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
Wallace's Tent on Salisbury Plain
Writing a letter with candle on clipboard, see Oct. 16 letter
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
February 10, 1944 Thursday
Dearest Bunny,
I received two letters from you today, which is unusual. But it was because they were sent at irregular times. In a way, I was sorry to hear that you missed some school, but only because it meant that you weren’t feeling well, not because you missed the teaching.
It is the most natural thing in the world for you to feel the way you do, Hon. I wish with all my heart that the situation that causes it did not exist. But since it does exist – thru no one’s fault except the “war,” which is the most earth-shaking and powerful force ever to influence people – we can only do what seems the easiest until it is over. I am so glad you found Dr. Kendall. You need some one to confide in personally. Get all you can from his advice, and let him help you as much as he can.
No doubt he can tell you how to get over that tired feeling; how to become interested in something, and to sublimate our much-thwarted desires. I hope he can and will. Also, things will be easier if we understand each other very well. We do, I think, on almost all points. I always, always love you, Honey, without any reservations at all, and what you do or do not do has no effect on this. I know you exceedingly well, and you are everything I want. I don’t think you could change that, Honey. You’re stuck with me that’s all. All I want you to be is yourself, Bunny. You don’t need to be a bit more “wonderful” or cheerful or happy than you really are. I love you, not how you feel.
Now in order to make me completely satisfied, there are just two things to do, or rather, continue doing. One is to be completely sincere in what you say and do for me. The other is to love me. That goes two ways. With you, I always mean what I say. And I always love you. I don’t ask for anything more, Honey.
Do wish I had more time to write tonite, but I know you’ll understand how valuable time is this part of the week.
With all my love,
Wallace
I received two letters from you today, which is unusual. But it was because they were sent at irregular times. In a way, I was sorry to hear that you missed some school, but only because it meant that you weren’t feeling well, not because you missed the teaching.
It is the most natural thing in the world for you to feel the way you do, Hon. I wish with all my heart that the situation that causes it did not exist. But since it does exist – thru no one’s fault except the “war,” which is the most earth-shaking and powerful force ever to influence people – we can only do what seems the easiest until it is over. I am so glad you found Dr. Kendall. You need some one to confide in personally. Get all you can from his advice, and let him help you as much as he can.
No doubt he can tell you how to get over that tired feeling; how to become interested in something, and to sublimate our much-thwarted desires. I hope he can and will. Also, things will be easier if we understand each other very well. We do, I think, on almost all points. I always, always love you, Honey, without any reservations at all, and what you do or do not do has no effect on this. I know you exceedingly well, and you are everything I want. I don’t think you could change that, Honey. You’re stuck with me that’s all. All I want you to be is yourself, Bunny. You don’t need to be a bit more “wonderful” or cheerful or happy than you really are. I love you, not how you feel.
Now in order to make me completely satisfied, there are just two things to do, or rather, continue doing. One is to be completely sincere in what you say and do for me. The other is to love me. That goes two ways. With you, I always mean what I say. And I always love you. I don’t ask for anything more, Honey.
Do wish I had more time to write tonite, but I know you’ll understand how valuable time is this part of the week.
With all my love,
Wallace
Saturday, February 9, 2008
February 9, 1944 Wednesday
Dear Bunny,
I have my garters on! Feel like an old, old man and am trying to find a heighth where they don’t feel too tight. This is my impression of how I feel [drawing! Image coming soon]
Tonite I found a very delicious chocolate bar at the P.X., called an “Echo.” Funny how I’ve missed it for so long. It is spherical, with a thick chocolate-nut outside and a maple filling. Ever seen one? Was quite enthused by it. Also I did a very worthwhile job of reorganizing my notebook. I filed some notes on courses that are over and got my active sections on top. I have a stack of notes filed in my foot locker already, that is quite impressive. They will be valuable someday, I hope.
We must have talked on the phone a long time on New Year’s Day. The call I made Sunday was only $2.04, but it was a very short talk. It was worth at least twice as much tho. It seems so good to really hear you. Almost as good as seeing you for a short time. Let’s me know you’re real and the same as I picture you.
Time does go fast, doesn’t it, Honey. Here we are in the seventh week now – in the middle portion of the cycle. We aren’t the youngest class any more, and it won’t be long before we’ll start doing “senior class” jobs – Officer of the Day, etc. Means we are continually getting closer to the day when we can be together, and will have another chance to break up the army’s apparent design to keep us apart. That’s what I’m waiting for, Honey, and it’s worth the wait.
