Military training Archives

21 March 1944

Dearest Mother:

I feel very cheap and low because I overlooked something very important so I guess the least I can do is to write you a more or less personal letter – or something like that. I forgot your birthday. Dick reminded me of it yesterday and then today your letter came with the remark in it. So we decided to make up for it but that will come later. I guess that was always one of my weaknesses–forgetting things. And knowing how you like to be remembered makes me feel especially neglectful.

As I mentioned, Dick and I got together yesterday and spent the day in Honolulu, among other things seeing a show at the Waikiki, ‘Old Acquaintance’ with Bette Davis. I went for it in a big way. In my estimation all of her shows seem to have a little more on the ball than most. I hope you will get to see it if you haven’t already. Later we went to Kapahulu and then came back to town to finish up. We talked a lot about our civilian days in the old country and brought up a lot of things that seemed good to recall. And we laughed about a lot of things and how at the time we thought we were putting something over on the folks. And of course we discussed all the womenfolk we used to know as every soldier uses this as his big topic. Dick has learned to appreciate many things that he used to regard as trifling and especially a greater regard for the efforts that you both have made. He was in a buoyant mood and looked heavier and better than ever. And of course he wants to get home pretty bad.

I read the item about ‘doc’ Blome and I would certainly like to see him. Sounds like he’s been in some hot water. I think he was about the best friend I had in Lincoln and I’m going to affect a meeting if it’s possible. The Red Cross in Honolulu can usually find about anyone. I knew his wife pretty well too – I mean in a social sort of way, whew!

I can’t get over you guys shivering in the cold, when the weather is so ideal here. The Honolulu papers usually manage to sneak in a little quip about the cold weather in the states and being over here for a while, I don’t wonder but what they are right. Of course this is the cooler part of the year and the beach at Waikiki doesn’t have a whole lot of swimmers. The waves looked pretty high yesterday, good for surfing – but you have to know how and I don’t.

I’m glad you heard the program from the Jungle Center. If you could have the opportunity to see the place in action you would learn plenty. One thing about learning to fight the Japs is to use any means at all. There is no sportsmanship about the affair – you just kill him no matter how, which I think is not so practiced in Europe.

The time seems to go very fast for me – it seems that it’s time to hit the hay before I get anything done. I’m preparing an outline of a book I received from Washington, and I’ve found the effort educational as well as interesting. Trying to make arrangements at the university hardly seems worth the effort when everything is so uncertain, although if I could ever feel any permanency in things, I would undertake it. Dick and I were talking yesterday of how you must have the house fixed up and how happy we are for both of you.

Well I guess this is about all, better get a little work done tonight and end up with a shave before the lights go out. Our radio bogged down this weekend while we’re attempting to inveigle, beg, borrow or swipe a tube, it’s pretty hard to get along without (one). We looked all over for the shells but there just aren’t any that would do at all – seems funny too when the shops offer about anything for sale to get the money. Our next trip out we will get something very nice and try to cover up for our thoughtlessness on your birthday. You know this letter goes for Dad too. Being your celebration I thought it would be a little more appropriate to address it to you.

Love,

28 February 1944

Dear Folks:

I have just returned from pass. Have my shirt off and a beat up typewriter in front of me ready to start writing again. Well it has been eight days since my last letter and again you are probably wondering if I have been island hopping in the Pacific or whether something else has happened. The last week it was pretty impossible to write for I was taking some special training – and if I wasn’t too tired I didn’t have the time. I wished I could tell you all that happened and describe that week to you. Well as I said before I just came back from another day off in town so I’ll tell you what I did. I took some stuff in to the cleaners, then took in the eleven o’clock morning show at the Waikiki theater. The show was ‘Destroyer’ – not too good. Coming out of the show about one (o’clock) we decided we would eat a real Chinese dinner – a strictly first class one. So accordingly we found the most reputable place in town and ordered a four-buck affair. You remember that best selling book you told me about – the one about the Chinese family in New York? And how the author described a Chink meal as the best (in) the world? Well I didn’t think it was so exceptional but at least it was very different. If I can remember correctly we had chop suey, sweet and sour spareribs, shrimp, cold pork, rice, chicken morsels and perhaps a couple more dishes. I always wanted to eat a meal like that for the experience but I don’t think I’ll make a habit of it. Well the biggest part of the afternoon was ahead of us so we thought a look at the Iolani Palace might be worth the time and walk. Just recently they have begun to restore the throne room where King Kamehamaha and the queen ruled and that was the object of our sightseeing tour today. After the December 7 blitz such valuables as the crowns, chandeliers, rugs, drapes, and furniture were taken to the hills for safekeeping and just now they are being returned and restored as they formerly were. The job was about completed when we walked through. The building has all the artistry that is common to such places but the detail woodwork on the walls and the big chandeliers and fine furniture were especially interesting. But being a ‘dogface’ for quite a while and being somewhat isolated in our former station a look at such sights was somewhat of a treat. Well perhaps this is what you would call the second phase of our day off.

