniform or would you prefer to remember me as I was in civilian clothes? I’ll leave it up to you. Somebody someplace has a picture of me taken with Hugh and a couple others at Custer. I don’t even know who the fellow was. That sure is a nice picture of you two. You both are smiling and it gives me something to look at and enjoy. We haven’t had a second mail call and probably won’t now. I’m sure I’ll get those letters tomorrow. I don’t imagine you are getting these letters every day as the collections are a little irregular. You know I’m writing so that’s about all I can do. They’ll all be air mail for awhile now as they all have been from here. Tomorrow begins another week of drill I suppose. I’m getting tired of marching all the time. Winchell is on now. I don’t imagine we get programs in the same sequence as you do. According to Winchell the Axis is beaten but I’m not getting excited. He is too much an exaggerator.

Well I guess this is it for today. I’ve got to stay under an ounce so I’ll quit. By now you should have at least 3 letters from here and the picture won’t be quite so gloomy I hope. Keep the mail coming and I’ll do the same. With a combination like ours we can’t be beat. I am almost positive I’ll get a letter at every mail call. Please don’t worry too much about things. There may be some good news around some day. Good night and be careful, all of you.

Love to you all,

Arlington

I hope your Valentines Day has been as happy as possible. I’ve done pretty well today. It has been swell here but there wasn’t any holiday feeling.

The Bacteria in Dick’s Nose

Friday, February 12, 1943

Dear folks,

Happy Lincoln’s birthday. Maybe I’ll learn to spell sometime. I started to write this at 6:30 when the Pres. was talking but somebody yelled mail call and that was more important so I didn’t hear the speech. It took about 40 minutes to pass out the mail. I got your box of papers & the magazine and Mrs. C. swell box of stationery – 50 envelopes & 60 sheets of paper. I don’t need to worry about stationery now for a while with that & the package I was able to get. I wrote asking you for stationery when it looked as if I wasn’t going to get any. If you send it, it will be O.K. I can always use it. I also got the letter you wrote Tues. Feb. 2. I wasn’t expecting it because I understood you were stopping with the Mon. letter till you had my new address. Now I’ll keep looking for more letters. Besides that I got ones from Hugh and from Dick Hollingsworth a kid I went to school with. He got my address from Nate.

Last night I got to bed at 10. I was up at about 6:15 again this morning and was dressed and had my bed made by breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, toast, oatmeal and stewed apricots. I went back and got seconds on the oatmeal and apricots. After breakfast we cleaned the barracks as usual. Then we fell out and picked up all the trash on the ground nearby. Then we drilled for an hour or so. After that we all marched over to the dispensary and we were there till dinner time. Each one had to wait in line and then the medics pricked the end of our little finger and got a drop of blood on a microscopic slide. This is to determine our blood type should we ever need a transfusion. Dinner today was navy beans (the barracks smell it too), yellow string beans, pickled beets, salad, biscuits and butter. After dinner we fell out and marched a little and learned to open ranks for inspection tomorrow morning. After a lot of practice we quit to get the barracks straightened up. I swept and mopped some, dusted off my shoes and got my clothes straightened out a little. They took laundry yesterday and I guess I should have sent mine. After we finished the barracks, I grabbed a shower, put on cleaned clothes and got into my O.D.’s. It seemed good to get out of those fatigues. We are supposed to shave every night but if I do I’ll just scrape my face. I’m hoping my whiskers won’t be noticeable for inspection tomorrow or I’ll be on K.P. probably. By that time it was supper time. The first time I got macaroni & tomatoes (very few), salad, bread, orange marmalade and cake, the second time I got macaroni and bread & jam and the third time I got a double helping of macaroni. I must be getting to be a hog. After supper I loafed around a little and started to write as I said.

You know the 23 candy bars I had. I’ve got 4 left. I’ve sold 8 and eaten 11 in 3 days. I really am a hog. I think I can get some more. That kid from Port Huron has the bright idea of buying the candy and selling them at 2 for 15 and that way we can get ours for nothing. I’m not interested in making a profit myself.

So Jack Watkins is alumni president. Somebody wrote me that Jack is going into the army Feb. 15. That engagement of Bill Bowden is no surprise. He has gone with that pigeon toed girl for years. She sure isn’t pretty. I was glad to get your nice long letter because your Mon. letter had sounded final till I had a new address. So Guy lives on River St. That must be right across from the coal yards there. I wonder how that guy got in the headquarters

company. Anyhow he is an infantry man, a mud-lugger. That 10% idea isn’t too bad because you’ll have about the same pay and you won’t be buying stamps from your pay after you get it so really you’ll have more. Let pop wear the scarf if he wants. Just so long as he doesn’t lose any of it he can wear anything I have even my last pair of shoes.

How is that show rationing coming. I wondered why that Mon. letter was so long getting started. Yet it was the first one to get here. I’ll bet my mail is coming to you irregularly now but you’ll have to make the best of it. I’m writing every day. When you were writing I was somewhere in Minn. or Iowa. Boy dad’s premonition really backfired. I sure wasn’t getting near to him but farther & farther away. I wear olive drab pants (O.D.) but there aren’t any stripes. The candy situation must be tough. We can get all we want if we weren’t quarantined. We just can’t get to it. I heard that Zane Amell was a lieutenant now. Do you know if that is right? We are needing hair cuts too. There aren’t any barbers in our gang. I haven’t been to a show in 3 weeks. The pancakes at Custer were made from a prepared batter. I don’t know how it is here or in McCoy. The syrup is sometimes Karo. At other times they have it in pans and I don’t know what kind it is. That cough syrup is doggone good. If I could get home I wouldn’t care how the bed was. As one fellow said, we’ll run every time we hear a whistle and when somebody throws a dog a bone we’ll race him for it. The stripes are green on black. A corporal is [sketch of chevron]. Nate wrote O.K. but I still haven’t answered him or any of the rest. I don’t care whether Thelma writes or not. If she does I’ll answer. I don’t know why that hike is after dark. We had no rifle range practice. Remember that road that goes out of Petoskey toward Charlevoix. We spent most of the morning in Petoskey and left about 10:30. We ate dinner on that road at a curve in the road in a little grove. There were 2 tables there and you were afraid someone else would come along and want one. I believe you washed there too. Can you remember it now. I’d like to take you and show you the place. The rubber picking up was the next day near Muskegon. I’d like to slap a tennis ball around again in that gym outfit. You better let the dresser go for awhile till you get all your bills paid up. Don’t be afraid to wind the watch. I won’t always stand in line but I’m wondering when I’ll quit. All we do is hurry up and wait.

Hugh was home again on Sunday Jan. 31, the lucky boy. He wanted to know what I am training for. I’d like to know too. He was on the rifle range and missed 4 points of qualifying. I don’t know what that means. He got 88 out of 100 on a driving test. He’ll probably be an assistant driver.

I don’t think you knew Dick Hollingsworth. He went to Eastern and to M.S.C. He lives on South St. and got my address from Nate. His letter sounds like a theme. He just registered and expects to be called at the end of the term. He wants to know what to expect. Everybody wants me to tell them what they can expect. I must be their guinea pig. He doesn’t intend to ask any military secrets though. The bacteriologist at M.S.C. is making a vaccine from bacteria in Dick’s nose and is trying to combat his sinus trouble with it. If it doesn’t work Dick intends to transfer to the U. of New Mexico next winter. I wonder if the has forgotten the army. It hasn’t forgotten him. If he does get in the army he is going to ask to be transferred to the desert. I doubt if he’ll get his wish. You don’t ask for things in the army. You take what you get. He likes trig. & boxing but hates German. He likes Spanish. He wants me to write when I can. Now I’m getting more mail that I can answer.

Well that’s the day’s activities and mail. It’s about 9:15 so I’ll have to quit pretty soon. I won’t have time to write to Mrs. C. tonight but tomorrow for sure. I really do appreciate that stationery and I’m not kidding. It was awfully foggy when I went out this morning but it cleared away and was a swell hot day. Hot too believe it or not. While we were at the dispensary for our blood tests I could see some big mountains which aren’t visible from our area. The higher ones don’t appear to have trees on them. I have a lot of washing to do sometime – set of wool underwear, 2 prs. of socks, towel, wash rag, four hankies. I am wearing shorts and wool underwear shirts. The cotton shirts go around me nearly twice – size 44 instead of 34. The shorts are white broadcloth. Maybe I can get my shirts exchanged for the right size. I can’t get my glasses fixed until I get to my station. I don’t miss them too much but I do miss them especially in the sun. A good jeweler or oculist could fix them in a short time. This kid from Port Huron says his dad is an optometrist. He used to help his dad grind lenses and he wants to be a doctor himself. He would like to get in the medical corps. His father’s office & equipment were destroyed by fire and he had to work his last year in school. He graduated last June and is 20. He also has “one of those things” – a step-mother. His mother is dead. He is rather noisy but I kind of like him. I think he has a lot of good points although they are a little hidden. We have some members of the intelligentsia in our barracks who listen to long haired music and read Milton but they are too stiff for me. I like natural people.

