Rain Archives - Page 5 of 5

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,

28 April 1942

Dear Folks:

For some unexplicable reason I’m not much in the mood for writing but I better do it anyway.

Our tour finally terminated at Fort Lewis here in Washington—at least temporarily anyway. A large place accommodating ninety thousand men and set in a bunch of pine trees—very pretty but rainy. In fact it has rained practically all the time we’ve been here. But aside from the rain the sight of the barracks looked like a stream to a desert traveler. It seemed like old home week to sleep on a cot with springs, pull a sheet over you and go to the latrine all in one building. To eat in a mess hall and hang my clothes on a good rack and shave in a large mirror all rewarded the tiring trip. But one bad thing is the soot. The barracks and the mess halls burn a cheap coal and the chimneys lay down a heavy screen of dirt—especially in this damp weather. Gas would be a good thing here. The main part of the fort is pretty swanky with its red brick buildings and green lawns but our section is pretty drab. The rumor is that we will move next week to the new large barrack buildings. Today I was on divisional fatigue and was in the main fort cleaning a house where the general will live. You should have seen me cleaning woodwork and cleaning bathrooms. I never saw so many trucks—acres and acres and warehouses and all the rest connected with the operation of a place this size. Seattle, is about forty miles and Olympia about fifteen. Will have to see Seattle soon.

Hope you have sent my box by now. I’m waiting anxiously for it. By the way the address is changed again to:

Btry C, 222 FA Bn
APO 40, Fort Lewis, Washington

The package and your letters will reach me alright by the first address I sent though.

The nite we spent in Bend, Oregon was quite an experience. As soon as the churches and women knew we were coming they immediately broadcast a call for girls for a dance and other entertainment. It is a fairly small place about like Gering and when we landed there soldiers took over. We got free coffee and doughnuts and later a dance and the people were swell. But cold wow—the temperature went down to 20 degrees and when I got up at four in the morning frost was a half inch thick on my sleeping bag. I slept warm though even if it was on the ground in the open.

The next nite we stayed in Vancouver and of course it was raining and miserable. Got into town for awhile—also stood on the Columbia River bridge with one foot in Oregon and the other in Washington. Boy the country is pretty around here.

Tonite I went to a show to ease lying around and doing nothing. Also went last nite. I still believe we will be given furloughs soon, but for how long I don’t know. All kinds of rumors are out as to how long we will remain in this camp.

Well it’s fifteen until nine and still light outside. I can hardly believe it.

Enough for this time—probably I never mentioned a lot of things you are wondering about but I’ll take care of that next time.

Wish I was home.

Love,

21 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Well this will be my last letter from Escondido. Tomorrow morning we are pulling out for—I believe—Fort Lewis, Washington. The officers intimated it would be a long trip so I believe that is the place. It is around 1,500 miles and we make about 200 (miles) a day so it will be quite a ride. Of course I hate to leave the folks in San Diego behind—I will really miss them. We have been sleeping in pup tents the last two nites so of course it would have to rain continually and on top of that my tent leaked—adding to my consternation.

There seems to be a lot to write about but somehow I can’t think of it. There will be about 700 men in our convoy of seventy or eighty vehicles and they are plenty loaded down.

Gramma sent me a beautiful English made scard today—feels so good.

Hope you have recovered from the phone call—guess it leaves on a little shaken by the miracle of it. Wish I could call you every week.

My new address is:

Pvt. HG Moss
Btry C, 222nd FA Bn
APO 40, Los Angeles, California

You can send the box now—if you send it when you get this, it should hit me about right.

I’ll write you often to let you know everything.

I believe after we get there we may be given furloughs—let’s hope.

This is a pretty gential letter but I’ll have a lot of time to write on the way so you’ll be hearing from me again soon.

Lots of love,

10 April 1942

Dear Folks:

This is one of those days that are conducive to letter writing and getting undone things done. It has been raining since early and now a little after one it is still coming down and seeming to draw one’s spirit down too. The other fellows are sleeping or writing or just shootin’ the bull over the war or what move we may make next. Usually on Friday afternoons we have organized athletics but because of the weather is has been called off.