I love you always,
Wallace
I have my garters on! Feel like an old, old man and am trying to find a heighth where they don’t feel too tight. This is my impression of how I feel [drawing! Image coming soon]
Tonite I found a very delicious chocolate bar at the P.X., called an “Echo.” Funny how I’ve missed it for so long. It is spherical, with a thick chocolate-nut outside and a maple filling. Ever seen one? Was quite enthused by it. Also I did a very worthwhile job of reorganizing my notebook. I filed some notes on courses that are over and got my active sections on top. I have a stack of notes filed in my foot locker already, that is quite impressive. They will be valuable someday, I hope.
We must have talked on the phone a long time on New Year’s Day. The call I made Sunday was only $2.04, but it was a very short talk. It was worth at least twice as much tho. It seems so good to really hear you. Almost as good as seeing you for a short time. Let’s me know you’re real and the same as I picture you.
Time does go fast, doesn’t it, Honey. Here we are in the seventh week now – in the middle portion of the cycle. We aren’t the youngest class any more, and it won’t be long before we’ll start doing “senior class” jobs – Officer of the Day, etc. Means we are continually getting closer to the day when we can be together, and will have another chance to break up the army’s apparent design to keep us apart. That’s what I’m waiting for, Honey, and it’s worth the wait.
I love you always,
Wallace
Friday, February 8, 2008
February 8, 1944 Tuesday
Dearest Marjorie,
Today I proved that I am willing to give my all to O.C.S. An order came out requiring everyone to wear “sock supporters,” or garters. To most men, this is what an order for bustles would be to women. Well, I bought some tonite. To be sure, I haven’t yet put them on, but no doubt I will soon. Be assured that I will wear them no more than usual, however.
Today we started our work on mortars. We’ve had the 60 mm at Wheeler; now it comes with the big one attached – 81 mm mortar. (The series of humps after 81 means millimeter.) These weapons go up high. Shoots over a hill you see. I like them. Tonite I bought a little notebook for “army officers,” so called. Has a lot of stuff we will need in gunnery and tactics – ranges and frontages, et al. Guess that brings my professional career up to date.
As to my private life, what there is of it is in these letters to you. Thinking of you is all I do that is not strictly military and what the rest of the outfit does. I refuse to share or let go of those thoughts, Bunny. Makes me feel like a civilian to think of you and the things you are doing at Westmoreland. And I do love you more every day.
All yours,
Wallace
Today I proved that I am willing to give my all to O.C.S. An order came out requiring everyone to wear “sock supporters,” or garters. To most men, this is what an order for bustles would be to women. Well, I bought some tonite. To be sure, I haven’t yet put them on, but no doubt I will soon. Be assured that I will wear them no more than usual, however.
Today we started our work on mortars. We’ve had the 60 mm at Wheeler; now it comes with the big one attached – 81 mm mortar. (The series of humps after 81 means millimeter.) These weapons go up high. Shoots over a hill you see. I like them. Tonite I bought a little notebook for “army officers,” so called. Has a lot of stuff we will need in gunnery and tactics – ranges and frontages, et al. Guess that brings my professional career up to date.
As to my private life, what there is of it is in these letters to you. Thinking of you is all I do that is not strictly military and what the rest of the outfit does. I refuse to share or let go of those thoughts, Bunny. Makes me feel like a civilian to think of you and the things you are doing at Westmoreland. And I do love you more every day.
All yours,
Wallace
Thursday, February 7, 2008
February 7, 1944 Monday
Good evening, Sweetheart,
Got two dandy letters tonite and enjoyed them very much. The pictures look a lot like the outfits here – the hat was what we wear, but the patch was not quite ours. Now they wear a triangular 3-color patch with the same picture as the one you sent.
I used to play contract some with Ralph Rieth and gang. Could see that it would be fun if you put a little time in it. Glad you have a chance to relax a little, Honey.
Will you see about getting my mother something for her birthday? I will enclose a dollar so that you can tell her honestly I had a hand in it. Get her something nice, she deserves it.
Am sending along something for you for Valentine’s day. It has been a few months now since I have given you one of these, so I thought I’d get back on to schedule. They didn’t have much to pick from, but all my love is inside it, so treat it well.
