Monday evening,

2/1/43

Dear Tom:

Many thanks for your very informative letters. They are things that I work on every day and come in very handy. Everything you told me has been touched on out here so nothing you put in has been wasted. You certainly have the knack of explaining things so that I can get the idea. I learned more by your letters than I could get in hours of practice!

Today our battery was split up in three ways – commoners, communication and survey-instrument. I was one of the twelve lucky guys who were selected for survey and instrument work. It is exactly what I was aiming for and is most interesting. We work on three main instruments – B.C. Scope, transit and aiming circle. You of course are familiar with these. I saw them for the first time today and was properly impressed. They are used to direct the fire of the big guns and to lay the preliminary survey needed to bring them into position. It is going to be hard work and take a lot of math. But I will do my best and try and follow the instructor. They are going to go pretty fast since we leave for maneuvers in the Yakima on the last of March. Everything we learn now in these four weeks will be put into practice then and we’d better know how. Some of the fellows worked as surveyors in civilian life and are quite familiar with the instruments. I have seen them before but don’t know a thing about them.

I am going to ask you for a favor. We have to get some booklets for classes and I though you might be able to get your officer hands on one or two of them. We were told to ask our sergeant to get them and I have done this. I am also asking you in the hopes that you might have some of them. If you do or if you know where I could get them elsewhere I would appreciate it.

They are – TM-6-220 ; TM-6-200

FAB-161 ; FM-6-30

They are all similar in material, I think, and one probably would be enough. They deal with instruments, survey, map reading and map marking. If you can’t get them without going to a lot of trouble, you don’t have to. Most likely my sergeant will be able to get them as I am one of his favorite “yard-birds”. In any event I will be able to share the books with some of the others. I would rather have my own copy though as you can see.

We are going on the firing range all day Tuesday. We are supposed to fire from about 200 yards, both rapid and regular speed. Rapid fire calls for 10 shots in 60 seconds so you see I will be really moving at that time. Our rifles hold five rounds, so we shoot five, reload and then five again. I only hope I get some of the 10 shots somewhere on the target. We are going to eat out there as well as shoot so our mess-kits and canteens will be used. That last isn’t so bad because we are supposed to eat off the chow wagon for three days anyway. Our mess-hall is being varnished so we all line up with our mess kits, get them filled and eat in the open air. It is good practice for when we go in the field and makes us feel like soldiers.

So long,

Joe