Got your box a couple of day ago. It was knocked around pretty much but still intact enough not to lose the cookies. The sweater fits like a Hollywood bathing suit and I’ve already broken it in with the past few nites on guard duty. A piece of clothing other than a GI issue is like a new suit in civilian life. As to my suits for a suit you to want to make for yourself take your pick—except the black one—unless that is the one you especially wanted.

My pocket watch seems accurate and the zipper bag is handy as a toilet closet. I use it every day and have in it my toilet articles that I use to shave, etc. Formerly I had to scoop them up in both hands and hope I didn’t lose anything on the way so it fits the bill well.

This coast patrol guard duty gets a little tiresome trudging in the sand five or six miles a night. The OP (outpost) I am at now is housed in a little building with a fireplace and benches that was formerly used by some wealthy dukes for ‘picnics’ and steak frys after a swim. It is of stone and set between two very large summer homes that are really swanky. There are big places all along the route.

Guess we start getting our raise this month of $42. Hope I can send home some of it. We signed the payroll today.

Got an Easter card from Colson’s.

This is about all there is this time. Los Angeles had a blackout two nites ago.

I would like to call you up sometime soon say about the 19^th—Sunday about 7:30 our time (Pacific Standard Time).

See you in the next letter.

Love,

18 March 1942

Dear folks:

I have plenty of free time while I’m waiting to take my guard tour so I can catch up on any back correspondence. Today the battery begins its tour of battalion guards which will last a week so that will mean no going out for awhile anyway. Walking four hours and sleeping eight for six days gets pretty old stuff but we will get a 24 hour pass when it is over.

Last weekend I had another pass so left about four o’clock for San Diego and the folks. I was there in time for supper. When I got there Dick was sleeping on the couch and Gram was in the kitchen and I walked in and had my soaking clothes off before they knew I was around. Boy was it raining! In the evening Dick and I went to a dance. The next morning Gram, Dick and I went to church and in the afternoon we played 18 holes of golf. The Johnson’s (Mrs. E. Johnson and Helen) were there when we got back. I missed the last bus to Escondido but had no trouble hitch-hiking the 35 miles back.

I hope to get down again a week from this coming Saturday. Dick is really swell and we had a great time.

Well the war goes on and on and everyday I wonder what will happen next. This morning at reveille formation a circular about pay allotments was read. It said that all men in eminent prospect of being shipped should consider allotting so much of their pay to dependents or to their family. I think I will do this.

You say men are enlisting everyday, yes that is true, what I mean is that any man already in one branch of the service cannot enlist or reenlist in another, which means because I am in the FA I cannot transfer to the Air Corps (except flying cadets), Intelligence, or any other branch. Right now I’m hoping to get a chance at a commission in the FA as a clerk of some kind. I have applied for an application and believe my background of ROTC and college and banking will swing it. It is as an officer in the Adjutant General’s office. Each candidate is interviewed before a board of officers and graded on appearance, bearing etc, and I hope I can get over this hurdle if the chance comes for me. In my army intelligence test I scored 132 out of 150 and only 116 is required for an officer, and 100 for the Air Corps. That’s a pretty good rating.

The weather has been so sunny and the sky so clear, except for the rain last weekend. I suppose you noticed when you were here how big and bright the stars were. I can’t get over it. Suppose you know Palomar, with the telescope, is only 18 miles from here.

Well finished ‘Kabloona’ and ‘Mantrap’. Kabloona was sure a good one, so descriptive and such a study of values and the real worth of our ‘civilization’. When the war is over I’m going on a trip like that.

The oranges are pretty plentiful now and the other day when we were in an orange grove with the gems we all had our fill. Also lemons.

Patsy sent me another box of candy yesterday so I’ll have to answer and thank her. Gramma also sent a box of fruit, and cigarettes and cupcakes.

Well so much for another letter. I got all the Free Presses so I know about everything in Minatare.

See you in the next letters.

Love,