Saturday, October 14, 1944

Dear Mary,

I have some hotel stationary so I may as well use it. I have two more appointments to fill and we have to sweat it out the next few days to [find out] where we will be shipped to.

There were quite a few that left this morning for Fort Dix, New Jersey. That fellow I came with finally got his barrack bags. He was burned up the last few days. When we left Texas, we shipped our bags together. I received mine four days before him. In the meantime he was without a jacket and couldn’t go out [in the] evenings.

Today he got so mad [that] he went to the depot and found them buried beneath the other bags. Boy, I wouldn’t want to lug his bags around. They’re both full; he still has his service gas mask, cartridge belt, helmet and liner, and some other G.I. equipment.

I had two army blankets and a cartridge belt I was wondering how to get rid of. They were pretty dirty from laying around the jungles. The supply sergeant at Texas took them off my hands. That was a relief, [and it] made my bags lighter.

It rained all day yesterday and it’s chilly [in the] evenings. In fact, the hotel turned on the steam heat a few days ago. They say it gets awful cold here up in the mountains. I don’t know what elevation it is but it sure took some time coming up the grade getting here. There was a flock of Generals here the last few days; [they] had a conference at the Grove Park club. The colonel here had the boys on their toes for inspections.

Walter won first prize at a Bingo party the other night. The prize was a phone call any place in the states. He called his wife up in New Jersey – was she surprised. His little boy about 2 yrs old said, “Daddy com home right now.” He got a kick out of that.

They had a stage show at the hotel ball room last night, [and] got a few laughs. The high school [is] selling forget-me-not tags today for disabled veterans. Well that’s about all for now. So long.

Pete