Yes, Honey, we definitely will be married at the very first opportunity, and will live together at the earliest possible time. All we need is a few days together to get married – when we can get them we will be. If I can get an assignment that would enable us to live together even for only a part of a year, we will do it. The thing that keeps coming to me is that maybe I’ll get assigned to classification here at Fort Knox. That would be swell; you would be very fond of Kentucky. Nice to dream about. I have no real basis for it. I love you more than I can ever say, my Bunny, and regret very much that there just is no way we can be together now.
All yours always,
Wallace
P.S. I’d encourage this correspondence with J.P. Morgan – good man to know.
Got two dandy letters tonite and enjoyed them very much. The pictures look a lot like the outfits here – the hat was what we wear, but the patch was not quite ours. Now they wear a triangular 3-color patch with the same picture as the one you sent.
I used to play contract some with Ralph Rieth and gang. Could see that it would be fun if you put a little time in it. Glad you have a chance to relax a little, Honey.
Will you see about getting my mother something for her birthday? I will enclose a dollar so that you can tell her honestly I had a hand in it. Get her something nice, she deserves it.
Am sending along something for you for Valentine’s day. It has been a few months now since I have given you one of these, so I thought I’d get back on to schedule. They didn’t have much to pick from, but all my love is inside it, so treat it well.
Yes, Honey, we definitely will be married at the very first opportunity, and will live together at the earliest possible time. All we need is a few days together to get married – when we can get them we will be. If I can get an assignment that would enable us to live together even for only a part of a year, we will do it. The thing that keeps coming to me is that maybe I’ll get assigned to classification here at Fort Knox. That would be swell; you would be very fond of Kentucky. Nice to dream about. I have no real basis for it. I love you more than I can ever say, my Bunny, and regret very much that there just is no way we can be together now.
All yours always,
Wallace
P.S. I’d encourage this correspondence with J.P. Morgan – good man to know.
February 6, 1944 Sunday
Dear folks,
I’m back on schedule this week with my letters. I have had this wee-end more to myself than any in a long time. Slept until nearly eleven this morning, and took a long hot shower before dinner. Feeling great now. Am writing this in the music room of the Service Club.
I got by inspections and all last week without a gig and had a lot of fun in our gunnery course. We have all our mornings devoted to gunnery, and I am very interested in it. We fired the big machine gun Cal. 50 last week and yesterday we fired a lot of new weapons. Started our course in grenades, mortars and rockets. Got right down to business and shot hand grenades yesterday, as well as rifle grenades and the new rocket gun called the “Bazooka.” It works on a very different principle than all other weapons and has a lot of power at close ranges. Will go thru almost any armor plate.
Gave my speech in military courtesy last Friday for Teacher Training. It went very well, but so do all the talks. There are no duds in this class. Every man has a lot on the ball and each one is trying his hardest all the time. Consequently, we have been here 6 weeks now and still no one stands out as being particularly better than the rest. They are all good. There a very few who for one reason or another aren’t up to the standard of the group, and they are the ones that stick out – not the good ones.
Aside from the fact that we are under pressure all the time, we have a lot of fun here. The instruction is the very best – they prepare the most elaborate demonstrations for us, and we see just the presentation of it. They have a demonstration regiment that gets them ready. We don’t get the hard work. When we go to a range, it is all set up. We just get down to firing immediately, then leave and they pick up after us. They have too much to teach us to take our time doing non-essentials. I have fired more in 6 weeks than I did all the time I was at Wheeler.
And, of course, the class is very much alive. Plenty of wits and humorous situations, as well as a lot of intelligent dicussion.
Now, how are all your colds and such coming at 23? Hope Bob’s is better. A cold that hangs on is miserable. I would advise moving to Kentucky. They do have colds here, but the weather is so mild you can get over them. We are having early May weather here lately. It is beautiful country – plenty of hills but different from New England hills in that they rise right out of flat valleys; stick up out of nothing. The woods are good clean pretty hardwoods. All in all, if New Hampshire was obliterated, I would live in this part of Kentucky.
Yours, with love,
Wallace
Dearest Honey,
Well, here’s another week-end. No gigs, no guard, no nothing. So here I am at the Service Club, waiting to get a call thru to you. I have no way of knowing whether you’ll be home or not. But then, there is no good reason for calling except that I want very much to hear what you sound like again. Felt very thrifty in that I didn’t go to Louisville this week, so I’m being good to me and calling you.
