February 13 and 14, 1944 Sunday and Monday

February 13, 1944 Sunday

Dear folks,

Old Kentucky is bearing its teeth the last few days. Went down to considerably below freezing, and we spent some pretty chilly mornings on the range.

Spent most of the week studying and shooting mortars. They shoot quite a distance and, of course, explode when they strike. As observers, we have to judge from the burst of one shell just how far to move the gun to bring the next shell on target. We stand on a hill with field glasses and estimate ranges up to 3000 yards. My crew put on the best demonstration of getting onto a fixed target I have yet seen. We get on in four shells the first time we took a problem. We kept a good standard of quality after that, too.

We are going into our 8th week now, so soon the cycle will be half over. Time goes fast here. I believe I have learned more in these 7 weeks than I did all last year. I feel as tho I was trained now in the subjects we have had. After basic training I still had some doubts as to what good my training would do. What we learn here, I can use and feel confident in.

I am convinced that Carlton is a very good and very intelligent boy. Let’s all see that he gets a chance to develop his abilities as much as possible. Education and training mean an awful lot. Having talent doesn’t mean a thing if you’re not in position to use it, and it’s very easy to lose the chance to use it if you don’t get started along the right road.

I am not so convinced about my dear mother, who still uses only every other sheet of stationery in a pile. Must be very expensive.

Love,
Wallace


February 13, 1944 Sunday

Hello Honey,

Another Sunday, and here we are at the library again. It is a very clear and sunny day here, but colder than it has been all year. Actually seemed like winter yesterday.

Last night your valentine and package came. It was by far the best valentine I’ve seen, including the poem on it. Most valentines are so hopelessly gooey that it makes you wonder at the taste of people in general. The ones at the P.X. are so much along the lines of that army stationery I used to use some at Wheeler, that I decided in favor of sending my wishes by compact and by letter. Someday when we can call time our own, I’ll write some poems for the valentine manufacturers that show how I feel about you.

It has been quite a time now since I wrote to you. Two Days, I guess. That is a long time at O.C.S. Since then, I have mounted two guards, walked a post, passed a formal inspection, fired the 60 and 81 mm mortars, and dozens of other things. The mortars are very fascinating. If you watch you can see the shells flying thru the air. They look something like an arrow shot almost straight up from a bow. But they keep on climbing right out of sight into the clouds. Then you count to 15 quite slowly, raise your field glasses and set them on the target some 1200 yards or more away. For a fraction of a second you see, or almost “feel” where the shell explodes. It is called “sensing” the burst. Then you see the smoke drifting away and seconds later you hear the sound of the explosion. Finally you yell down the correction to make on the sights to the mortar crew, who are down in a gully somewhere where they can’t see the target at all. We have a crew of four to a gun. An 81 mm shell weighs around 13 pounds.

I don’t suppose that you’re very interested in all that, but I’m sure you would be if you could see it once. Aside from the science involved, it is very beautiful. Particularly to lay down a smoke screen with white phosphorus shells. Next week we will study 37 and 75 mm tank guns. That is a 75 you see on the tank above. We will have a lot on that.

Honey, I do hope you and Dr. Kendall can find some way for you to get some real relaxation. Why don’t you plan something big for your week off? Just think of what you’d like to do, and do it enthusiastically. Maybe you can find someone to go to Boston with and spend sometime taking in music and drama for a while. Let your imagination run. Think yourself out of Westmoreland. Whenever I want to get my thoughts stimulated, I find that just wandering thru a library and thumbing thru books is good. It reminds you of all the things you want to do, and brings new fields of thought to mind, that put new ways of doing things into your head. Sharpens up your interest, and makes you realize what a big, big world this is and how many things there are to be done in it. Most people forget that and come to think that their town and problems are the whole world.

Speaking of libraries, reminds me that you mentioned getting “Western Star.” I have never read all of that. The one I recommended was “John Brown’s Body.” It is one of the most absorbing things that I have ever read.

One of the more colorful episodes at O.C.S. was last night. They put on a party instead of supper. They had a big room fixed up like a beer parlor, and served potato salad, potato chips cheese, hot dogs and rolls, peanuts, cold meat, cigarettes, olives, pretzels, and beer. All cafeteria style. It was a very unusual masculine and military atmosphere in which the officers joined us. It was the biggest party I’ve seen the army put on, and we didn’t know it was coming until Saturday p.m. That’s the way things go here at O.C.S.

The standards are high. They give us the best and expect the best from us. I really like this place, it is very invigorating. Two things make it imperfect. You can’t relax if you want to, and you go around all the time with three or four swords hanging over your head. (Of course, this is all aside from the fact that what we study is fundamentally wrong).

After Guard Mount Tom and I went to a movie. Orson Welles in “Jane Eyre.” Then a long sleep until this noon. Of course, I woke up quite early this morning but I layed in bed and thought about us. Quite in detail too. How I’d love so much to be married and living with you, and how much I’d like to have you in my arms and love you. That is the only answer to our main problems. And, valuable as it is, writing letters is a very poor substitute. But granting that, there is still little we can do except re-direct our interests where possible until we can be together. I am lucky enough to be saturated with the study and practice of military matters. And that is a professional study, I can now see. I never stop loving you, but the desperate feeling of not having you is generally worked off by physical activity. That is, until I go to bed at night. Then I always imagine you beside me, and understand how truly I love you more than anything in the world. We will never be able to live fully until we can live together. Until then, let’s show how well we can accept circumstances and adjust to them in the best way for us.

I love you always,
Wallace

February 14, 1944 Monday

Dear Honey,

Happy Valentine’s Day and all. Did you have a party at school? For some reason we didn’t make much of it here. We did move over to the Tank Gunnery Department, and start our last phase of gunnery. Study cannons now. This puts us back on the tanks daily. That is good. If I’m to be a tank man I’d like to know a lot more about them than I know. We get a thorough course in tank gunnery. 3 weeks, I guess, one of which is a week of practical work at a place called Cedar Creek. There we fire and fire all week with every type of target and conditions.

Got a letter from the University today, telling how I stand on credits. I have 109 credits and need 128 to graduate. 19 still to get. 6 of this 19 is automatic, being credit for English 1, from which I was excused. I get the credits when I graduate. Also I will get 6 credits if and when I graduate from here – for senior R.O.T.C. That leaves a paltry 7 credits to earn. Pretty good. I could finish up easily in one semester and get some credits towards a master’s degree to boot. I could get all 19 credits in one semester if it were necessary. They say I need 9 more credits for a major in Education, or I could get a major in history for 3 or so more credits. We can no doubt save enough money to support us both for one semester anyway. Would you like that? We could live together and study together and live quite an ideal life to my mind. School with you and without a part-time job to take up time sounds likea close approximation to heaven. Gee I hope it works out that way.

Glad to hear that you feel better, Bunny. Please don’t let Westmoreland get you down. Just refuse to be restricted by it. Heck, you’re a civilian – you can go anywhere without being A.W.O.L. Enjoy it. I love you with all my heart all the time,

All yours,
Wallace