Jan. 21, 44

Dear Mom,

I really was happy today. I received 4 letters today. One from Miss McComb, Dr. Murry, Midge and you but they made me very unhappy this evening. They gave us another shot today and my arm is sore again.

I sure was surprised to hear about Miss Bessie and am really sorry. I enjoyed the letter Dr. Murry wrote me. Were there many people at the funeral and were there many flowers?

I wrote Aunt Edith the other week, but I haven’t heard from her yet. Maybe I haven’t gotten all of your letters yet but I will get them sooner or later. They are held up at the Post Office 2 or 3 days to get them sorted out.

To start the day off we had to carry all of our linen out and our beds and blankets and air them. Then we marched with our rifle and then we marched out to the gas chamber without our rifles and had a lecture on the gas mask and then we were given one and had to learn how to put it on. This evening we marched some more with our rifles and we also learned how to hit the ground while carrying our rifle. Around here everything is done to the count. We were hitting the ground in a field of sand and when we got through crowding on our hands and knees our cartridge left were full of sand and our rifle were full of sand. When we got back to our huts we had to fix our bunks and clean our rifles and cartridge belts.

Will write you tomorrow.

With love,

Your son,

Joe.