There, guess the Keene folks were some surprised! Seemed that way to me, Hon, anyway. Very, very good to hear you, and Grammy, too. You know, I love you a very great deal, Bunny? Even more than that. Every time I finish a job and relax for a minute, I think how lucky I am. Just thinking of you and pretending you are near makes me warm and comfortable inside. Makes it so I don’t worry about a thing. Course, I always think how much better it would be if we were together. But the main thing is loving you. It makes all the difference in the world between feeling depressed and lonely when things go wrong and feeling fundamentally contented and relaxed all the time. And I have felt that way since last April.
Last night Tom and I spent a typical evening that we both enjoyed. We went to a P.X., not the O.C.S. one, and drank beer and discussed things in general. We are kindred souls in a way. We can talk sincerely together about anything, and are agreed that truth is the important thing to work for. We are not agreed on many other points – but we do not argue, we discuss. Tom’s Irish-Catholic background and years spent among factory workers – he worked 10 years after high school before college – have given a different twist to his thoughts. He thinks politically and is all for labor, while my thinking is more theoretical and less tempered by experience. Some day we will go to Haverhill and visit Tom on his home ground – the “Tally-Ho.” It will be an interesting experience for us. There are so many interesting people that we will enjoy together.
Six weeks of O.C.S. are now complete. Every thing is satisfactory so far and I’m in good condition to keep going. Strange and unpredictable things happen at O.C.S., so it isn’t a good idea to plan on anything. It takes such a small slip up to break a good record. But I am more confident and more interested in getting thru than when I started. After 17 successful weeks, we graduate and are commissioned. As I understand it we then leave almost immediately for a month of practical work among replacement trainees. Then furloughs come. That should be in May sometime, or maybe June. It is possible that we could be married at the time I graduate, or if it’s only a week-end, as some get, we could be married in N.H. during the furlough. My, my, it isn’t everybody that gets a chance to plan their wedding as often as we do. It sure will be a good one when it comes. Until then, remember I love you as much as if we were married now. I look at your picture, Bunny, and tell you how I love you every day.
Always all yours,
Wallace
I’m back on schedule this week with my letters. I have had this wee-end more to myself than any in a long time. Slept until nearly eleven this morning, and took a long hot shower before dinner. Feeling great now. Am writing this in the music room of the Service Club.
I got by inspections and all last week without a gig and had a lot of fun in our gunnery course. We have all our mornings devoted to gunnery, and I am very interested in it. We fired the big machine gun Cal. 50 last week and yesterday we fired a lot of new weapons. Started our course in grenades, mortars and rockets. Got right down to business and shot hand grenades yesterday, as well as rifle grenades and the new rocket gun called the “Bazooka.” It works on a very different principle than all other weapons and has a lot of power at close ranges. Will go thru almost any armor plate.
Gave my speech in military courtesy last Friday for Teacher Training. It went very well, but so do all the talks. There are no duds in this class. Every man has a lot on the ball and each one is trying his hardest all the time. Consequently, we have been here 6 weeks now and still no one stands out as being particularly better than the rest. They are all good. There a very few who for one reason or another aren’t up to the standard of the group, and they are the ones that stick out – not the good ones.
Aside from the fact that we are under pressure all the time, we have a lot of fun here. The instruction is the very best – they prepare the most elaborate demonstrations for us, and we see just the presentation of it. They have a demonstration regiment that gets them ready. We don’t get the hard work. When we go to a range, it is all set up. We just get down to firing immediately, then leave and they pick up after us. They have too much to teach us to take our time doing non-essentials. I have fired more in 6 weeks than I did all the time I was at Wheeler.
And, of course, the class is very much alive. Plenty of wits and humorous situations, as well as a lot of intelligent dicussion.
Now, how are all your colds and such coming at 23? Hope Bob’s is better. A cold that hangs on is miserable. I would advise moving to Kentucky. They do have colds here, but the weather is so mild you can get over them. We are having early May weather here lately. It is beautiful country – plenty of hills but different from New England hills in that they rise right out of flat valleys; stick up out of nothing. The woods are good clean pretty hardwoods. All in all, if New Hampshire was obliterated, I would live in this part of Kentucky.
Yours, with love,
Wallace
Dearest Honey,
Well, here’s another week-end. No gigs, no guard, no nothing. So here I am at the Service Club, waiting to get a call thru to you. I have no way of knowing whether you’ll be home or not. But then, there is no good reason for calling except that I want very much to hear what you sound like again. Felt very thrifty in that I didn’t go to Louisville this week, so I’m being good to me and calling you.
