Company B, 2nd Platoon
53 M.R.T.C.
Friday Evening
Dear Mom + Dad,
I’ve been meaning to sit down and write you a decent letter but I haven’t had the time. I’ve finally located down here in Camp for at least eight weeks. The camp itself has 800 men in it and covers a great deal of territory. There were over 500 men who came down with us on one train and we’re all in the same company. I have five other fellows besides myself from town; Iv. Cotrell, John Kohut, Ray Dring, Ray Puff, and Vin Calabrese. You probably know Calabrese as he lives in the house at the foot of our hill. It makes it nice as they are all good fellows and have a lot of fun together.
We came in here yesterday afternoon and were issued beds, lockers, blankets, etc. We didn’t do much of anything yesterday but we did today. We were out drilling for 1 ¼ hrs. this morning plus another hour this P.M. I pretty tired from it all but isn’t real hard. I’ve had blood test today plus one class. I’ve just finished supper and have decided to write so as you can see I have had a busy day. We will not get too much more drilling as on Monday we start classes. I expect to spend most of my time there and not so much drilling. – They turn out the lights at 10 P.M. and wake us up at 6:30A.M. so we can get a good nights sleep. The food here has been very good and is much better than we got at Upton. It isn’t as good as I get at home but it has good quality, plenty of nourishment and all we want of it.
I have been taught by you to tell you everything so I’m going to state how I feel about being in the Army. I don’t like it so far at all as it is too inefficient and there is not enough planning. As you know I never like to be told what to do and that is exactly what they do here. I hate to be taken out of the life I was in which I was just beginning to get set in. Perhaps the thing that worries me most is that I can’t see how I’m going to get out for an awful long time and that discourages me. However it really isn’t too bad and I guess I’ll get used to it after a while. I’m keeping my chin and spirits up as much as possible.
I sure will feel a lot better when I get some news from you and some of my friends. It has been a week with no news or anything from home. In that week I’ve been in I’ve only spent $2.50. Last night I spent a dollar buying junk I needed such as stamps, writing paper, fountain pens, etc. So as you can see my money has been holding out well. I don’t need any right now and don’t expect to need any for a few weeks. I’m really surprised how I can get along with so little.
We have discarded our overcoats down here and believe it or not I got a sunburn today. The weather is beautiful just like spring. We are in quarantine for two weeks and can’t leave camp. After that we can go into Abilene, about 9 miles away if we want to. The barracks are very nice, I’m on the top floor with about 30 fellows, there are 30 more downstairs. We have individual lockers for our stuff. They have not issued us sheets, but we will get them in a few days.
I guess that clears up everything for now. I’ll write again Sunday. Please write as soon as possible.
Love Bob
P.S. Give my regards to Nana and I’ll write her soon.
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