Tomorrow morning the Capt. from the other bunch is coming over to inspect us and our lieut. is going to inspect them so they’ll both probably be pretty critical. I sure am making a lot of mistakes tonight. This page isn’t very neat. Francois the Port Huron kid wonders how I can write so small. All I hope is you can read it. I write small to save paper and bulk in my letters but I suppose it is hard for you to read. I imagine that these 6 pages equal about 8 or 10 on your size paper. I hope so. This doesn’t look like a long letter but there is quite a bit here. I like to get good long letters and I suppose you do too.

I still don’t know what FDR said but I hope it was good. I hope we get out here inside of a year. When I get my discharge they better nail down the railroad tracks ‘cause I’m going to tear them up if they don’t.

Well this is enough for tonight. Keep me looking for mail and I’ll write so long as I have time.

I just heard we get up at 4:30 tomorrow. I hope it’s a rumor.

Good night and love to you all.

Your wondering and wandering son

Arlington

[sketches – Valentine heart & map of California]

Plenty of Prunes

Mon., February 8, 1943

12:30 noon

Dear folks

I don’t know how long this letter will be as I may not have time tonight to write. Last night after I mailed your letter I shaved, cleaned my teeth, took a shower, polished my shoes and then read until 10:00. I was up at 6:15, dressed, made up my bunk and we had roll call. Breakfast was at 6:35. We had scrambled eggs on toast, prunes, and mush. The scrambled eggs here are pretty good. They give us plenty of prunes too and I like them and they also serve another purpose. From then until 8 we had the time to eat, wash our mess equipment and straighten up the barracks. I and the boy from Port Huron got oil for the burners instead of sweeping. At about 8:15 we fell out and drilled in marching for awhile. Boy the outfit was pretty stale although I did pretty well. Last night it rained hard all night again but it cleared away and the sun shone while we were drilling. But then a black storm came up from the northwest off the Pacific Ocean and it began to rain and hail so we were dismissed. We just nicely got into the barracks when we had to fall out again and march to an empty hall across the road. There they gave us a chest inspection. No measles today (13 more days). Then our lieutenant (Lt. Dunsten) read us the Articles of War and explained them and answered questions. That took up the time till dinner at 12:00. We had mashed potatoes, gravy, spinach, salad, biscuits and BUTTER. Now I am waiting for whatever we have to do this afternoon. I imagine we will do some drilling because they had us change to our fatigues. I’ll be back later and give the rest of the day’s activities.

Back later in the afternoon. After dinner we went out and drilled some till the rain drove us inside, then we had a lecture on military courtesy. While I was listening I noticed my glasses didn’t set right on my nose and when I moved them the piece across the nose bent real easily from where it was fastened to the right lens. When it quit raining we went back out for more drill. While I was marching I noticed my glasses drooping more and more and finally they came apart. The sgt. told me to drop out because I couldn’t march and hold them in my hand. The lieut. came over and looked at them and asked if I could see without them. I told him I could see pretty well with one eye. Then it started to rain and we went in the barracks for a few minutes and then back to learn how to salute and stand at attention. I don’t know when I can get my glasses fixed. The sgt. told me to tell the doctor next time he comes thru. Don Ewing from Lansing has a pair broken too and he’s wearing another fellow’s extra pair. As soon as I get stationed, I can get a pair on my own prescription free. They will be much sturdier and harder to break. Now we are in the barracks again.

If you remember those glasses have been bent a lot. 3 or 4 times Wetzel straightened them out. Once there at the store I really bent them. It has just gradually weakened them until finally they snapped. You know what happens to a wire if you bend it back and forth enough.

Back at 5:00 after supper. Pretty slim – beans, beets, bread and 2 fig bars. Now I don’t know what we will do next. Ordinarily we would be free, but the lieutenant mentioned something about movies tonight so we may have to go out. They will be training films and nothing entertaining. They practically start at the bottom all over again here but they go deeper. This is just for you folks. We are going to be stationed eventually at a place 35 miles from San Francisco. We will be in the 501^st C.A. Regiment Anti-Aircraft. I can’t remember the name of the camp. The regulars who are there are going over probably as soon as we can get enough training to be any good. The plan is to man all the shore batteries on the coast with L.S. men and release the 1-A men for foreign service. In other words I’m probably stuck out here for the duration. It will be our job to protect an arsenal at Vallejo, one of the largest in the country. We will be on the guns, after preparatory training naturally, for 2 hours a day but we must always be within 5 minutes distance. We will have 24 hours off a week. Our chances for non-com ratings are good and we might even get commissions but it is doubtful. We are liable to be commanded by overage officers. To be an officer we should know plenty of math. I’ve had all he mentioned except calculus & spherical trig. My chances are pretty good I suppose. I am lucky because there are a lot of old guys who don’t look too smart to me and neither do some of the younger ones. I’m going to do my best and let the rest take care of itself. Our lieutenant has worked up from a private over a period of years and he made the same remark that Brisben made. He’d rather be a buck private in the rear rank. Someone mentioned furloughs and he told them if they didn’t think about them for a year or so then they’d feel better. I hope to be home in the summer maybe. Our job out here will be pretty static unless the Japs start something on this side. I always said if they came over I wanted to be able to shoot back so I guess I’ll be able to.

I still haven’t got my stamps and stationery but I may get them tonight. I am going to try to buy a stamp or two off the sergeant otherwise this will be a free letter.

I miss my glasses plenty but I am more fortunate than some fellows. Without their glasses they are out with both eyes. With my watch and glasses broken I wonder what’s next. I’m still saving that candy bar. The sgt. brought some out last night but I didn’t know about it so I lost out on that.

One thing here we don’t have time during the day to lay around like we did at McCoy. We have been busy all day. They look at individuals here too. At McCoy the corporal didn’t know most of our names unless they had gambled with him. Here our names are on our beds and the sgt. is learning our names. Some of these guys ought to be back home. One fellow has a stiff leg, another has habitual headaches and can’t drill and there are others with bad legs and arms. Some are just clumsy, one is 43, another 42 and some are just plain dumb. I am thankful I am not in the shape some of these are. If I like whatever they put me to doing I’ll probably get ahead. I’ve got to be at least a corporal to keep up with the Rickets family. After all I can’t let them beat me even if I am L.S.

We are having that California weather Hope & Benny joke about. Sun shine one minute and rain the next. It seems to rain all night. The lieut. said that it is foggy all day and the sun doesn’t shine much during the winter where we are going. The food is good though he says. I sure hope so and there better be P.X.’s and shows too.

Nobody has said anything about mail so I guess we haven’t got any yet. I got my last letter from you last Mon. The others are probably being forwarded. Maybe they have been sent where we were to go. I’ll get it eventually. I don’t expect to hear from you directly to here till next week sometime and by then I’ll be just about ready to leave, I hope. If I’ve got do this kind of stuff I might as well get started and hope this war is over before Xmas.

Its 6:00 now and we go on to the movies at 7:00. I don’t know if I’ll have time to write or not afterwards but if I don’t I’ve covered the days work pretty well I guess.

I wonder to myself sometimes how you will feel about me being so far away. It really got me for awhile Sunday but I guess I’ll get along O.K. Looking out the window Mich. might be only 50 miles away but when I stop to think how far it really is that’s something else. I guess we’ll just have to make the best of it, you and I, until we can get together once more. We can take pictures but there can’t be any trees or buildings or anything that would identify the place. I won’t even bother. It isn’t worth the trouble that might be raised. They are much more strict than at McCoy. It looks like it will rain again tonight by the clouds.

I’ve got some washing I should do but we haven’t the conveniences here. I still have some super suds although lost some on the trip. I had it in a sack but some got out anyway- I guess the small boxes are better although they cost more. Back again at 9:15. I took a shower and then we went over for movies. They were on articles of war and health and sanitation and we had seen most of them at McCoy.