And as I did last pass day, I again went to the law library and browsed around. And then I thought perhaps this place might do me some real good so I spoke to the librarian and found that books could not be taken out but she gave me some good advice about making arrangements at the University (of Hawaii) to take night courses and promised she would find the necessary texts. But by now it was too late to go out there so that will be on the docket the next time. Well after looking around the Library of Hawaii we called it a day. This latter library is the largest one I’ve seen and I think it would compare to many of the best in the states.

On one of your recent letters you forgot to put an APO number on it and it was delayed a couple of days so they put a nice red stamp on it advising me to tell my correspondents my correct address. I know you just overlooked it. The package came the day I returned from the training. It was a very nice box and it is so heartwarming to get one. The ‘Russian’ peanuts are what I especially go for.

Yesterday, Sunday I was taking a snooze in the afternoon and someone grabbed me by the big toe. It was Dick who happened to stop by to find out when we could get together again. He told me he received his box too and was pretty pickled. He was in very good humor and looking rugged and healthy. I certainly hope as you do that we will have some time together but again as you say that is pretty improbable. We couldn’t get together today but hope we can soon. Although we don’t go out on pass so often he calls me up on the phone and occasionally finds time to stop in for a chat.

The affair with Wylma has been dormant for a long time since about a year ago I think or longer. Although I haven’t written her since that time I always think about her once in a while and wonder if she is okeh after all. Suppose she must be pretty tired waiting anyway and perhaps already has someone else. I figured this would go on for a long time, the war I mean, and romances don’t click under such circumstances.

Had a letter from Aunt Edna yesterday, a pretty long one, thanking me for the picture and writing about everything in general. Will probably answer it in due time.

Well I see the folks are once again back with you. I hope they find all the enjoyment in the world in their new place and that the weather doesn’t effect them too much.

I read in the papers today about the war situation and one person predicted an end in ’47. A prospect like that certainly bogs a fellow down and causes him to worry about the future. Sometimes you think what the hell, you’re losing a lot of your best time, you’ll have to start all over again when it’s over, and where will you be in say a year from now. I know you shouldn’t feel like that and always try to make the best of any situation but it’s pretty discouraging. If somebody hasn’t got the brains and the know how to stop all this crazy business then we better quit calling this a civilization. It doesn’t seem to me that people are getting smarter or more educated just better versed in how (to) beat out the other fellow and grab all you can.

Well I’ve written an unusually long letter for me and the news is about at an end so I think I’ll throw in the towel. You are certainly swell to write so often and they mean more than anything else. I know it must keep you pretty busy and you probably have all you can do anyway. So until next time –

Love,

28 November 1943

Dear Folks:

This evening seems so quiet and peaceful and I feel so much in the mood to enjoy it that it’s almost too good to be in the Army. This afternoon I spent some time on the beach and I really thought about all of you probably shivering in a cold Nebraska wind. It was a beautiful day and in the setting that reminds me of the postcards you see. The leaves were pretty big and more than once I was sent rolling. Next month I am scheduled to see Dick again if he can make the proper arrangements on his end and I think he can. So I’m afraid I’ll have to ask for a money order of about twenty-five bucks. Guess I was unduly apprehensive about Dick. I mean about what I wrote in my last letter. It doesn’t seem (like) six months ago that I last saw him but our next visit seems to excite me as much as the first. One of our more strenuous activities last week was a twenty-five mike hike and still I can feel some effects from it. Before I reached that last mile I thought I would collapse and never get up but somehow I did. Well so much for tonight.

