Dear Nancy:
Here’s that letter promised yesterday. I prefer to write on the typewriter and it’s free right now so here goes.
Of course it’s plenty hot again today and sky is as clear as a lake, but I’m getting used to it now and don’t tire out nearly as easily as the first few days. I’m getting a pretty good brown and have a little sunburn on my back that is beginning to peel. Last night or afternoon rather, went swimming in the river where we have a typical swimming hole you read about in Mark Twain. It’s a good way to cool off for awhile but in an hour or two you are just as dirty as ever. Well I won’t be going out of camp for a while anyway. This morning I fell in at reveille formation with the improper uniform so I’m confined for a week. I sleep so sound that I don’t hear the bugle and this morning I tore out of bed and put my pants on without lacing them, hoping I could get by, but the CO saw me right away and he got pretty sore; consequently I lost my pass privilege. Oh well I guess a week won’t hurt. Two mornings ago I slept right through until breakfast but because it was my first offense they did nothing about it. This is a fairly common occurrence and orders like this are made often.
Suppose you like the new place just as much as Mom. Wish I could have helped you move. Some experts predict the end of the war this year. Let’s hope they are right and that I can sleep in my bed again. I suppose for a while after I get home I will call you into a formation and call the roll, then have you police the area and line up for chow.
We will be here only for two weeks more then I’m hoping our division will cut loose with some furloughs, that’s what we are all hoping for and making it compensate for this dust bowl. Yesterday our battery fired and the hills sounded like great clacks of thunder. On the cover page of the Saturday Evening Post is a soldier looking in a sight that is the same type as is attached to ours. Our guns throw a one hundred pound shell up to eight miles; they are used to shoot over hills and into enemy formations and only rarely shoot at an object they can see. For purposes of observation and firing data we have very slow flying aircraft that are in communication with the guns by radio. These planes can almost stand still in the air, their stalling speed is 18 miles an hour and they can land and take off almost anywhere. Also they fly low and pick up messages attached to poles. This presupposes that they would be very vulnerable to enemy aircraft but their protection lies in the fact that they fly so low and blend so well with the ground that high flying planes cannot find them, but if they are spotted, an attacking plane will invariably overshoot this target because the observation plane flies so slow. Last night an anti-aircraft battery was firing and they kept up a roar for while. Well so much for shop.
Perhaps I can write you a letter for the Herald sometime when I feel like doing some writing and am more in the mood. Well guess this is about all. Not much but the same old stuff. Thanks for the letter and keep ‘em coming.
Love,
