Feb. 25, 1944
Dearest Mom & Dad,
Hello, how
are you today? Just a short letter to let you know that I am
well. Today we had a dress formation. At the formation we were given the
good conduct pin. It is the same size as the rest of the service pins. It is
red with 3 narrow white bands on each end. We were also given the Mideternin, African Campaign ribbon. It has a blue
background with brown, white and green bands on it. It really made me proud to
be given them and I will always wear them. The ceremony was interesting. We
stood in regular formation in full dress uniform. There were 9 Officers there
and as our names were called off we would go out and stand in front of an
Officer. There would be 9 boys go up at a time. The Officer would step one pace
forward and pin the ribbon on and then shake our hand and then step back one
pace. Then we would salute them back and make an about face and go back in the
formation. Some of the boys didn’t take the ceremony very serious. In fact some
of the boys took the ribbons off and are not going to wear them. I don’t see
how they can do that. One of these days I am going in town and have my photo
taken in full uniform. I will send one to you and to Myrtle so you can see how
I look.
I am still
at the job of running the movie projector. I am not showing any picture
tonight. We had one of Orson Wells’s pictures and it
was real poor. I showed it for two days and that was all I could stand to look
at it.
We are
going to have an inspection of tech supply in a few days so we are busy getting
all the records straight with the stock on hand. It is a big job but we are
almost through now. There are only a certain amount of boys that are willing to
work and help all they can but the rest just lie around and get all the credit.
I took on two extra jobs just to keep busy. I understand that they are going to
pay me extra for running the projector. It may be $15 or $20 a month.
There is a
B7 that comes over the camp every once in awhile and zooms over. If you think
they fly low there you ought to see them do it here. He will get just away from
the camp and then head towards us and go real low almost low enough to let his
wheels down and touch ground then he will pull up a little and skim over the tents.
They sure are a beautiful and when they come towards you, you can’t hear the
motors at all. After he zooms the camp he will pull it
up in a steep climb. Boy how those boys can fly them. Well this is just a short
letter so I will close for this time and so be careful and don’t worry about
me. I am well and getting plenty to eat. Give my regards to everyone.
Love
from your son
Howard