Love,

29 October 1943

Dearest Folks:

This isn’t the best time to write a letter during the noon hour, but after reading the letter that I just got from you the urge possessed me so here goes. A good letter by the way, and a good (one) to use in answering. If you hadn’t reminded me probably I might have forgotten that you are having Indian summer – been a long time since I’ve been in a climate where the seasons change very much – at least it seems like a long time. And then regarding the item about hunting, pheasants are plentiful here too, but I haven’t seen anyone shooting them. It would be pretty dangerous I guess and maybe someone might think there was something the matter. But oddly it seems to me there aren’t many birds. Rat control is a considerable problem on the islands and perhaps they keep the bird population down.

And about the glasses – yes I still wear them most of the time. You know I busted my civilian pair on the boat coming over and of course all I have now is the GI’s that are a good pair and plenty serviceable. Reading quite a bit puts a strain on them sometimes and about a week ago a cyst started in the right eye but it healed off itself. I hope to have my eyes re-examined soon but the GI red tape always has to be cut first.

So Dick wrote about a Chinese girl too? There are white girls on the island but they are pretty scarce most of them having been evacuated after the blitz. A white girl at a dance is practically mobbed. And speaking about the blitz, it’s interesting to talk to some of the people especially the white ones, about the first days after the Japs hit Pearl Harbor. Suspicion and fears were everywhere and they had the life scared out of them. I wonder how all the Japs here would have reacted if Japan had taken over?

And next to the commando course. You should have seen me yesterday if you can’t imagine me as one. Yesterday we went through an Infiltration Course that involves crawling, and I really mean crawling, a hundred yards under machine gun fire and through holes with a little dynamite in them, besides crawling under barbed wire. The idea of bullets overhead didn’t worry me so much as the physical exertion to crawling. That doesn’t seem very far but oh boy it sure runs into work. A guy looks about like a rattlesnake worming along and we were so dirty when we finished it was hard to tell who was who. I felt a little funny once or twice when I saw a tracer bullet streak over but otherwise it was okeh. After this experience we went to the beach and bounced around the waves so that was some compensation for the dirt.

Well Mom and Dad since I’ve started this, evening has rolled around and now I’m about to take off for the show so better wind this up. The pictures enclosed are ones that I have taken over the past two months and maybe they will be interesting.

Love,

19 October 1943

Dear Dad:

I’ll aim this letter at you this time having received a good full page one today. And what a day this one was. I feel like a kid after a day at the carnival. This morning I went over a Ranger Course that took all my strength to finish. I was never so (tired) since the days (when) we used to climb in the mountains. To describe it most effectively I guess it’s about like some of the training pictures you so often see in newsreels. After I finished I swore I was going to hug my bunk for the rest of the day, but a swimming party was arranged and the first thing I knew I went along. The waves at the beach were big and powerful. Its good fun to get in front of one and let it bowl you in to shore and that was okeh till I came down on my shoulder into a rock. The rock took a couple of big hunks of skin off and bruised my arm a little but it feels fine now. I wish you could have been with me today and seen the beautiful ocean and the beach. Although to most of the guys the ‘Paradise of the Pacific’ has become a prison rock to them. It hasn’t for me. The more I see of this place the more I feel I want to see more of the world. As a matter of fact I guess I daydream of many things after the war, maybe pipe dreams and impossibilities but nevertheless I think of them a lot and hope a few of them come into reality after the end. I never become disgusted at Army routines or other things that are different to civilian life, but I do get impatient over the fact that so much of my time is being wasted when probably at no other time should it be so productive. I guess that shouldn’t be a complaint – so many others are faced with the same thing. Knowing that this is the case I am trying to do the next best thing and even the small advantages compensate for some of the loss.

Reading in your letter about K Lackey I can’t but help to remark. I can’t figure that guy out, especially sitting himself in a liquor store and probably thinking up more things than ever to elucidate on. I guess it takes all kinds.

Well Dad this is a good night to pull down the book and study till bedtime. By this time I have read the two volumes you sent and of course I intend to (read) over them again. Those books have become more less inanimate objects and more like friends every day, and the object of my complaint is that I can’t study them all the time. So I guess this is all for this time. Thanks for the long letter today.