There, guess the Keene folks were some surprised! Seemed that way to me, Hon, anyway. Very, very good to hear you, and Grammy, too. You know, I love you a very great deal, Bunny? Even more than that. Every time I finish a job and relax for a minute, I think how lucky I am. Just thinking of you and pretending you are near makes me warm and comfortable inside. Makes it so I don’t worry about a thing. Course, I always think how much better it would be if we were together. But the main thing is loving you. It makes all the difference in the world between feeling depressed and lonely when things go wrong and feeling fundamentally contented and relaxed all the time. And I have felt that way since last April.
Last night Tom and I spent a typical evening that we both enjoyed. We went to a P.X., not the O.C.S. one, and drank beer and discussed things in general. We are kindred souls in a way. We can talk sincerely together about anything, and are agreed that truth is the important thing to work for. We are not agreed on many other points – but we do not argue, we discuss. Tom’s Irish-Catholic background and years spent among factory workers – he worked 10 years after high school before college – have given a different twist to his thoughts. He thinks politically and is all for labor, while my thinking is more theoretical and less tempered by experience. Some day we will go to Haverhill and visit Tom on his home ground – the “Tally-Ho.” It will be an interesting experience for us. There are so many interesting people that we will enjoy together.
Six weeks of O.C.S. are now complete. Every thing is satisfactory so far and I’m in good condition to keep going. Strange and unpredictable things happen at O.C.S., so it isn’t a good idea to plan on anything. It takes such a small slip up to break a good record. But I am more confident and more interested in getting thru than when I started. After 17 successful weeks, we graduate and are commissioned. As I understand it we then leave almost immediately for a month of practical work among replacement trainees. Then furloughs come. That should be in May sometime, or maybe June. It is possible that we could be married at the time I graduate, or if it’s only a week-end, as some get, we could be married in N.H. during the furlough. My, my, it isn’t everybody that gets a chance to plan their wedding as often as we do. It sure will be a good one when it comes. Until then, remember I love you as much as if we were married now. I look at your picture, Bunny, and tell you how I love you every day.
Always all yours,
Wallace
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
February 1, 2 and 4, 1944
February 1, 1944 Tuesday
Dear Honey,
Tonite I have a slight case of the blues, for no good reason. Many little things make me feel down, tho. Guess the main one is that Phil Doucoumes, no less, dropped in on me tonite and I had only 10 free minutes to talk to him. He must have walked quite a ways to find me and it must have seemed to him as tho I was scarcely civil. You can’t get out of study period evenings, so there was little I could do except say hello and tell him what there was to say about the place. Told him I’d have more time on the week-end if he could come then. Fine thing when you can’t speak to a man from “back-home.” I don’t realize how tied down I am until something like that comes up. There just is no time to do anything except O.C.S. training, so it is lucky that there is nothing else I want to do here, usually. I have no distractions as a rule, so I don’t feel as tho I was being hemmed in very often. Phil is here in a casual company, waiting aviation cadet training. Hope I see him again at a more auspicious time.
Also I spent all my time after supper moving my bunk again – back to a spot just beside where I used to be. They closed up the squad room I moved to and moved us all into the big room I was in. Ah, futility. Also picked up a gig today, which gives me two this week. Had charge of the platoon during drill today and did about the best I’ve done. Lt. Shalala wasn’t there, however, so don’t know as much good came from it.
Oh, I could complain forever tonite, but I really don’t feel that bad about it all. I just don’t get enthusiastically despondent anymore. Just have periods where I care less what happens than at other times.
Still haven’t got that letter to the folks written yet. If I didn’t have to move every night I might get to it.
Well, bye for now. I always love you,
All yours,
Wallace
P.S. I hope this ray of cheer does much to brighten the corner where you are! I’ll do better soon, Honey, you wait and see.
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Dear folks,
I deeply apologize for not writing before this week. Now I see that the reason that I was waiting was to get the income tax blank. It looks pretty complicated, and a thing that only a civilian could figure out, so I’ll fiddle with it and return to Jay Russell for processing.
Life here has been zooming along as usual here. We go on studying one gem after another, each one bigger than its predecessor. We are up to the Caliber 50 machine gun now, which is a bigger gun than I have ever fired before. We’ve got some coming that will make it look like a pop-gun, tho.
Am taking a course in teacher training a couple of hours every day. It is very G.I. but you learn a lot of practical stuff that is necessary for teaching. We are going to give talks and lessons to the rest of the class for practice.
This week I have been acting as the Candidate Lieutenant of our platoon and have had some fun being official at it. It is a very easy job with quite a lot of power.
Was glad to get your letter. Guess there’s nothing I need, Ma; things run pretty smoothly here.
