Dear Joe,
Apologies for not writing for such a long time. Ever since I’ve been in the army I’ve been writing that I am very busy and as each succeeding month rolls by I find myself getting busier and dizzier and now find myself in a whirl.
A few days ago we moved into a better group of barracks, leaving the inconveniences of “Tortilla Flats” to a new class of OCS.
Yesterday
it was announced that we have a toilet paper shortage in our new area here. We
are allowed but 2 rolls a day for our entire company of 290 men; then we were
strictly forbidden to put any newspaper in the bowls as this always clogs the
pipes. The situation is so ridiculous that it is funny. Of course, quite a few
of the boys, including myself, purchased our own T.P. at Walgreen’s in
Our school day begins at 8AM and concludes at 5PM. We have 8 periods of instruction per day with a 10 minute break between each one. Of course 45 min. for lunch.
We have 3 or 4 exams every week on our various subjects. As soon as the allotted number of hours have been completed in a certain subject we have an exam. If the subject is a “long one” it is broken up in to several parts and an exam given after each part is completed.
We have
finished our 5th week here and still many of our lectures here are
ones that we covered during our 3 week’s course at prep school in
Did I ever tell you that I’m a corporal now? Best part of it is the $66.00 per month. However, reason for promotion is simply that in order to send a soldier to OCS he must be a non-commissioned officer.
Bus
transportation to city of
I think this should sound familiar to you. We have in effect here a demerit system. The barracks are inspected almost daily and everything must be in its correct place or we are given a “gig” (demerit to you).
I received my first demerit for having my comforter rolled too loosely on my bed. Next one was for not having my clothes hangers spaced properly. The third and last so far was for bed made too loosely. However, we participate in a weekly ceremonial parade and the various OCS companies compete against one another; and as we marched very well our Co. Comdr. deducted two demerits from every man.
Once a week, usually on Friday or Saturday, we have a personal inspection in ranks and “gigs” are given for haircuts, shoeshines, belt buckles, fingernails, etc. I believe these demerits are regarded a little more seriously thus far I’ve escaped.
We had Thanksgiving Day off. At camp here we were served a very nice turkey dinner with many of the usual accessories, including ice cream, cake, and pies.
Today at mass (I’m glad to say we have 11:00 o’clock mass here) scapulars were passed were passed out to every man and we all enrolled. It is a special scapular called the “Scapular Militia” put out by the Carmelite Order for service men. It contains the promise “whosoever dies clothed in this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire”, and as a member of other privileges.
By the way did I ever tell you how much weight I’ve knocked
off? When I originally came to
We have had 3 hikes down here; first one for 5 ½ miles, next for 8 miles and then one last Friday for 10 miles. I don’t know how long our next one will be but each is further than the previous one and is completed in the same length of time.
Glad to hear
that you hold a position of importance in the
Drop me a line sometimes when you get a chance during working hours.
Sincerely,
Wally