Love,

4 October 1943

Dear Folks:

I guess I better write when I have a little more than the ordinary stuff that goes in my letters. In the first place, last night I saw a stage production of ‘MacBeth’ that was very good and superbly acted. Although it was a GI show and put on by the Special Service office, from what I’ve heard it would match about the best performance anywhere. As far as I can remember this was the first I’ve seen of the legitimate stage and from what I saw I would like to see more. I bought an autographed copy that I will send later and will give you a better idea of what I (am) talking about. You must think my life over here is about all filled up with good times and more like a vacation, but that isn’t the case. As a matter of fact this morning I saw a Ranger course demonstration that I will go through later. But the difficulty of the course and the hard work that will come didn’t interest me as much as the talk that the office gave before the demonstration. He is a veteran of Guadalcanal and other places in the South Pacific and what he stressed constantly was the necessary mental self-confidence and attitude. But all the atrocities and tricks that he said about the Japs didn’t affect me as much as all the mental conditioning that was necessary. Although I guess he’s right it all rubbed me the wrong way. I would hate to see myself with everything he says we should have. Well anyway if I get through the obstacles all right I should be in pretty rugged physical condition, although I can’t imagine myself being much of a commando.

On the lighter side of life I picked up the fiddle a while tonight and scraped through a few of the numbers I used to hack at a few years back. It had a good effect and made me feel like I wasn’t so far from home.

I’ve been hanging on for the news of Katie and I suppose that by now everything is well along. It sure seems like a long time since you first went to Denver.

Well I better get to bed early tonight. I’ve a big day ahead, as a matter of fact I’ll probably be dragging in like a wet rat. I never know exactly what to say or add as a last line but I guess I can best sum it up by saying I miss all of you so much that every night a lot of memories and things pop up in my mind that I didn’t give thought to before.

Love,

23 June 1942

Dear Folks:

I just wrote you last nite but another one won’t hurt and besides I got your last letter this afternoon.

Was surprised to hear that Dick was home. Thought he would go back sometime but not so soon. Hope he finds a good job soon.

Next Monday (June 29) we go to Yakima for intensive training and firing. It is about one (hundred) forty miles from here and over the high mountains past Mt. Rainier. They tell me it’s pretty hot over there, but we have our suntans so it won’t be as bad as the woolens. We will be there for at least a month so you can send me some cookies there. Suppose we will start using our sleeping bags again. It’s going to seem tough leaving these luxurious barracks but also good to get into the open again. During these operations we will have aircraft observations and dummy bombs of flour.

Still nothing on furloughs. Two of our men are on them but they are only for emergencies and the Red Cross makes a thorough investigation.

Payday will really be something this time with the fifty bucks. I haven’t heard anything about the two paydays a month, but I think it would be a good idea. Along with the raise in base pay was a special arrangement for dependents. For every $22 the soldier sends home the government adds $28 to it. This is mandatory for married men and only available for men with dependents. A pretty good deal. The $12.50 for my bonds will be taken out this month. As the bonds accumulate they will be sent to you.

Now to reread your letter and answer the questions. Yes I still go to church, there is a big brick chapel on the post. I use cream to shave with the lather type but with the tube stipulation, soap is alright. I’m well supplied with toilet articles but can always use razor blades, shaving cream, or face soap. The number of division is the Fortieth, the emblem of which is a yellow sun on a dark blue background.

Boy does it rain around here—wish Nebraska could get some of it. Guess that’s why I don’t mind it so much.

Tomorrow night the Camel Caravan is coming and if it’s as good as the one I saw at Roberts it is pretty good.

Guess I told you about my excursion in Seattle last Saturday.

I plumb forgot about Dan’s birthday but I must remember him someway—and sixteen too. That reminds me of the days that I was sporting a pout because I was too young to pedal a bike.

Well l am going to listen to Fibber McGee and Bob Hope so until next time.

Lots of love,

10 June 1942

Dear Folks:

Before another minute of eternity ticks through the March of time I better get caught up with you or you will think I have deserted or something.

Got the papers and your letter last week. Suppose you have both subsided from the excitement of the past and have got back into the groove. Katie wrote me a letter telling me all about it so I have a pretty good picture of what you did in Denver. Will she stay in Denver and go to school some more?

Because of the alert and the resulting confinement I have been unable to get out of camp to buy anything for her and I really want to get her something. Give me some suggestions. I sent her five dollars-hope it will ease my guilty conscience somewhat.