This is a very short letter, but I’m stealing the time to write this much. So just pretend it’s a big, long letter and I’ll send a good one as soon as I get a chance.
With love,
Wallace
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Dear Mrs. Nelson,
Marjorie did not tell me that you are going to have a birthday this Sunday. I have ways of finding out, tho, so I decided this would be the time to send my log over-due letter to you.
I went over the P.X. tonite and looked and looked for something that would make an appropriate remembrance. They didn’t even have a good birthday card, and I don’t know as you could use a “dog-tag” chain or a pair of brown socks. So I’m sending some pictures of George Washington I had, and hope you will like them.
Hope you have a swell birthday and a big celebration.
By the way, they say that anyone born in February is bound to be famous. That’s what my mother always told me, anyway. Maybe she is prejudiced, tho.
With love,
Wallace
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Hello Honey, it sure seems good to get writing to you tonite. Just seems good, that’s all. Guess it’s because I can write anything I want to now. Anyway, I love you very much and wish I could write more than I’ll have time to.
Tonite I found out that to date my marks in D&D have been satisfactory or better for so far in the course. That makes me feel rather good, since I know that should be my low course. Haven’t had anything else yet that threatened to get seriously tough. Teacher training might kick me in the teeth if I don’t do some work in it soon. I will.
Today we had some fun on an anti-aircraft gun that is indoors and shoots little plastic pellets by air-compression. We use it to practice A.A. fire. Fire at toy planes the size of Carlton’s white transport. There is a control board that has a switch to supply gun sound, recoil and battle noises. Turn them all on and you’ve got quite an uproar. We also crawled around some new vehicles – an M7 assault gun carrier, an enormous M10 tank with turret armor as deep as an arm’s length, and a big tank destroyer. A good many others, but these were outstanding.
Your dress sounded very attractive, but I still can’t see how you made it so fast. It takes me that long to sew on a button. Enjoyed your week-end letters very much, Bun. In fact, I’m still re-reading them. I’m all thru as platoon lieutenant tonite, and can return to the background for a while. I love you, Marjorie, you can always be sure.
Al l yours,
Wallace
February 4, 1944 Friday
Hello Honey,
Frankly I’m surprised to get a chance to write tonite. The week-end rush closed in on Thursday this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we are busy; Thursday, Friday and Saturday we are busy and getting a little panicky about it all. I couldn’t write last night because I had to prepare for a test on the 50 cal. Machine gun and get up a ten minute talk on Military Courtesy. Had both today. I had very little preparation for the talk, and it went quite smoothly in spite of that. Noticed that my voice is improving. Getting my tone better, I guess, with all this command practice and speech training. Sometimes my own voice frightens me! In this Teacher Training course each man gives a short talk and a prepared lesson to the class. Each candidate writes out a complicated rating form for each talk and lesson, one gives a critique of the talk and then there is a discussion of each one. Eventually I will see all the rating sheets on today’s talk.
Got surprised today again, Hon. This is really a war of the future – bumped into a whole lot more new “Buck Rogers” weapons today. We finished machine guns when we fired at anti-aircraft targets yesterday with the big 50 cal. That was my weapon! Scored a possible on stationary targets and riddled the moving targets at 500 yards. It is fired from a tank turret. But I was going to talk about Buck Rogers – after leaving machine guns we started on grenades, rockets, and mortars. [That’s] where we find the new stuff. We began work on the “Bazooka” today and will fire it very soon. That is strictly a futuristic job, and powerful. They say it will pierce 3 inches of armor plate – and it is fired from the shoulder! Whee!
Speaking of Buck Rogers, I have also been playing Buck Jones. Those moving targets we fired at are run on rails around a big circle. They go by a gas engine at about 15 mph. They go around all alone, but when you want to stop them you jump on to the side like a cowboy, kick, the clutch into neutral and pull back on a side break. It is almost as thrilling as firing. You run along side of them, grab a rail and jump. Pretty soon a foot lands somewhere on the side and you hang there with left arm and leg flying free. With your left arm you reach over into the thing and turn off the motor and then coast in working the break from the side. If you don’t work fast you ride right by the scoring platform and have to push it back. I piloted all mine into the right spot, tho. They look something like a railroad hand car with a big sail on them.
The reason I can write tonite is that there is not much to study for tomorrow, but we have to spend 2 hours in the study room. I have 94 things to do to get ready for inspection tomorrow but can’t start at them until 9:30. That gives me time to write you, anyway, so that’s good.