Well this will have to be all for today. Lights go out in 45 minutes. Our orders didn’t come tonight so I haven’t any stamps to mail this airmail. You’ll probably get tomorrow’s letter before you do this one.

Well I hope you are all up to snuff and kicking around O.K. Write as soon and as often as you can. I suppose a lot of people are wondering why I haven’t written but I can’t write without paper.

Well I’ve got to quit so good night and lots of love and good luck to all.

Arlington

I’ve Got More on Top than Most of these Guys

Sunday, February 7, 1943

About 11:15 a.m.

Dear Everybody,

Well here I am again on Sunday although it doesn’t seem to mean much to them up here. 5 weeks in the army and all I’ve gotten is a 2600 mile ride away from home. I hope this letter doesn’t sound too discouraging but I don’t feel very spirited today for some reason.

I got to bed at about 9:30 last night. We didn’t get up till after 8 although the sgt. had told us 6:15. I dressed, gargled, and washed a little, then made up my bed and got ready for breakfast. We ate it at about 9:00. We had post toasties, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bread and an orange. It was pretty good although a little butter or jam on the bread and some sugar for the cereal would have helped. Usually they have given us jam or marmalade but there wasn’t any this morning. I was lucky enough not to draw K.P. today but they still keep us busy part of the time. When I got back from breakfast I swept a little and then we moved to bunks so that we are in alphabetical order. I got a bottom bunk this time but we are in a spot of the barracks where there are no shelves or places to hang our hangers. Oh well if there are no more measles maybe we can leave here soon and go someplace else. Time out for dinner.

Back about 4. Let’s see, where was I? After we moved we got out our shoes and hung up our coats & stuff. I went over to the day room and mailed the letter I finished last night and looked around a little. They have some tables from the mess hall over there and there are games, cards, checker boards, jig saw puzzles and a whole lot of scrap books made up by the U.S.O. I looked at one scrap book and read an article about radio commentators – Kaltenborn, Seving, Hill, etc. The book was made up by a 68 year old woman from Visalia California according to notes written here and there in the book. I didn’t read much. I felt kind of low this morning but I’ve gotten over it a little now. I left there and came back and tried to shine my muddy shoes a little. Then I began to write. Dinner was pretty good. Mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, salad, applesauce, biscuits & butter. After dinner we came back and mopped out the barracks. Then the afternoon has been free. They gave us a chest inspection for spots and we got another case of measles so that’s one more day in quarantine. They have arranged for us to have cleaning and laundry done so I took my shirt, pants, tie, and field jacket to be cleaned. It will cost me $1.15. The rest of the time till now I spent walking around as far as we could go outdoors. Supper will be on pretty soon.

We have been having typical California weather today. It rained hard all night until about 8:00 this morning. Then it stayed cloudy all morning with the sun breaking through once in awhile. Now it’s shining brightly but we have had several small showers. I guess this weather helped get me down. It’s too much like spring back home and that’s what I always liked best – spring and early summer. But I tried to tell myself if I was home I’d be studying anyway and wouldn’t appreciate the weather but I guess I can’t talk fast enough.

This quarantine isn’t too bad and tomorrow we’ll probably start drilling. The trouble is I am writing on my last piece of tablet paper. I’ll start using that notebook paper I brought. I have enough envelopes for about a week and I got 2 air mail envelopes at the day room, but my last 2 stamps are on this letter so if I don’t get my stamps I ordered by tomorrow I’ll have to go back to slow free mail. I can’t get any candy either. I have one bar I’ve been saving and a few peppermints & a box of Cracker Jack. If I thought it would get here O.K. I’d have you send some stamps, envelopes and paper and maybe some candy. I’ll be here until at least 2 weeks from today and maybe longer if the measles keep coming. Supper pretty soon.

It’s kind of hard to write a very long letter because we don’t do much and I don’t get any letters to give me something to write about or answer.

Back from supper. Potatoes, salad, rice, pineapple, bread and orange marmalade. Now I have to shave, clean my teeth and take a shower yet tonight. I’ll get my dry cleaning back Wednesday.

Boy that radio helps a lot but all we get are Pacific coast stations. It seems funny to think that when it’s 5 o’clock here it’s 8 there and when I go to bed at 10 it’s 1:00 there. We have a schedule posted up in the barracks. Up at 6:15, breakfast at 6:35, fall out at 8:00, dinner at 12:00, supper at 5:05 and lights out at 10:00. We can have stuff dry cleaned twice a week, Mon. & Wed. Laundry is taken every Friday.

I understand there is a P.X. on the post but it’s about a mile away and isn’t well stocked yet. This camp covers 17,000 acres but a lot of it is probably the air field. Dozens of planes fly over all the time. Our amateur experts say they are mostly light and medium bombers. They sure are thick.

I wish I had taken coast artillery in R.O.T.C. now although I don’t suppose it would have helped much. I hope I’ll like this anti-aircraft stuff because anything is always a lot easier if you like it. About all we’ll do here I think is brush up on our close order drill and maybe do a little extended order drill. It won’t be bad up here when the mud is gone. I really like it in a lot of ways but when I think of where I am it kind of gets me once in awhile. I suppose its cold back there and probably you have lots of snow. That’s what makes this seem funny. Its spring in February and no snow in sight.

How are you set with can good rationing and sugar and coffee? We just heard on the radio today that shoe sales have been frozen and that they are going to be rationed on one of your sugar stamps. Things must really be getting tight. It’s like Fred Niklas said I guess. We lose track of shortages and stuff although we got butter this noon for the only time since we have been here. The fellow at the mess hall said they can’t get butter for some reason. They usually give us jam or marmalade for our bread or biscuits. Yes we get biscuits here. They aren’t bad but Gram’s sure are good. We don’t get pie here like we did at McCoy but we get canned peaches, applesauce, or pineapple for dessert. We get lots of pineapple. As the fellow said, nothing is rationed to the army but there are things they just can’t get. We are the only ones who eat at the mess hall and I think we are the first ones. All the buildings are brand new and the tags are still on the heaters and the bowls in the latrines. The floor in the barracks has dropped several times. The ground here is evidently thawing out and is very muddy. There are little trees planted around some of the buildings but they don’t add much beauty because of the mud and water. The buildings are all covered with tar paper and some are painted 3 or 4 different colors. It must be for camouflage. The barracks are green with some of them having black strips in the middle. This must make them look like several small buildings from the air. One large warehouse is painted several colors [sketch].

I don’t think this camp would have been opened yet if it hadn’t been for the measles epidemic. It made a handy place to send us.

I wish I could have a camera and take some pictures so you could see what things are like. I don’t want you to think I’m in cold barracks and a swamp. It’s really not that. It’s just the mud you’ll have in April. This has been a farm and the house and several sheds are near our barracks. There are fruit trees in abundance and I imagine it will be beautiful to see and smell when they blossom. I hope the measles don’t last that long though.

There are several mountains in the distance. They are covered with trees but there is no snow. Boy we sure changed climates a lot on that trip. I hope you have gotten all my letters by now and that they gave some picture of the things I saw. Let me know how long it took for the letter to get from Sacramento to you and if the air mails get there any faster. Go by the postmarks. I don’t know how often they take them from here to town. We put them in a box in the day room.

You are luckier than I am because when I left McCoy you couldn’t write to me because I had no address but I could write to you. You probably won’t get my yesterday’s air mail letter till Wed. or Thurs. and I won’t get the answer till next week. If you wrote me every day till you got my letter saying I was leaving McCoy I should have 4 letters at least (Sun., Mon., Tues., & Wed.) coming from there. I didn’t get any the last noon there but I had gotten the expected letter for Tues. on Mon. Air mail ought to get there from here as fast as regular mail from McCoy.

How is everybody including the pup? Are you still having help trouble dad? Did they get the 10% for bonds? You know I still have $7 left of what I brought with me and what you and aunty sent. When you are in quarantine you can’t spend much money. I haven’t touched my pay except for the change. It will go some when I can get to town or a P.X. I haven’t seen a show for 2 weeks. That must be a record for me. Have they called the reserves yet? Nate and Stewart both said in March they probably would. Stachel has got his second questionnaire according to his last letter. If Julius goes to Carolina like he thought they’ll sure have us spread out from coast to coast. If I were to get a 15 day furlough it would take half of it and $100 for traveling. Maybe its better I’m not able to get home every 2 or 3 weeks. I’d have that leaving to do too often but I still wouldn’t refuse the chance to get anywhere nearer home. Anything within 1000 miles would seem close now. Say, can you take care of my income tax for me or will I have to file a blank? You can get my earnings from Ruth Cook at the main office if they haven’t sent out the slip. I don’t remember for sure how much money I left but I know there is enough to pay it.  Confidential to Ma: ((((There should be $75 loose from the roll or it may be with it but that $75 is for taxes, the watch and anything else that comes up.))))        I don’t know if it’s too smart to carry much money with me but I want enough so I can get home if the opportunity should suddenly arise. The news today is all good. The Russians are 2 miles from Rostov and the Japs on Guadalcanal are surrounded. Boy if this war ended tomorrow I’d be the happiest and probably the only sober man in the U.S. Army. That last 6 months after the war is over will be awfully hard to take knowing it’s over and still I couldn’t go home.

