Feb. 3, 1944

Hank-

Here’s a few lines to let you know how things go with me in the M.C. If nothing goes wrong in eight days we should shove off for home. A couple of platoons out of the same battalion I’m in went straight to New River so its just possible we might get jammed up too. All the shots are done with plus clothing issue and the range is over with too, so all we do is drill and try with a big bayonet. Speaking of the range, I done my usual trick of screwing things up. Preliminary day I scored 311, 6 points over Expert Rifleman and made 7 straight bulls at 500 yards and had a good dose of flu during the night and day at that. Record day I blew up on the 300 yard line with high score of the whole platoon in the bag. A couple of the boys were letting money on me being high man too. Well anyway I got 304-2 points short of Expert so now I wear a medal and get 3 bucks extra on payday. It’ll make the neighbors feel better seeing that iron cross on my chest and probably send a few drinks over too. A Sharpshooter isn’t so bad at that though. Guess we get the same rifles if we go to New River and that’s where I’m slated for it looks. There’s a rank odor connected with the way we pack and unpack transport jacks all the time too. Something tells me I’m going to see grass skirts and sarongs outside of a theatre in the near future at government expense. There’s a lot of lady Marines down here now a big draft came through from someplace. We never have much time to see what’s going on at the main station but last night I was looking for a garrison cap and stopped at the main P.X. for the first time. The place was full of them buying whatever they need and by sly peeks; I noted that there wasn’t a good pair of legs in the house. Nothing like you see around Hough Ave. at midnight. The way I have it figured, most of them couldn’t nail a man under ordinary circumstances so they’re taking advantage of strife and abnormal times to catch one.

How’s things in the navy in these days? You may have it pretty soft and I think you do compared with this madhouse but I think the smart thing to do is give up these small time jobs both of us have and sign up in the Merchant Marine as work or deck hand. Those boys are riding a gravy train compared to us and salaries are better too. Blood money or money in any form isn’t hard to take.