In one of your recent letters you said that you couldn’t become reconciled to us being separated. That’s easy to see. I feel the same way, when I think about it. The only thing to do is accept it and not think about it. Nothing is more unchangeable than the past. Being exasperated at what has happened is like thinking how near you came to not getting gigged, after the gig list is already posted! There’s just nothing you can do but forget it and work toward not letting it happen again. It doesn’t seem fair and should never have happened. But it did. Don’t try to fight it now. We’ve got a future. That’s what I keep telling myself. No matter how lousy things look – and they look pretty glum sometimes – I just say I can’t expect anything now – I can just wait it out and someday things will be valuable again. And that’s not just whistling in the dark. Things will look up. That’s more certain even than that they aren’t so good now. Our future will come. We can’t tell how soon, but it will. It doesn’t matter much what happens until then, really. We can wait it out. It’s interesting, even if it doesn’t mean much.
I love you always, Bunny,
Wallace
Dear Honey,
Tonite I have a slight case of the blues, for no good reason. Many little things make me feel down, tho. Guess the main one is that Phil Doucoumes, no less, dropped in on me tonite and I had only 10 free minutes to talk to him. He must have walked quite a ways to find me and it must have seemed to him as tho I was scarcely civil. You can’t get out of study period evenings, so there was little I could do except say hello and tell him what there was to say about the place. Told him I’d have more time on the week-end if he could come then. Fine thing when you can’t speak to a man from “back-home.” I don’t realize how tied down I am until something like that comes up. There just is no time to do anything except O.C.S. training, so it is lucky that there is nothing else I want to do here, usually. I have no distractions as a rule, so I don’t feel as tho I was being hemmed in very often. Phil is here in a casual company, waiting aviation cadet training. Hope I see him again at a more auspicious time.
Also I spent all my time after supper moving my bunk again – back to a spot just beside where I used to be. They closed up the squad room I moved to and moved us all into the big room I was in. Ah, futility. Also picked up a gig today, which gives me two this week. Had charge of the platoon during drill today and did about the best I’ve done. Lt. Shalala wasn’t there, however, so don’t know as much good came from it.
Oh, I could complain forever tonite, but I really don’t feel that bad about it all. I just don’t get enthusiastically despondent anymore. Just have periods where I care less what happens than at other times.
Still haven’t got that letter to the folks written yet. If I didn’t have to move every night I might get to it.
Well, bye for now. I always love you,
All yours,
Wallace
P.S. I hope this ray of cheer does much to brighten the corner where you are! I’ll do better soon, Honey, you wait and see.
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Dear folks,
I deeply apologize for not writing before this week. Now I see that the reason that I was waiting was to get the income tax blank. It looks pretty complicated, and a thing that only a civilian could figure out, so I’ll fiddle with it and return to Jay Russell for processing.
Life here has been zooming along as usual here. We go on studying one gem after another, each one bigger than its predecessor. We are up to the Caliber 50 machine gun now, which is a bigger gun than I have ever fired before. We’ve got some coming that will make it look like a pop-gun, tho.
Am taking a course in teacher training a couple of hours every day. It is very G.I. but you learn a lot of practical stuff that is necessary for teaching. We are going to give talks and lessons to the rest of the class for practice.
This week I have been acting as the Candidate Lieutenant of our platoon and have had some fun being official at it. It is a very easy job with quite a lot of power.
Was glad to get your letter. Guess there’s nothing I need, Ma; things run pretty smoothly here.
This is a very short letter, but I’m stealing the time to write this much. So just pretend it’s a big, long letter and I’ll send a good one as soon as I get a chance.
With love,
Wallace
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Dear Mrs. Nelson,
Marjorie did not tell me that you are going to have a birthday this Sunday. I have ways of finding out, tho, so I decided this would be the time to send my log over-due letter to you.
I went over the P.X. tonite and looked and looked for something that would make an appropriate remembrance. They didn’t even have a good birthday card, and I don’t know as you could use a “dog-tag” chain or a pair of brown socks. So I’m sending some pictures of George Washington I had, and hope you will like them.
Hope you have a swell birthday and a big celebration.
By the way, they say that anyone born in February is bound to be famous. That’s what my mother always told me, anyway. Maybe she is prejudiced, tho.
With love,
Wallace
February 2, 1944 Wednesday
Hello Honey, it sure seems good to get writing to you tonite. Just seems good, that’s all. Guess it’s because I can write anything I want to now. Anyway, I love you very much and wish I could write more than I’ll have time to.