If they put me on an actual job on the guns I’ll bet I get a promotion. I may not have the brawn but I’ve got more up on top than most of these guys. There are some college graduates though. From what I understood at college, the Coast Artillery takes plenty of math which is O.K. by me. I never saw any math I couldn’t get. I’ll never get a commission so long as I am in the Artillery. I’d have to be transferred to some other outfit. Most of us are the regular limited service fellows but we have 15 or 20, I guess, who were with the second division at McCoy. That was a pretty tough outfit. I understand they are going across soon. Anyway they culled out several fellows who had been in 1-A and put them in limited. Naturally they have had a little more training than we have so right off the bat 4 in each platoon are acting corporals and some already have their stripes from the 2^nd.

I don’t know for sure what our arm insignia will be but my hat trim will be reds and my collar ornament will be like this [sketch] – crossed cannons. Most of the arm insignias around here are [sketch] – the four leaf clover. I hope I get one but we may be in a different outfit.

I can give commands as well as our sgt. He knows his stuff I’ll bet anybody but he gets rattled sometimes and his voice isn’t harsh enough to give commands. His name is Hajicek and he’s from Minn.

Well I suppose it’s about bed time for you folks but the sun is still up a little yet here. There are a lot of things I’ll think to say probably after I finish this letter. I always do.

I hope some mail gets here pretty soon. It seems like I have something to hold on to then. It’s not your fault. I know you have written every day except one (when you had a headache) and you’ll start again as soon as you get my address. When I look out the window and know you are over 2500 miles beyond that mountain, it just doesn’t seem possible. One thing, Cheboygan 52 miles will never bother us again (remember that). Any distance less than 500 miles won’t count. You know when one thinks of Cal. he thinks of Hollywood but I am twice as far from there as you are from Chicago.

Well this has gotten to be quite a long letter after all. It’s the last airmail unless I get the stamps I ordered. I sure hope I get the stationery I ordered too. I’ve got 9 sheets of paper and 8 envelopes and 9 cards. I may have to go to sending cards. I wanted to send my new address to the ones who had written but you come first till I get straightened out. You know about how long it will take by how long it takes for letters to get through and if you think it will get here 2 weeks from now I’d appreciate some airmail stamps, some air mail envelopes, and a couple tablets. I may not need them by the time I get them but I can always use them. Use your own judgment but I hope I don’t have to stop writing. I’ve written every day yet and I want to keep it up.

Well I guess I’ll go clean up and spend the rest of the evening reading or listening to the radio. One thing I have lots of reading material. Write as soon as you can and I’ll write as long as I can. I hope everybody is feeling right on top. Signing off at 6:30 Pacific wartime, 9:30 eastern war time. Have you set back your clocks? Then its 8:30 your time.

Love to Mom Dad Gran & Babe [stick people sketches]

From Arlington [drawing of himself]

They just took the mail so now this won’t go out till tomorrow, Mon.

I Am Arrived

Saturday, February 6, 1943

About noon Pacific Time

Dear folks,

Well I am arrived. After I finished writing that letter yesterday I shaved and then the sgt. collected letters so I gave it to him to mail in Sacramento. Since I left McCoy I sent you 2 folders and 3 letters on the way. Let me know if you got them and also the pillow case and last 2 or 3 letters from McCoy. My last letters there were written Monday but they were a little heavy. I don’t have any idea of how long it takes for letters to get from here to you.

We got into Sacramento after dark last night. From there we rode to a town called Crockett, Cal. which they told us was 33 miles from Frisco. There we got off the train at about 11:30 after an 84 hour train ride. There they lined us up and then we carried our baggage about a block to where 12 or 13 trucks were waiting for us. What I saw of Crockett looked pretty fair. It’s built on hills. We started out in the trucks at about 12 and got to camp at about 3 a.m. We must have gone 60 or 70 miles in which direction I don’t know although I think it was north. Boy that was some ride. This may be Cal. but my underwear and overcoat weren’t any too much. We drove up and down hills and around curves and over and by rivers and bays of all kinds. When we got to our camp we took our bags into a place and left them and then they gave us a snack to eat. I ate a piece of apple pie. While we were eating they assigned us to platoons. I’m in the first. Then our sergeant, a young fellow about 23, got us into our barracks and to bed about 4 a.m.

When the fellows saw the barracks, bunks, and accommodations they all wanted to go back to McCoy. The barracks are wooden, one story affairs covered with tar paper. They surely are different from McCoy although they had some like them at Custer. And the bunks. They are hand made wooden structures [sketch] and there are no springs. We have 2 new blankets and a comforter. I also threw my coat on but I slept plenty warm. I tossed it off on to the floor during the night. Besides all this the toilet, sinks, and showers are in a separate building about 50 feet from the barracks. When they saw all this some of the fellows got disgusted.

We were up at 8 o’clock this morning. We dressed and went and got our bags before breakfast at 9. We had oatmeal, pancakes, syrup, and prunes. Then at 10 we had a general physical exam. Then we cleaned up all the paper and stuff on the ground near the barracks and got a lecture on cleanliness from the sassy lieutenant. Then we ate dinner – creamed potatoes, salmon loaf, salad, peaches, bread and grape jam. That brings me up to the present time.

I don’t’ know what we are here for. This is a new development up here 8 or 10 miles from Santa Rosa. It very definitely is an air base for planes are in the air all the time. As far as I know though we are in the coast artillery. Here is the setup as near as I can get it. We were supposed to have gone to a camp about 30 miles from Oakland and Frisco. But the day before we left McCoy, one fellow was taken out of the other barracks with the measles. This word came through while we were on the train so that they sent us way up here instead of to our regular camp. This morning they found one or two cases of measles so we are in quarantine for 2 weeks and can’t leave our area. Every new case means 2 weeks from the date of the person’s catching it so I hope there won’t be any more. They demand that we be extremely clean in what we do and we are supposed to take a shower every day.

As I said this is a new camp if you can call it that. There are only a few barracks and no P.X. or theater I understand. We are in what was once a cow pasture I think. We are right behind an old farm house. There are no dishes at the mess hall so we have to use our whole mess kit now. Since we are quarantined we can’t leave but the sgt. will take a list of what we need and get it for us. I have got to get some stationery.

The weather up here is funny. We are evidently north of San Francisco and are surrounded by distant mountains on 3 sides. I would guess that we are pretty high up. It must rain a lot because it is very wet everywhere and there are drainage ditches all around. The fog blanketed everything until about 10 o’clock this morning. Now the sun is shining warm and bright and there is a fresh breeze blowing. It’s just like May. The climate seems pretty good if we could only have McCoy barracks and accommodations.

The camp is supposed to be a 2 mile square. McCoy was 12 miles across. There is another group here who came from McCoy a couple weeks ago and they are quarantined with the measles too. It looks like I’m going to spend my time in this army in quarantine.

When I saw this place last night I was pretty discouraged but now that the sun has put some light on things they don’t look so bad. The birds are singing cheerfully and coming in last night I heard several frogs.

I can’t see the sense of ever classifying us at Custer if they are just going to put us in a coast artillery battery. We are evidently going to take over shore installations so the regulars can go overseas. Of course we may just get some more basic training and then go into our regular jobs. Each one of us had a different job number on the shipping order so they may have a spot for us but this quarantine will probably throw off the schedule. Nobody knows how long we’ll be here or how much or what kind of training we’ll get. Maybe it is all meant for the best. There may not be a spot for me out here and they might ship me back east. If I have to stay on the coast I hope I go down south by Los Angeles.

It is a beautiful day out now and I wish I could play a set of tennis or some baseball or something. If it’s always like this I won’t kick a bit. We are lucky. We have a radio in our barracks. This must be one of those places where it’s cold nights and warm days. It is damp in the morning until the sun gets up. Well that’s about all I can think of to say now so I think I’ll go clean up a little. Those trains were pretty dirty.

