Letter
11/09/1942
Monday 7:35 PM
Dearest Helen,
I suppose you will get a flock of letters all at once but nevertheless you will know I'm thinking about
you.
This morning before I called you I sent a quick letter just saying I was shipping out as I went down
to have my barracks bag inspected for shipping. I didn’t know then that we weren’t shipping
out until 2:45.
We pulled out of
Devins about 4:30. Destination unknown of course. We have been riding now about 3 hours and
still don’t know where we’re going. We do know that we are in the Air Corp and have been
told that we are luck to have been chosen for that branch of the service.
Everett Barber, Freeman Healy and Ernie are all in cars hooked to the same engine as I am but I don’t
know whether we are all going to the same place or not.
We just had chow. It was cooked in the train here. In paper plates. We had spinach baked potatoes bread
and butter and something like spiced ham, Ice Cream, cookies + coffee. It didn’t taste as good
as it sounds though.
You should see me – I’m sitting on one seat with my feet on the other. It’s so warm
in here I just have my trousers on and one of the heavy winter underwear tops that they issued us.
I had that under my shirt as it was quite cold at Devins this morning at 4 o’clock.
What a screwy place that is. If they ship us to Kalamazoo I don’t care so long as it isn’t
there.
This letter will probably be a long account of the trip as we can’t mail any letters until we reach
our destination. We might be there in ten minutes thought for all we know and may be not ten days.
Everyone is peeking out the windows but we can’t find out where we are.
We just found out we’re in
Troy, New York. It doesn’t seem as if we have been traveling very fast but I guess
we have traveled quite a ways. We have been here now about ten minutes. I don’t know what the
hold up is.
Next place we recognized is
Scranton Pa.
After Scranton the lights went out and my partner and I made a bunk by taking the seats apart. What a
night. I slept pretty good considering. I woke up about 5 o’clock Tues morning and some one
said we’re in
Philadelphia. We can’t recognize any landmarks though.
Breakfast – scrambled eggs with bacon mixed in, bread butter an apple, grapefruit juice + coffee.
I just saw a sign that says
“Delaware Park” so I guess that’s where we are.
I hope you can read this.
The train sways quite a bit and its hard to write. Perhaps you can take a map and follow our route. It
seems like a round about one to me.
In the last two or three hours we have been through Harve – De – Gras, Aberdeen Md. and now
we’re stopped in
Baltimore MD
The Corporal has just assigned guards for all night to-night and all day tomorrow. It looks as if we’re
in for a long ride.
Washington – we stopped at the station for a while and were surprised to be able to
get some candy and cigarettes but no soap. Cigarettes that’s all. We saw as we passed by the
Capitol dome Washington monument and Lincoln memorial. It sure looks crummy from whee we can see
it – that is the houses and the streets.
Next Alexandria and Quantico where the Marines train. Now we’re in
Richmond Va stopped to grease our wheels I guess. Oh yes we came thru Fredericks burgh too.
We saw a big pyramid of stones. I wonder if that is where hat famous battle was fought in the civil
war.
We had lunch and I took a nap. I don’t think I missed anything as all we can see are colored people
and a few whit people. The houses are all dilapidated and falling down. The people are very poor
I guess. We see cotton fields with a few people picking. All the wagons are drawn by mules.
We just had supper and ran into a thunderstorm. It is pretty dark and dismal outside so I guess we won’t
recognize much of any thing now until tomorrow. (Wed)
It’s getting hot down here so I have taken off my heavy under wear top and put have on a fatigue
jacket. Every once in a while a train goes whizzing by. It scares you for a minute.
We have “G” men in here with the regular officers
The last stop before we turned in that we recognize was
Florence South Carolina. Some on woke me up about 3 AM and said we had just passed
Savannah Georgia. We got up about six and by that time we were in
Jacksonville Fla. We had breakfast. Scrambled eggs with bacon coffee ham and an apple.
It is now 7:35 AM and just getting light. This is Wed. You can sleep. We were up about six and
Lord only knows what time we will get to bed.
It is now 1 o’clock. We haven’t passed any place of any importance since Jacksonville. There
are a lot of small stations kike Peace Dale, Wakefield etc. This country is terribly monotonous and
is now quite warm. All you see is whit pine trees a few palms mixed in and once in a while an orange
grove. There are plenty of black though.
Wherever the ground is bare the sand is so white it looks like snow.
I won’t write anymore now unless something unusual happens. I’ll send this as soon as I get
my new address
Write as soon as possible as I’m anxious to hear from you.
Here we are in
Miami. We arrived about 3 o’clock and its now 8:15 and we have just gotten in our rooms.
We still have to go somewhere and get some bedding. We haven’t gotten our address yet. When
I do I’ll send it along.
We have just found that our address may be anything for two or three days so the officer said don’t
put any return address on our mail until we found out.
I sent a telegram Wed nite when we arrived. I am sending this Thurs if I get a chance to mail it.
So long for now and lots of love.
Ted
PS We are living in a hotel. I’ll tell you all about it later.