Tonite I found out that to date my marks in D&D have been satisfactory or better for so far in the course. That makes me feel rather good, since I know that should be my low course. Haven’t had anything else yet that threatened to get seriously tough. Teacher training might kick me in the teeth if I don’t do some work in it soon. I will.
Today we had some fun on an anti-aircraft gun that is indoors and shoots little plastic pellets by air-compression. We use it to practice A.A. fire. Fire at toy planes the size of Carlton’s white transport. There is a control board that has a switch to supply gun sound, recoil and battle noises. Turn them all on and you’ve got quite an uproar. We also crawled around some new vehicles – an M7 assault gun carrier, an enormous M10 tank with turret armor as deep as an arm’s length, and a big tank destroyer. A good many others, but these were outstanding.
Your dress sounded very attractive, but I still can’t see how you made it so fast. It takes me that long to sew on a button. Enjoyed your week-end letters very much, Bun. In fact, I’m still re-reading them. I’m all thru as platoon lieutenant tonite, and can return to the background for a while. I love you, Marjorie, you can always be sure.
Al l yours,
Wallace
February 4, 1944 Friday
Hello Honey,
Frankly I’m surprised to get a chance to write tonite. The week-end rush closed in on Thursday this week. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we are busy; Thursday, Friday and Saturday we are busy and getting a little panicky about it all. I couldn’t write last night because I had to prepare for a test on the 50 cal. Machine gun and get up a ten minute talk on Military Courtesy. Had both today. I had very little preparation for the talk, and it went quite smoothly in spite of that. Noticed that my voice is improving. Getting my tone better, I guess, with all this command practice and speech training. Sometimes my own voice frightens me! In this Teacher Training course each man gives a short talk and a prepared lesson to the class. Each candidate writes out a complicated rating form for each talk and lesson, one gives a critique of the talk and then there is a discussion of each one. Eventually I will see all the rating sheets on today’s talk.
Got surprised today again, Hon. This is really a war of the future – bumped into a whole lot more new “Buck Rogers” weapons today. We finished machine guns when we fired at anti-aircraft targets yesterday with the big 50 cal. That was my weapon! Scored a possible on stationary targets and riddled the moving targets at 500 yards. It is fired from a tank turret. But I was going to talk about Buck Rogers – after leaving machine guns we started on grenades, rockets, and mortars. [That’s] where we find the new stuff. We began work on the “Bazooka” today and will fire it very soon. That is strictly a futuristic job, and powerful. They say it will pierce 3 inches of armor plate – and it is fired from the shoulder! Whee!
Speaking of Buck Rogers, I have also been playing Buck Jones. Those moving targets we fired at are run on rails around a big circle. They go by a gas engine at about 15 mph. They go around all alone, but when you want to stop them you jump on to the side like a cowboy, kick, the clutch into neutral and pull back on a side break. It is almost as thrilling as firing. You run along side of them, grab a rail and jump. Pretty soon a foot lands somewhere on the side and you hang there with left arm and leg flying free. With your left arm you reach over into the thing and turn off the motor and then coast in working the break from the side. If you don’t work fast you ride right by the scoring platform and have to push it back. I piloted all mine into the right spot, tho. They look something like a railroad hand car with a big sail on them.
The reason I can write tonite is that there is not much to study for tomorrow, but we have to spend 2 hours in the study room. I have 94 things to do to get ready for inspection tomorrow but can’t start at them until 9:30. That gives me time to write you, anyway, so that’s good.
In one of your recent letters you said that you couldn’t become reconciled to us being separated. That’s easy to see. I feel the same way, when I think about it. The only thing to do is accept it and not think about it. Nothing is more unchangeable than the past. Being exasperated at what has happened is like thinking how near you came to not getting gigged, after the gig list is already posted! There’s just nothing you can do but forget it and work toward not letting it happen again. It doesn’t seem fair and should never have happened. But it did. Don’t try to fight it now. We’ve got a future. That’s what I keep telling myself. No matter how lousy things look – and they look pretty glum sometimes – I just say I can’t expect anything now – I can just wait it out and someday things will be valuable again. And that’s not just whistling in the dark. Things will look up. That’s more certain even than that they aren’t so good now. Our future will come. We can’t tell how soon, but it will. It doesn’t matter much what happens until then, really. We can wait it out. It’s interesting, even if it doesn’t mean much.
I love you always, Bunny,
Wallace
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