Back again. I didn’t go wash for fear we might be called out. These boys up here aren’t kidding. They were too easy with us at Mc Coy. Some of the fellows don’t know enough to stand at attention when they are told. When these boys give an order they mean it. The Lieutenant is a pretty cocky individual.

The air field is about ½ mile from us I guess and a lot of planes fly around. If we are in the coast artillery at an air base it must be anti-aircraft.

The mail setup here isn’t so hot I guess. I don’t expect to get any mail for awhile and just about the time it gets here maybe I’ll be on my way. It’ll catch up eventually though. Well I guess this is all I can think to say for now. I’ve done my best to think of everything of any interest.

Back later. Well we just got a lecture by the Captain. He gave us orders on how to dress, etc. He ways we will be assigned to an anti-aircraft battery and will get special technical training as soon as we get out of quarantine. He says the anti-aircraft is interesting but requires a great deal of technical training.

I have made out a list to give the sergeant so I can get some stationery, cards, and airmail stamps. The only way to get my letters home in reasonable time is to use air mail. Our mail is going to be stopped up for a while I’m afraid. As soon as the quarantine is lifted we will probably go to our intended camp and after more training we will be shipped from there.

There’s not much doing this afternoon. Every once in awhile they call us out and tell us some more things they like or don’t like. The fellows are all writing letters. I think I’ll start with the beginning of my list and write short letters or cards to everyone who has written to me. Then someday I’ll get a lot of mail all at once probably. I owe letters to Walt, Nate, Julius, Frankie, & Kircher. Well I guess I’ll quit for now and wash up for supper. I’ll be glad when I can get to a city and get my watch fixed so I can know what time it is.

I gave the sgt. my list and thought of having him send me a telegram but he had too many already. I missed getting this letter out tonight so I don’t know when it will go out. I don’t know if they collect mail on Sunday or not. Gee by the time you get this it will be stale news.

Back later about 8:30. I had supper about 5 – salad, bread, biscuit and jam. Not so hot. They had baloney stew too but I didn’t eat any. I was one of the first to eat and I got my dishes washed and got out in a hurry. Then I took a shower. I got back in the barracks and was putting on my tie when I was picked to go on mess hall detail with 3 other fellows. I had to put on my fatigues. We cleaned the floor by pouring on water and sweeping with brooms and we wiped off the tables. That was all and it took only about an hour. Then I came back and changed to my O.O.’s and cleaned my teeth. After that I straightened out the junk in my barracks bags a little and tried to shine my shoes. The combination of the mop water and the mud didn’t help but I got a little shine on them. That brings me up to the present when I have just finished making up my bed. I got a top bunk and it’s so high its very hard to make. It’s hard to get in and out of too. We don’t dare jump to the floor too hard. Twice today when we have been gathered in one spot in the barracks the floor has groaned and settled a little.

I wanted to get this letter off today but they collected the mail before I finished it. I like to get as nearly a complete day in each letter as possible.

The address on the envelope is not quite right. That is the first one they gave us but now we have a second one. I tried to change what I could there on the envelope. Write to me as –

Pvt. Arlington A. Forist 36,416,037

101^st C.A. Brigade (A.A.)

Training Detachment #8

Santa Rosa California

For gosh sakes write. These quarantines are a pain in the neck. It looks as if they are going to keep us busy and anyway if I can get stationery, I can write and read some of the many books I have now. We are going to have regular turns at K.P. Tomorrow we have to get up at 6:15 and on Sunday too. We are going to have a medical inspection after 8 o’clock. They keep close watch for more measles. One good thing. I’ve had plenty of measles so I ought to be immune. I don’t know when I’ll get the stuff I ordered. I don’t see how the sgt can get all that stuff and keep it straight. We didn’t pay. He said some arrangement would be made. They may take it out of our pay.

Maybe you can find me on a map. We are supposed to be north of San Francisco. The sunset behind the mountains here tonight was beautiful. I saw it just as I was coming off K.P.

Well this is just about the end of another day. Lights out here is about 10:00. They do have a day room where fellows play cards, checkers, and work jig saw puzzles but one fellow said there weren’t enough tables to go around.

A lot of people are kicking about this place and it isn’t any bed of roses but I still find myself liking it. Maybe it’s because I like spring. The birds surely sound pretty. A few more days like today and some of this mud and water will be gone.

Well I guess I’ve said all for today so I’ll call it quits. Write and I’ll hope I get some mail while I’m here.

Lots of love to every one of you

Arlington

I took a chance and changed to my shorts. I’m still wearing the winter underwear shirt. My summer shirts are too big. I don’t miss them much and I knew if we did much drilling I’d sweat and might catch cold quicker that way than by changing. I hope I’m right.

Please Excuse Poem

Friday, February 5, 1943

About 9:45 Pacific time

12:45 your time

Dear folks,

Well I’m in Nevada today. Last night after I finished writing, I read 30 pages or so in Good Earth. The sgt. came through and asked if anyone had any letters they wanted mailed. I gave him mine so I hope he mailed it in Salt Lake City. We had a little trouble last night. We ran into a snow storm on our way down out of the mountains in Utah. Then a train ahead of us broke down and we had to push that for several miles. We got into Salt Lake City well after dark and I was in bed. We get to bed at about 9. I didn’t see much of the town but it must spread over a huge area. Once I woke up and looked out and we were in the station and just starting to leave. The city itself must have been on the other side of the train but what I saw was quite neat looking and well lighted. I saw some towers which looked like they might be for a radio station and I also saw several factories. This morning I got up at 6:30 pacific time and we were in Elco Nevada. During the night, probably in Salt Lake City, we got rid of the other troop train and hooked on to a 7 car passenger train. We have passed through several small settlements this morning. The largest were Carlon and Battle Mountain. The scenery here in Nevada has been beautiful. We are riding on a flat plain 6 or 7 miles wide and on both sides are the most beautiful snow covered peaks I have seen yet. They look like an artist’s painting. The level part is covered with short bushy vegetation of some kind; it may be sage brush. I am still looking for the desert. These mountains are really wonderful They may not be so big but they are as pretty as any picture I have ever seen of the Alps. They are capped completely with snow and with the sun shining on them are prettier than I can find words to describe. There is no reason why anyone should go to Europe or any other place to see nature’s beauty. We’ve got more than enough for everybody right here at home. Now we are in a fair sized town called Winnemoca (I hope that’s spelled right). A fellow came through selling cards and folders but they were gone before I could get any. A bunch of kids just got off the civilian train hooked to us and we guessed that they were a basketball team.  Gee, I just saw one of those folders and even though they cost 25 cents I wish I could have got one. They showed some of the very places we have passed through. Maybe I can get one someplace yet. There was a picture of these mts. I have been talking about and they are called the ruby range. We’re moving again but the mountains are still there. I don’t know when we’ll hit Frisco but they told us we wouldn’t sleep on the train tonight. We will go thru Reno this afternoon. I guess I forgot to mention I had breakfast at about 9:15. Potatoes, eggs, cream of wheat, muffin, bread, apricot jam, and an orange. Pretty good. We are stopped out here in the brush now for some reason. There are no trees in sight, just little bushes 8 or 10 inches high. We are moving again now. Boy we really are jerked around. They call the engineer a cowboy because of the way he stops and starts. Well I’ll be back later when I see something interesting again.

Back about 1 o’clock. We are still in much the same type of country but we must have dropped a lot because the mountain tops aren’t covered with snow here nearly so much. This looks like desert land to me. There is sand and not much vegetation. Yet here is a lot of water around. Little gullies are wet and one creek had overflowed. I imagine it is from snow melting and running down the mts. This would be one hot place in the summer! The real big mountains seem to be getting farther and farther away on both sides. The plain is widening out. Right now where we are the sand is all built up in hills a foot or two high. I don’t know if that is from the wind or animals. We have passed through the town of Imlay and Lovelock, a pretty good sized town along with several other little settlements. We should hit Reno pretty soon. We must really be in the desert now for the vegetation is getting thinner and thinner. There are still a lot of water puddles though.

A fellow came through selling souvenirs and wanted $1.25 for a pillow cover no better than the one I sent you from McCoy. That one only cost 85 cents. The price of stuff on the trains is prohibitive. 5 cent newspapers are 10 cents and a little tiny sack of peanuts is 10 cents. In Omaha apples & oranges were 10 cents each. Boy am I glad I had all I needed when I started. I have one orange left. All my candy bars are gone but one so I think I did pretty well and was smart to have the stuff in the beginning so thank you.

