Spitball Army

[Written to Alice in Frankfort, Indiana. Return addressed to Richard, Plt. 622, R.D.M.C.B., San Diego 41, Calif. Postmarked in San Diego, Calif., on 1 June 1944 at 8 PM.]

6/1/44

Pvt. Richard
Plt. 622  R.D.M.C.B.
San Diego 41, Calif.

Hi Sweetheart,

     Well, there is the address.  I’m afraid I won’t be able to send it air mail though.  I can’t get out and get any stamps.  Too busy.

     We got here at the base at 11:15 Tuesday night.  We finally got no to bed at 2 A.M.  They have had us running every since we got here.  I hope I’ll be able to finish this.  We got most of our uniform yesterday and we are sleeping in a hut with wall-board sides and a tin roof.  There are 21 of us in this hut.  We get up at 5:30 & go to bed at 10:00.  Since I’ve been here, I’ve had a total of 10½ hours sleep.  Not bad for 2 days & nights, huh??  We had our physicals yesterday.  (1 blood test, 2 shots, & 1 vaccination.)  Today we saw a short movie and got a haircut.  After about 20 of the 63 guys in the platoon had theirs cut and we had had mess, cleaned up the hut, and seen the movie, they raised the colors.  (They raise the colors at 8:00 A.M.)  If you see any hair on this letter, think nothing of it.  Just call me baldy.  My hair is about ½ inch long on top and there just isn’t any on the side of or back.  We just had a slight interruption.  Since I wrote the last page, we have been issued a pack and rifle, and we had chow.  Now, I have just about 5 minutes to do anything I want to.

     There [sic] idea here is to keep everybody so busy for the first 5 or 6 weeks that they can’t get home-sick.  They are off to a good start!!

     About every five minutes a plane takes off.  Consolidated has a plant and field right next door and the planes go right over our hut.  They are mostly 4 motor bombers (B-24) and they are never over 50 feet high when they go over us.  It sounds like they will take the roof off.  We couldn’t have that though.  Why??  Well, mainly because I sleep in the top bunk and that is practically on the roof.

     We just had classification tests to see how smart we are.  It only took us 1 hour and 45 minutes.  We will be off some place else any minute now.

     I’ll be expecting some mail soon.

Good night Sweetheart
     I love you with all my heart.
          x x Pleasant dreams
               ‘Nite  x x