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May 29, 1942

May 29, 1942Friday noon Ft. Ord, California Dear Folksies,         We have taken three pretty good hikes this week. Two were down along the beach and we found that we would not like to be sent to Libya, particularly if we are going to wear these heavy shoes. One sinks down so much in the […]

May 19, 1942

May 19, 1942Tuesday night. Ft. Ord, California Dear Folksies,      The last few days have been rather uneventful. We have done a lot of routine things and had considerable exercise, yet the time has passed rapidly.        Saturday morning we took a hike – in formation – just the officers – to the area where […]

May 15, 1942

May 15, 1942 Fort Ord, California Dear Folksies,        As you no doubt gathered from my request for some of my communicable disease notes, we are at last doing something at least vaguely connected with the practice of medicine. We have to teach the enlisted men, by giving a series of lectures. Some of the […]

May 6, 1942

May 6, 1942 Fort Ord, California Dear Folksies,      We arrived here at Ft. Ord on Monday at 10A.M. The troop train had been way ahead of time and consequently we were kept on a siding at Castroville (about eight miles from Ord) for almost five hours. Even at that, they unloaded us a half […]

May 3, 1942

May 3, 1942 Ft. Lewis, Washington Dear Folksies,      Thursday we graduated from Officers’ Training School. We received fancy diplomas direct from Commanding General White. He handed the diplomas to each one separately, after making a short speech which he read! The whole thing was very nice but we all felt that a General should […]

April 27, 1942

April 27, 1942 Ft. Lewis, Washington Dear Folksies,             Since my last letter things have been really humming. Friday morning we started out on a hike and so-called Bivouac. We hiked with our gas-mask packs, our “musette bags” full of extra sweater, toilet articles, extra underwear, extra socks, etc. We also packed our bayonets and […]

April 23, 1942

April 23, 1942

Ft. Lewis, Washington

Dear Folksies,

Yesterday we practiced “dry firing” in the morning then walked two miles to the firing range, and each shot 15 shots with rifles from the prone position. Most were better than we expected to be.

April 19, 1942

April 19, 1942

Ft. Lewis, Washington

Dear Folksies,

We really don’t need an alarm clock to be up at 6 A.M., because of Father Clark, otherwise known as the “Padre”, gets up at about 5:45 A.M. by alarm clock, to go to the nearby church to say Mass, and most of us are awakened while he is getting dressed.

April 15, 1942

April 15, 1942

Ft. Lewis, Washington

Dear Folksies,

Yesterday we learned marching, facing, etc. and also how to clean our rifles and our brass insignia. Today we took a short hike and then had a demonstration of field sanitation methods.

April 13, 1942

April 13, 1942 Ft. Lewis, Washington Dear Folksies,      We’ve really begun today! We were given rifles this morning and we work on a regular routine.      I think I forgot to tell you that we all had Saturday night sore arms. Yes, we had typhoid and tetanus shots Saturday. A few of the boys […]

April 11, 1942

April 11, 1942 Ft. Lewis, Washington Dear Folksies,      Please forgive me for not having written much sooner, but we have really been kept BUSY!!      Yesterday morning we awoke to the startling announcement that we were moving right away over to the “Officers’ Training School.” We moved and since then have had every minute […]