This is looking more and more like a swamp than a desert. There is water all over and it looks muddy. It reminds me some of the beaches we have seen only this goes on and on.

Back again much later at about 4:30. We just got into California. We came into the town of Sparks Nev. about 2 o’clock. The scenery had been pretty much the same all along. We stopped there a few minutes and we got out and walked the length of the train and got back on at the dining car for dinner. While we were eating we pulled on into Reno and stopped for passengers. Dinner was pretty good – roast beef, mashed potatoes, string beans, salad, bread, butter and pears. While I was eating some Red Cross women from a mobile canteen passed out doughnuts, coffee, gum, cigarettes, etc. to the boys who had already eaten. I was too late to get anything because when I finished the train was ready to move. We eat in shifts and I’m on the last car so we eat last. Reno is quite a nice place. There were a lot of soldiers there with the air corps insignia and I understand there is an air base near there. I also saw 2 officers from the chemical warfare division. I didn’t recognize any movie stars but we saw a young girl and a sailor who had just been married. Everywhere we go we see all kinds of soldiers and sailors. (A man just came in selling Bireleys orangeade at 50 cents a quart. He didn’t sell any.) Reno is quite a city and seems to be real clean. It is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It looked like a nice place to look over. Ever since we left Reno the scenery has been swell. The temp. there was like mid-May but now we are up in the mountains and there is about a foot of snow all over. We have been following a river for miles and I have never seen such wild water. It is rapids its whole length. We have just stopped in a small town and there is a ski jump up on a hill. There are several nice homes here too. We are in Cal. now where the wealthy folks live. These mountains are pretty in a different way. They are covered with beautiful pines. The mountains in Nevada were treeless. Everything one sees is beautiful and everything is different from everything else. If the sun shines in all of Cal. like it does here I’ll maybe like it after all. Our engine is one of those affairs that has the cab way out in front. It’s the first time I’ve seen them. This town is Truckee, Cal, and we’re leaving now. I’ve given you the names of a lot of the towns I’ve passed through but I don’t know if they are on a map so you can see my path or not. I’ve tried to take you along with me on this trip. We are supposed to be coming to a tunnel now. The highways out here are swell but I haven’t seen any roadside tables. In some of those states you could go 50 or 60 miles without finding a tree to put one under. It’s worse than it is up around Traverse City. We are now 208 miles from Frisco. We are way way up and as I look off I see a rolling blanket of green and white. The timber is getting thicker and thicker as we go on into California. We just went through that tunnel and off to one side as we came out was the first lake I have seen on the trip. It is about 300 feet below in a valley and is beautiful. Another tunnel. They aren’t real tunnels; they are built to keep the snow from drifting over the tracks. We’re really up in the air now. Another snow shed. Another one. Boy is this country pretty!

Boy we are in a real tunnel now, several miles long. I just filled my pen and when I put the ink back in my grip I cut the nicest slice off the first finger of my right hand on my razor. Not serious though. We just get out of one tunnel and go into another and the train is filling with smoke. I just opened another box of Cracker Jack but I didn’t find any prize in the end. Maybe it’s in the other end. So far I’ve got a wooden rolling pin, a cutout of Mary and lamb, and a little charm of a bottle of choc. milk. I found it. It’s a picture of a Spanish airplane.

Finally we are back in the sunshine. For a long time all we saw was the inside of snow sheds & tunnels. Boy is this snow deep. It’s drifted clear up even with the roofs of some of the buildings. We sure see a lot of different kinds of weather and climates. This ought to be great country for skiing and skating. There is a beautiful hotel and lodge built up here at a place called Soldiers Springs. We evidently are coming into a winter sport area. I’m glad I can see a little of this during the day. We are traveling around a deep valley way up on the side of a mountain. The valley is hundreds of feet below. Somebody just saw some deer. I’ve noticed a lot of tracks in the snow. We’re going down now and hitting more snow sheds. I just saw a fire tower way up on a hill.

I just saw a little waterfall. We are dropping down fast now. California here I come but it’s not where I started from. Someday soon I’ll have my wish and be right back in good old Mich(igan).  Please excuse poem. I just saw another lake way below but it was frozen solid. Here’s a little settlement built on the side of the mountain. At some time there has been a forest fire along here where I am now for there are burned skeletons sticking up all around. We have just passed a little place called Blue Canon. We’re beginning to leave the snow behind us now. I doubt if there will be any in Frisco although I hear it’s not too hot there. You see Cal. is a big state and Frisco is about 500 miles north of Los Angeles & Hollywood. No more snow but we are still way way up. Well I’ll sign off till after supper. Frisco is 158 miles.

Back after supper – chicken soup (I didn’t eat), chicken or turkey I don’t know which but it was breast, dressing, potatoes, green peas, tomato salad, bread, butter, peaches. It is dark now and they made us pull down all the shades to black out the train. So all I know is I am in Cal. somewhere about 100 miles from Frisco. What camp I’m going to or anything else I don’t know. Latest rumor is 35 miles from Frisco in either the coast artillery or air corps ground crew. I hope it’s the coast. Well this is all for now. Keep writing and I’ll do the same.

Love to all

Arlington

Your Wandering Son

Thursday, Feb. 4, 1943

8:30 a.m. mountain time

Dear folks,

Well we’re rolling along in Colorado. After I finished that letter yesterday we stopped in a town in Kansas called Goodland. We had to wait for the streamliner, The Rocket, to go through so we all got off and got a little air. I mailed the letter and the two folders there. I was a little worried for awhile though because they had 2 mail boxes, one for Mail East and one for Mail West and I mailed your letters in the one for mail west but the fellow there said it wouldn’t make any difference. We walked around for awhile and then they had us run around about a block to loosen us up a little. Finally we got back on and started off. We went into Colorado early in the evening. It was the same as Kansas, flat and barren. When I couldn’t see anymore I read some. We had supper in the diner again. Mashed potatoes, corn, meat (beef which I wasn’t sure of and didn’t eat) swell dressing, salad, and a raspberry dessert. We got to bed at about 9 o’clock. As usual the best part was passed while we slept. We got into Denver after I went to bed and we crossed the higher mountains during the night. It must have been a tough pull because we stopped a lot and jerked around a lot during the night. We went through some tunnels too I guess. The windows are so filthy now we can’t see anything. They got us out over an hour ago for breakfast but we still haven’t eaten. I dressed, washed, and then tried to survey the situation. Instead of being up by the engine we are now the very last car. It seems that in Denver we were hooked to another troop train. We still have a diner making 5 cars and the other troops have a field kitchen set up in a baggage car. There are 12 or 13 cars altogether now. Since ours is the last car we can stand on the observation platform and see a little of the country.

As I said, we are still in Colorado. We are now passing through the western foothills of the Rockies. Although they may be hills they look like mountains to me. Out here there is a lot of snow and the brakeman told me we were up 8000 feet above sea level. The big hills with the snow and trees are beautiful. That’s about all I can say. I can’t see anything through my windows so to know what I’m passing I have to go out on the back end. This sure is nicer than Nebraska & Kansas. I never thought they were quite so dreary. Nothing for miles but fields with here and there huge herds of steers. The sun is just coming up over the hills now and it sure looks pretty. This is really the country. It’s barren so far as agriculture I suppose but it still is pretty. We just went through another tunnel. They are what makes everything so dirty. There isn’t much life in this part and the towns are pretty scarce.

Oh boy. All I can say is I wish you could see it. The track winds through the mountains alongside the Colorado River and on both sides there are sheer rock cliff and mountains. Some are nothing but rock, others have trees growing out of crevices. I can’t see what holds those cliffs together. They are very weather worn and are just full of cracks. They look as if they are all ready to crumble. I guess it’s just no use. I can’t describe them so you can get even a little idea of what its’ like. I wonder who owns all this land. I’ve seen pictures of this sort of thing but it always seemed as if it couldn’t be quite like the pictures showed. Well I’ll quit for now in hopes of breakfast pretty soon.