Today I signed an allotment whereby $12.50 will be deducted from my pay each month. For every $18.75 that I save you will receive a bond with a maturity value of $25.00. It will be mailed to you as I requested. This will amount to a savings of $200.00 a year, the maturity of the bonds. Instead of naming you or either of you as beneficiary I named Mother as co-owner, although it makes no difference. As a co-owner you are entitled to cash the bond at any time after 60 days. There will be no red tape or my signature. I thought this a better plan than a beneficiary, so that if by chance you are in need of the money you will have it. As you probably know we will get our raise of $50.000 this month. Also I intend to send home $10.00 in cash.

Got a letter from Dick telling me of his visit from Mary. Yes I think they are pretty dizzy over each other. He didn’t tell me how he felt but said Mary got sentimental when she left.

Summer seems to need plenty of coaxing to come into full bloom around here. For the past week it has been raining and blowing and no signs of the clouds going away. Expect to go to Yakima to the firing range in a couple of weeks and they say it is much warmer there. But I hope I will be transferred from this outfit before that.

All the time we were on the alert we had to carry our tin hats and gas all the time—even and while working and when the order came thru that it was discontinued we all threw up our arms in joy. Even most of the civilians entering camp had them. A guard here shot a woman–died last night when she failed to halt her car. So always stop if you are requested.

My little watch beats like a young heart and never fails me—and the zipper bag is like another hand.

Hope next time I will be home—I mean next year. Perhaps furloughs are still a slumbering image. Perhaps when I am transferred with the cadre I will be sent East. My application for commission in the Adjutant General’s department was denied in view of the numerous applications. Many of the fellows are having visitors—being from Spanish Fork, Utah. I am in a Mormon reserve, Utah battalion.

Suppose you heard or read about the sunken freighter near Seattle, but I’m telling you that when this big shore gets it’s steam up there will be death and destruction for Germany and Japan the likes of which have never been seen. Cologne will be ordinary and commonplace. Our air force will be so great and our ground forces so well supplied that it will be utter desolation for anything in our way. This is my prediction. No more ‘too little and too late’. We are waiting until we have a cinch and will have it.

Well guess I’ve made my philosophies and told you what’s what so there is little else.

Oh, for a bunk without brown blankets and a dinner from marvelous Mother Moss and a banking out from dime-dealing Dad.

Love,

11 May 1942

Dear Folks:

Guess I haven’t written for about a week so better get at it.

When I got in today your picture was here and is it swell. I’m so glad you sent it. I can’t adequately tell you how much it will mean. Then yesterday Katie’s(photo) came so with these and the one of Dick, I have quite a gallery of good-looking kin. Katie is getting prettier all the time but since the last time I saw her, in about August ’40, I believe, she seems to look a little more mature and womanly. When exactly will she graduate? I’d sure like to see her badly. I feel like a terrible heel for not sending you something beside the telegram on your big day last Sunday,but then I thought that if you were coming out to see Gram or up here I would send you fifteen dollars for the trip. Suppose your back is badly bowed by the season of the year but it would be swell if you both could get away from it all.

I’m still in the dark as to furloughs—as a matter of fact haven’t even got wind of a good latrine rumor. Other fellows seem to get these but no dice in this outfit I guess.

Several troop trains have pulled out last week and even tonite a long one is standing on the tracks waiting to be loaded. The latest info from seat 5 is that we won’t be here for longer than a month, but then this is all rumor. Today we were on the rifle range firing plenty of ammo. I didn’t do as good as I have before—a 154 out of two hundred. Last week I started to attend survey school. About three men from each battery were chosen, this is the brain part of field artillery. Hope I go long enough to get some benefit from it.

Last Saturday afternoon got a thirty-six hour pass so Johnnie, my pal, and I went into Tacoma but came home fairly early for lack of anything to do. This guy Johnnie is really a swell fellow—a tough existence ever since he was born, living under a drunken Dad and keeping his mother. Plenty handsome, modest, and sincere. His qualities remind me of Jim Sandison, but Johnnie is much more handsome. Black curly hair and big friendly eyes. Wish I had a picture of him.

The recent sea battle was certainly good news wasn’t it? Hope we treat ‘em plenty rugged from now on. A bad note has been coming up lately and that is gas or chemical warfare. The use of that will increase the horror of war many times. I’d think Germany would be afraid to use it because of his own extinction.

