Wednesday night

Dear Folks,

Well I am back in my barracks after our week in the country. It was quite an experience and I enjoyed it very much. It was a lot easier and more pleasant than we had expected. We had heard some awful stories about Yakima but found out that they were just a lot of rumors. Yakima was a very nice place and I wouldn’t mind going back at all.

I suppose you have received my picture by now. I finally found time to have them taken during lunch one day, and got one of the boys to take them. I hope they will give you some idea of how I look after 2½ months soldiering. You can see that I’m not much thinner despite that time in the hospital. Some said I looked thinner after I was released but I didn’t think so. I always seemed to be about the same weight. The helmet and rifle are mine and not borrowed. So you see I am quite well equipped. Yakima was a swell little town about 10 miles from our camp. They had a swell (there’s that word again) V.S.O club there and I spent a lot of time there. They gave us free coffee and cookies every night, all the magazines we could read, easy chairs and radio phonograph. I spent about three hours one night just relaxing in an easy chair; reading magazines and listening to records. Boy was that nice! They sure made us feel at home there and we sure enjoyed ourselves. I went to a movie there one night and saw “Holiday Inn”. That is a picture I had tried to see for a long time and I never thought I would see it. You can bet I was glad when I saw it in there. Another thing I got in Yakima was a pair of laces for my leggins and some buttons for my overcoat. They were things I could never buy at the camp and I never thought I would get them. The stores in Yakima had lots of them. All in all, the town was a nice place to spend a few hours. It was about the size of Clifton and just about the same kind of place. We never thought we would find it to be such a pleasant little town. We came by truck from the camp every night and went back at 11:30 at night. So you see we didn’t even have to wait for a bus.

I am working in the orderly room now and back sitting at a desk. So you see I am right back where I started. One good thing, I am excused from battery duty- no K.P. or guard duty. I don’t even have to go on hikes anymore- even though I never minded them. I wear my O.D. clothes all day long and don’t get dirty at all. It is a job like Tom had at Port Tollen, I think. I have to go to class for army clerks every day from 1’o’clock to 3 o’clock. It will last for 14 days so it means we will be at Lewis for two more weeks anyhow. Then we will start our two day trek to India. We are going to