Back again much later in the town of Grand Junction Colorado. We finally got our breakfast at about 9:30. It was a pretty good breakfast. Fruit juice, oatmeal, potatoes, scrambled eggs, bacon which I didn’t eat, whole wheat toast and butter. After breakfast I looked out the back some more and then washed and shaved. We were hitting some bumpy ground but I didn’t cut myself. Then I continued to view the scenery until we got to Grand Junction. We are just about out of the mountains now but the last ones are beautiful. They are just huge masses of rock. We are just about free of snow again now. One of the strangest things to see is ice in the Colorado River and a little ways away the river boiling and steaming due to hot springs. We are still following the river now although it disappeared for awhile. We were in Grand Junction about 20 minutes and they got us off and had us run around and do some calisthenics. Then we got back on and here I am. The town is about 17,000 people but they must all live in shacks by the looks. While we were there they washed the windows so we have a much better view. We are entering cultivated farm land more and are headed for the Utah deserts. I never thought I’d ever see what I’ve seen this morning. I’d like to spend about a month out here traveling by automobile. One fellow had a camera, and took some pictures but I don’t know what he’ll do with his camera when he gets there. He can’t keep it. The scenery is becoming fairly general again but the mountains make a beautiful background and the panorama is wonderful

The towns are getting a little thicker and larger. (12:30 o’clock) Up in the mountains the towns didn’t seem to be more than railroad stations and side tracks. We’re running parallel to a good paved highway again. Most of the roads don’t look so hot. The houses and buildings all have a rickety look, sort of ghost-like. I don’t see how people live in some of them. When I look back now, I don’t see how we ever threaded our way through those mountains.

The sand is beginning to show now and the vegetation is mostly short bushes. We’ll be in Salt Lake City sometime today or tonight. If we hit S. Francisco by tomorrow night we’re going to have to step on it. The speed limit for troop trains is 65. We are on level ground now and see several farms. The hills off to one side are smaller and covered with trees and grass. Well that’s all I can say right now again.

Back again in a hurry this time. They fooled me. We’re back in more hills and mountains and back to the river again. There’s one rock wall about 200 feet high that is stretching along the river for 2 or 3 miles. There are some of the most beautiful rock formations you could ever imagine. We passed through another tunnel too. There is a big rock about ½ as big as our house sitting up on top of a cliff. This certainly is beautiful country. We’re passing another huge rock wall. The only way we can get through is to follow the river valley. We are in Utah now but it doesn’t look any different. The fellow that called these the Rockies sure hit the nail on the head. It’s getting a little flatter again but I won’t get too much in a hurry this time. We still have a sheer rock wall on one side of the track. Once in awhile when we hit a curve I can see the engine way up ahead. The other troops we picked up in Denver must have come from a rather warm place because they all wore field jackets. We just passed through another settlement called Westwater. The sun is shining swell so that helps, too.

Some of the fellows have been worrying about furloughs and they have figured it will cost us close to $100 for a round trip. There is one consolation. They can’t send me anywhere in the U.S.A. without sending me closer to home. Its around 2600 miles from Frisco to Lansing, and that ain’t an overnight trip. I don’t think there is anyone in our group, except for the few from the West, who doesn’t hope we’ll be transferred back east in 2 or 3 months. They’d like to see Cal., but they don’t care to stay. The sgt. who is traveling with us said you couldn’t tell. They might turn around and send us to Chicago or someplace in a couple months. That’s probably just another guess of somebody’s with no foundation just like the rest.

Just passed thru Agate Utah, a railroad siding and an empty sheep ranch. It’s 1:00 o’clock. The ground is gradually flattening out although I can still see mountains in the distance. Well I guess I’ll quit this for awhile again.

Back again after dinner – Mashed potatoes, green string beans, ham (I didn’t eat it), whole wheat bread and butter and jello and cream. We have been passing through a very barren stretch of country again. Rocks, hills, dirt but very little vegetation. Just scattered tufts of grass. There are still mountains and bare rock formations visible on the horizons. I’d call this the badlands of Utah but we still haven’t hit the desert. We pass many freight trains off on the sidings waiting for us to go by. One brakeman told us last night that 300 gov’t  trains, munitions, etc. had been sidetracked for ours to go through. WE are important people. We are in some town now and way off up on a huge rock mountain is a big letter G. We just passed another freight, the 3^rd in 10 minutes and a lot of the box cars were marked explosives. The town was Green River. It had a school, church, depot, 2 or 3 stores and a lot of R.R. tracks. Now we’re taking off across the badlands again. There is a pretty good black top highway running parallel to the tracks. More rock formations off to the other side. There is even an occasional advertising sign along the road out here in nowhere. Those rock formations are even more impressive here because they stand alone on otherwise level land. This is poor picture of what it looks like [drawing]. We’re passing another sidetracked freight. We cross a lot of creek beds but they are nearly all dry. I have seen 2 trucks and one car on several miles of this road. Rationing must have really hit home or else there’s nobody out here to drive. Well there’s not much to say now so I’ll be back when I see something interesting. I hope we get into Salt Lake City while it’s still daylight.

Back again much later. This afternoon the scenery has been pretty much the same, barren land and rocky bluffs. We passed through one town called Price which was pretty good sized and had a swell modern school. Now we are in a town called Helper Utah. It is fairly large and we have stopped to get 2 new engines. We are entering more mountains and they are going to use the 2 engines. We still are over 100 miles from Salt Lake City and it must be nearly 5:30. It is snowing a little out now.

During the night last night I understand we passed through the Moffat Tunnel in Colorado. It was 6.2 miles long. We have gone through several short ones since then.

One thing seemed rather amusing. Out there in the badlands where there was nothing but hills, rocks and dirt the fields (if you could call them that) were all fenced off. Some of the fences were going almost straight up hill. Now we are leaving Helper. There evidently is some type of mining done here. We are moving into another mountain range. You ought to see the telephone lines running over the mountains. We are passing a coal mine and there are houses all along the foot of the hills. This mine is at Castle Gate.

We just passed through Royal Utah – a post office and coal mine. We’re getting really into the mountains again now, and even with 2 engines progress is slow. The highway is winding around the mts. too. It is U.S. 50. There is plenty of snow up here and it is snowing now. There is more traffic on the highway now but they go pretty slow because it’s a good 300 foot drop off the edge into the valley.

Back again after supper. Boy that was a real supper. It’s going to be hard to go back to army chow. I had beef steak, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, salad, whole wheat bread, butter, milk and ice cream. It’s not quite dark yet but it is snowing quite hard. We are still in the mountain range east of Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ll start going down pretty soon. We are supposed to be in Salt Lake City about 9 o’clock. I’m going to close this letter in hopes of getting a chance to mail it. If I don’t you’ll get it from somewhere else. I imagine my mail will get behind a little for awhile like it did at McCoy but eventually it will get caught up. You probably got my letter today saying I was leaving so I imagine I’ll have your Sun., Mon., Tues., & Wed. letters coming to me out here. For gosh sakes keep writing. It means more than ever now that I’m this far away from everything.

Well I’ll quit for now and hope I can mail this. You’ll get it eventually anyhow. Don’t forget your wandering son wants to get mail and I’ve got plenty I haven’t answered too – Walt, Frankie, Nate, Julius, etc.

Lots of love to Mom, Dad, Gram & Babe

Arlington

To My Chemist’s Eye

Tuesday, Feb. 2, 1943

About 3:30 p.m.

Dear folks,

Well I’m on my way. At the present time we are sitting in the railroad yards at Winona, Minn. We just crossed the Mississippi River. It isn’t very wide right here.

I was up about 6:30 this morning and had breakfast at the usual time. I had oatmeal, grapefruit and creamed beef on toast. After breakfast I finished packing and then we loafed around till about 9:00 when we took our rifles back. After that there was nothing doing till about 11:00. Then we took our sheets and pillowcases and our overshoes back. They had early mail call and all I got was a letter from Walt. Your Sat. letter came Monday so I probably wasn’t due for one from you folks. Any that you wrote since Sat. will have to be forwarded. We got our dinner early too, right off the stove. I had potatoes, beef, rhutabagas [sic], bread, and butter and 2 pieces of apple pie. Shortly after dinner we left. Boy my barracks bag weighed plenty and so did my grip. I was just about done out when I got to the place we were to gather. It was between ½ to ¾ of a mile. There we got on trucks and were taken to the R.R. yards of the camp. I saw more of the camp then than I have anytime while I was there. It really is a huge place. We are on Pullman cars so I guess California is a pretty good guess of where we’re going. I know it’s going to be a long way. We left Camp and went through Sparta and several other small towns before we got to Winona where we are now. I think you’ll remember this is where our milk came from.

The view is not so good because the windows are double and dirty as the dickens. We have passed some huge hills but they’ll seem pretty small when we get to the Rockies. There are 4 cars on our train and several fellows from our barracks. There are 8 or 10 from Lansing. There is a real large bridge across the Miss. here and this is quite a railroad town. There are lots of tracks.

