I'm disgusted -- but I'm going to stick it out here if it kills me. This new place is really a trial. They don't credit us with anything -- we are starting all over again. The past month goes for nothing at all. At any rate, after I finish 13 weeks here, I'll go to Canidate's school. And after 4 weeks there, I'll go to Fort Sill, Officers Training School. Then after 3 months I'll be eligible for a furlough if I'm still in the U.S. If you add that up you see that the chances are I won't get home before next August.
Of course none of the above is certain. Even our officers don't know how long we are to be here -- but they're starting us in at the beginning anyway. One thing is certain -- we were all chosen as potential officers -- so we shall have a chance at Canidate's school here anyway. It's going to take a lot of patience to go through cannoneers training -- after the interesting stuff we were getting at F-10 + tellephone communications. But if I want to be a feild artillery officer, I shall have to do it. This whole plan is an experiment, I understand, and its though being a guinea big -- but I'm going to do it.
All of us are discouraged and would rather have stayed where we were for basic training - but this is the army. Moreover, when I think of the sacrafices the boys are making over there -- I can certainly stand this. Having told you about that, I'll answer your questions and deal with business. I have not yet received the regular subscription of Time. But you needn't send it to me any more. There are other news magazines here to keep me up to date until the regular subscription arrives. I'll let you know when it does.
The cookies arrived -- also Isabelle's candy -- I went back to the old battery to get them -- and I appreciated them a great deal. So did the fellows! They're a fine bunch, but of course we don't know each other too well yet. Incidentally, don't send a good can again -- I have no place to keep it and
will only have to send it back. A cardboard box well wrapped will do -- or old coffee cans. Also -- please don't send packages insured or registered unless they contain some valuable. It is too difficult to get to the post office to collect it.
Thanks for the picture of Dad in uniform. He must have borrowed it from Clair Groover -- who I think is on the other end of the line. But who is in the middle. (I'm enclosing the picture.)
Save the record for me -- it will be fun to listen to it when I get back. Sometime when I go into Fayetteville again, I'll make another. I'm glad you enjoyed it. You can have the picture framed if you want to, I don't care -- just so you save it. When we get into winter uniform, I'm going to have my picture taken for you. I'm still waiting for you + Dad + Grandma to have pictures taken!
I think I did tell you once, but I am only about 2 blocks from the old barracks -- so I can go back often. But it not the same -- they're going ahead in they're cycle -- and I've gone back to start all over again.
I'm writing at the Service Club. On their program this evening, private Marion Hargrove is appearing. He's the boy who wrote the best seller (humorous) on army life. It was featured in Life just 2 or 3 weeks ago. Alice must have read about it + you can borrow the copy of Life from her + read it too. He's not so humorous this evening -- he's trying to sell copy's of the army newspaper he's working for now.
Had a letter from Janet Bold today. She tells me Jane + Tommy Walker have broken off. Had a card from Mand Nesbit. + a letter from Ben Kauffman. I don't have the time to answer either just now, so thank them for me.
Yours, John