Last week one day I was on regimental fatigue and was handed a shovel and dumped off on a coal pile. Boy did I get dirty but it was a good workout. We hauled it to the hospitals and to the homes of the brass boys (officers).

It’s still been raining off and on for the last week but a couple of days were really nice.

Well I’ve got to write some more letters so better get around to them.

Your picture will be my most valued possession.

Love,

The picture is a 155 mm howitzer of our battery.

3 May 1942

Dear Folks:

I’ve wandered over half of the camp since supper and couldn’t find anything I wanted to do so here I am back on my bunk writing to you, which I should have done in the first place.

The box came about three days ago and did I have a good time opening it. The towels were just the thing and when I got around to the food I had about a dozen chow-hounds to get rid of. Everything hit the spot. Also got the Star Heralds and the Free Presses. I heard over the radio that there was plane wreckage with Bob [Redding from Minatare] among the crew. All were believed dead.

Well last Sunday we moved from the newer part of the fort over to the old section with the brick buildings. Our battery is sleeping in the usual wooden barracks but they are swell brick buildings all around. It was a heck of a time moving—the second Sunday in a row we worked and my morale was feeling pretty low. So for about all we have been doing is scrubbing, cleaning windows and the like. Everything has to be so darned perfect whenever we leave a place.

The building we eat in, and where a couple of batteries of our battalion are quartered is about the size of the Scottsbluff high school and fixed up elegantly. Finally after hearing and reading about the army’s modern equipment in the kitchen, I’ve actually seen some. The kitchen is a large room lined with brick tile and accessorized with Monel metal on most appliances. We have electric dishwashers and automatic potato peelers. And there is one machine that stands about four feet high and looks like a large drill, but is isn’t. It has a good size paddle on an off-center shaft that whips potatoes. Really a nice place. Seems too good to be true and I hope to break myself of the habit of grabbing my mess kit when chow sounds. We eat on Monel covered tables and use dishes and cups. All this reminds me of OP tomorrow. Report at 5:30 AM to work until eight in the evening. I’ll be plenty sapped tomorrow evening.

I have found a number of pit passes since coming to Fort Lewis and the first made its appearance last Saturday night. We were given eight hour passes from five until one so me and my pal decided to go to Tacoma. Well we waited from five-fifteen until eight-thirty, almost three hours before we got on a bus. I swear the ticket line was at least two blocks long leading into a postage stamp shack with but a single clerk selling tickets. I, and plenty others were pretty disgusted. An eight hour pass and three were spent getting a ticket and waiting for a bus. Finally about 9 we got into Tacoma and had a whopping supper but had to wait an hour for that. Every little place and large too was packed with soldiers. And repeat the above process on trying to get a bus home then getting up at seven Sunday. Tonite I tried to go to the show but the line there was inexhaustible, and the canteens reminded me of the May Company on Saturdays or trying to play polo in a submarine. I guess that’s about all of my peeves except the rain and KP.

The latest dope is that we will be here for at least eight weeks of intensive training.

This chilly weather here seems to have helped my appetite and am eating more than usual.

Have had a case of infantigo for the past two weeks. It is beginning to subside and is a lot cleared up. I looked like a guy out of a comic magazine with my face spotted up with the violet stuff the doctor puts on it.

Well I guess this finishes another issue. Hope to take advantage of the library if it isn’t like the ticket lines.

Given this letter is about all grip, well I’ll be more cherry in the next one.

Maybe I could elaborate a little more on the corny. In the first place you see fellows from all kinds of outfits. There are plenty of ski troopers here all abundantly equipped for mountain warfare. They train on Mt. Rainier. Then the other day I saw droves of good mules that are used by the pack field artillery. Guns [175’s] are bundled up in 250 pound pieces and packed by these mules. Of course there are tanks, mammoth railroad guns and half tracks. Some of the queerest names are attached to them, I mean the half tracks (lugs on the back and wheels on the front) such as “Cozy Coffin”, “Coughing Coffin”, “La Muerte” and “Chattering Coffin” etc. Then there is the Air Corps.

Well better quit now. 5 is awful early and I’ve got to wake up myself.

Thanks so much for the box. See you in the next letter.

Love,