We’re moving again now. There is a huge range of hills off the north, I guess it is. There is a lot of calculating of which way we are going and where we’ll end up. You want to keep track of the states I go through. On my way to McCoy I hit Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Now I am in Minnesota. I’ll sure pass a lot of country but I don’t know how much I’ll see.

Back again. It’s nearly dark and we are in Waseca, Minn. We haven’t been going too fast. That range of hills really got high. There was one place where the place for the tracks seemed to be chiseled out of solid rock. These hills are all rock. It looks like limestone to my chemist’s eye, CaCO3. After awhile the country began to flatten out and there aren’t many hills anymore. We went through Rochester, Minn., home of the Mayo Clinic, at 5:15. We have gone through several small towns which I can’t remember.

We are moving again. Our supper was pretty slim. We hook on to a diner in the morning but tonight we had 2 sandwiches and the jam was pretty thin. I still had one package of cookies so they helped and my candy bars too. I just took a walk the length of the 4 cars with another fellow. His name is Carlson. He is a Swede from Detroit and before that from upper Mich.

There’s not much I can say about the country so far. It’s pretty regular except for that one range of hills which are mountains to you and me. I expect that we won’t get there till Friday.

Happy Ground Hog Day. If he came out he sure saw his shadow because the sun shone all day. The snow here in Minn. has been pretty deep judging by the piles plowed back along the roads. The roads look pretty good and the pavements are all cleaned off. The temperature here on the train was 80 when we got on but it’s a lot more comfortable now. I hope it’s not too hot where I’m going because I still have my woolen underwear and socks on. My summer stuff is in the bottom of my bag.

Well we’ve stopped again for something out here in the country, but not for long. We’re moving off and I guess there isn’t much more to tell tonight so I’ll quit till next time.

Wed. Feb. 3, 1943

About 6:45 a.m.

Dear folks,

Well if I had thought, I could have mailed this letter this morning. After I quit writing, I read on The Good Earth. We got to bed at about 9 I guess. I slept down below. It’s not too bad. We’ve got 2 more nights.

When I woke up we were in Omaha, Nebraska. We got up about 5:30 I guess and I washed and dressed. Then we went outside the train and did a few exercises to loosen us up. After that we all went up into the beautiful station for breakfast. It was swell. I had cereal, tomato juice, milk, tea biscuits and butter, potatoes, and good scrambled eggs. After breakfast I stopped at the souvenir counter. It cost me 35 cents for a pennant but I may never be in Omaha again so I bought it. It will be in pretty bad shape when I get it home. I started to buy some cards but I saw that they had folders so I put back the cards which were in the folders and ended up buying 2 cards and 2 folders. Total in Omaha 70 cents. I could just as well have mailed the cards too but I didn’t have 1 ½ cent stamps.

We are moving off pretty fast now but it’s still pitch dark out. I wish it had been day so I could have seen the city a little. The card showing the interior of the station is the place where I was and that’s all I saw of Omaha. Gee I wish I could take this trip by car and enjoy seeing everything. Well I’ll be back when I have more to say.

It’s getting light off to one side now. We must be going southwest. The fellows have guessed at everything from Kansas, Utah, Texas, and Arizona up but I still think we’ll be pretty close to San Francisco when we end up. I can see a little now and there isn’t much snow anymore. It rained in the night. I’m not too sure but I think we cut through the corner of Iowa during the night so add 2 more states, Iowa and Nebraska to the list. I hope we hit Denver in the daytime. It’s getting light fast now and we must be on the great prairies. The trees just aren’t. I hope you can read this. I’m bouncing around a lot but I’m still writing every day. See. I’ll try to mail this and the Omaha folders the next time I get off. They won’t be postmarked Omaha but that won’t matter too much so long as you get them. I put 3 cent stamps on so I wrote something in each to get my money’s worth. Those stamps dad got me are coming in handy now.

We just went through a station called Prairie Home and whoever named it wasn’t kidding. The houses are miles apart it seems. Just passed through Havelock. We are running parallel to a paved highway. Looking out it looks like Mich. would appear in March or early April. The roads are all good. We just passed the state fair grounds and are coming to a stop in Lincoln, Neb.

I don’t know how this letter will sound as I just jot things down as I think of them.

Lincoln is a pretty good sized place. There is one big building sticking up all by itself about the size of the Olds Tower and if my memory serves me right it looks just like pictures I’ve seen of the Nebr. state capital. It looks out of place all by itself. Time – 8:45 a.m. Boy it sure looks muddy out. We just passed some TENNIS courts. Most of the fellows are reading or playing cards but I can’t read when it’s daylight. I want to see everything. A few are writing like I am. Time out.

Latest towns are Plymouth and Jansen. Nothing but prairie. I just saw a Peter Pan bread sign along the highway. Now we’re stopped for some reason out here in the country. We’re moving off again now. We are going to pick up a diner somewhere along the line. I’d rather they would let us eat at some station. Then I could get off and get some cards or stuff. I’ll be back when I see something interesting again.

Now we’re stopped in a town called Fairbury, still in Nebraska. Well I got out for a few minutes and got a little fresh air while they took on water or something. I was out about 5 minutes. It is just like spring out. An old fellow told us they have snow but it doesn’t last and it never gets below 20 below here. It sure seems good to see grass again even if it isn’t green. It seems unusually warm but I imagine this whole part of the country is having warmer weather because it was starting to warm up when we left McCoy. Well we’re off again. We just passed a small sized dam. Gee I wish I could take pictures of what I see so you could get an idea of what it’s all like. Those scenery cards at McCoy were the best I’ve ever run across.

We pass a lot of fields with the corn stalks still standing from last summer but they are just as short as the ones in Mich. I can see only what’s on my side of the train because the sun is on the other side and makes reflections on the glass. I’ve been lucky tho. All the depots are on my side of the tracks. I am in the first coach and there is one refrigerator car between us and the engine. If it’s the same engine we had in Omaha, it’s a big baby. All of these larger towns, 10,000 or so, have huge railroad yards larger than anything I’ve seen in Mich. It must be for the wheat and corn and cattle & stuff. The yards are all busy too.

Boy some of these little country roads are a mess. Now we’re stopped in Bellville Kansas to hook on our diner. It’s about 11:30. Don’t forget to add Kansas to the list. I heard from the conductor that we are going to go through Denver. Time out for dinner. Back at last from dinner. It must be about 2:30. I waited awhile for dinner and finally got a little sleepy and I guess I dozed off for a little while. Then I looked out the window some more until finally they called us to dinner. It was pretty good. Creamed chicken, mashed potatoes, green lima beans, salad, pineapple, bread, butter, and milk. I ate the first piece of whole wheat bread I’ve had since Jan. 2. Now I’m back in my seat. We’re rolling along pretty fast now and way way off in the west I can see what almost looks like shadows. It’s the mountains and they are a long ways away. We probably won’t hit them until tonight. The towns are not very thick or populous. I wouldn’t care to live in this part of the country. It’s too barren looking. The last town we passed was Phillipsburg. We just passed another so-called town – Almena (Kansas I suppose). Your never told me you’d been out here but there are acres and acres of burned over land so you must have been. We’re running parallel to another pavement but there is no traffic at all. I don’t think I’ve seen a dozen cars outside of the towns.

We just went through a pretty good sized town called Norton. Just passed through Dellvale, population 18 or 20, a little town called Jennings, and now another called Dresden. The main thing in these jumping off places seems to be 2 or 3 grain elevators. For miles and miles you see nothing but fields with an occasional farm house outlined against the sky.

We’re stopped now in Seldon. We’ll be out of Kansas in an hour or so. Then Colorado.

I see by the headlines on another fellows paper that canned food rationing starts March 1. Will they stop sales of stuff before then like they did sugar? We just passed another small town sitting out here on the prairie all by itself. I’ll bet it is really hot out here in the summer. Not a tree in sight for miles. Even around the houses there is little shade.

Well I don’t know what kind of a letter this will make but I’ll cut it off here and get ready to mail it. When and where it will be mailed I don’t know. If I keep on I’ll have more than 3 cents worth and I want it to get through O.K. This will be continued in another letter. By the time you get this you will probably already [have] heard from me from my new station. From what we learned at McCoy, we are to go to San Francisco. Whether we will stay there or be sent somewhere else is something else. I may be back near home in a month or two. Keep writing. I’ll do my best too. Till next time, Love to all—

Arlington