Dear Mother,
I sure hope you will excuse me for not writing you before this but I and we all here have been extremely busy here since I last wrote you and the adverse weather conditions have not helped it any.
It was quite muddy as yet Monday but we still went on our regular duties and Monday morning it was the coldest I have seen it here yet and I do mean cold. It was extremely sharp cutting cold coming from North and it lasted all day. We marched about two miles over to our auditorium where we heard the chaplain, the commanding general of Camp Barkeley etc. There we had pictures etc. We then marched back and had lunch. After that we went to lectures in tents (large tents with benches): one on bandages, gasses etc. Then when we finished dinner we assembled in the mess hall for War bonds information and were asked how much we wished to have taken from our pay. And I am going to wait awhile before I have them take anything from my pay and see how things come out then I can tell more about it.
I have not spent much as yet and probably will not unless something --- comes up.
Then yesterday we got up at 6:15, had a part of what they call breakfast here, and it is not much, more about it later, we there again went to our classes and had more lectures on bandages, gasses etc proper ways of addressing officers etc, we then came back to lunch to which again was not lunch, we then went on a two and a half mile march, rested 15 minutes then marched back.
There was one platoon ahead of us and I believe two behind us, I am in second platoon.
There was also an ambulance which drove up and down the columns and when it got back it had 10 or 12 in it, and that was only a 5 mile march. What will it be when we take our twelve mile march one way and the same distance back the next day, we are going to make a camp there and stay one night.
I am not looking forward to that with any great expectation.
The road along the march is about like the rest of the land here but the south side of the road and the camp seems to be a much better type land and it improves as we go South-West and we even find a few small secret pines or cedars around here and there. I could not tell for sure because I did not get close enough to them but the soil is still the same old clay, I have a couple small pieces of it which I will send you sometime for you to get a look at the wonderful clay here.
The night before last we were called into the mess hall for a picture or something and just before we left for our tents a wind came up and in increased in its fierceness until the air was full of dust and particles of sand soil, pieces of wood and can lids from the garbage pails and blew the big pails over and before I could get to the tent I had my eyes filled with dirt, my clothes all dirty and when about part way someone ran into me and we both fell down, who he was or what became of him I do not know but he sure made a noise, when I got to the tent it was just a flapping in the wind and I thought for sure it would lift itself from the ground and the air was sure full of dust so that you could hardly see and everything was just thick with dust I had so much dust in my nose and there was so much in the air that I did not sleep to(o) well.
Then last night I had guard duty (the entries south half of the battalion and it was a lot of territory to cover. The others only had about one fourth as much. I watched from 6:30 -8:30 and the later hour was plenty dark and all the ditches to skip and holes to watch out for because a person could sure hurt themselves if they were to fall into them because the ground is not level one foot square in any place because when it rains it gets well slushed around and when it dries in the awful wind it leaves it quite rough and it also was a little cold but I was sure thankful that it was not later. Before guard duty we were paraded before a lieutenant and he walked up and down the rows looking each man up and down the front and back and he leaves nothing overlooked, believe me, it is quite an occasion, the show and all.
I sure hope you will excuse me for not writing you before this but I and we all here have been extremely busy here since I last wrote you and the adverse weather conditions have not helped it any.
It was quite muddy as yet Monday but we still went on our regular duties and Monday morning it was the coldest I have seen it here yet and I do mean cold. It was extremely sharp cutting cold coming from North and it lasted all day. We marched about two miles over to our auditorium where we heard the chaplain, the commanding general of Camp Barkeley etc. There we had pictures etc. We then marched back and had lunch. After that we went to lectures in tents (large tents with benches): one on bandages, gasses etc. Then when we finished dinner we assembled in the mess hall for War bonds information and were asked how much we wished to have taken from our pay. And I am going to wait awhile before I have them take anything from my pay and see how things come out then I can tell more about it.
I have not spent much as yet and probably will not unless something --- comes up.
Then yesterday we got up at 6:15, had a part of what they call breakfast here, and it is not much, more about it later, we there again went to our classes and had more lectures on bandages, gasses etc proper ways of addressing officers etc, we then came back to lunch to which again was not lunch, we then went on a two and a half mile march, rested 15 minutes then marched back.
There was one platoon ahead of us and I believe two behind us, I am in second platoon.
There was also an ambulance which drove up and down the columns and when it got back it had 10 or 12 in it, and that was only a 5 mile march. What will it be when we take our twelve mile march one way and the same distance back the next day, we are going to make a camp there and stay one night.
I am not looking forward to that with any great expectation.
The road along the march is about like the rest of the land here but the south side of the road and the camp seems to be a much better type land and it improves as we go South-West and we even find a few small secret pines or cedars around here and there. I could not tell for sure because I did not get close enough to them but the soil is still the same old clay, I have a couple small pieces of it which I will send you sometime for you to get a look at the wonderful clay here.
The night before last we were called into the mess hall for a picture or something and just before we left for our tents a wind came up and in increased in its fierceness until the air was full of dust and particles of sand soil, pieces of wood and can lids from the garbage pails and blew the big pails over and before I could get to the tent I had my eyes filled with dirt, my clothes all dirty and when about part way someone ran into me and we both fell down, who he was or what became of him I do not know but he sure made a noise, when I got to the tent it was just a flapping in the wind and I thought for sure it would lift itself from the ground and the air was sure full of dust so that you could hardly see and everything was just thick with dust I had so much dust in my nose and there was so much in the air that I did not sleep to(o) well.
Then last night I had guard duty (the entries south half of the battalion and it was a lot of territory to cover. The others only had about one fourth as much. I watched from 6:30 -8:30 and the later hour was plenty dark and all the ditches to skip and holes to watch out for because a person could sure hurt themselves if they were to fall into them because the ground is not level one foot square in any place because when it rains it gets well slushed around and when it dries in the awful wind it leaves it quite rough and it also was a little cold but I was sure thankful that it was not later. Before guard duty we were paraded before a lieutenant and he walked up and down the rows looking each man up and down the front and back and he leaves nothing overlooked, believe me, it is quite an occasion, the show and all.
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