October 15, 1944
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310.25.1-4.2016 Transcription
Sun AM (no Church
possible)
15 Oct 44
[United States Army seal appears in upper left-hand corner of page.]
Dearest,
The last 3 letters I have written you have
demon-strated “paper-conservation”. I haven’t had any &
have hesitated to buy any. Also [again][1] from now on
I can write on only one side of the paper as censors use scissors.
Also [again][2] my letters may seem a little “different” for awhile
as it surely makes a guy hesitant to think somebody else is
reading it – however, I’ll get accustomed to it.
I’ll ad lib a few things about this “nameless-camp”:-
The second night here I saw “Porgy & Bess” by a New York theat-
rical negro group. Maybe some of the original actors were
in it. Regardless it was almost a 2 hr sh musical so I
imagine it had very little deleted out of the original script.
The third night here I sa[w] that N.Y hit called “Nothing But
the Truth”. The big attraction in the cast was Hollywood’s
Benny Baker whom you & I have seen many times on the
screen—anyhoooo the play was a scream. This Baker
play last night was attended primarily in an attempt to
get out of going to a welcome-get-together c̅[3] the nurses
in our outfit (I just wasn’t interested) [also 6 other docs][4]. Anyhooo, even after
coming back sorta late from the Baker play I was “soc-
ially-coerced” into going. I merely put on blouse, greens, etc
for 15 minutes to put in my appearence & then scram[m]ed.
The nurses as a whole are a better trained, better acting, better
looking bunch than the average—but of course our
female anesthetist (only one woman & 2 docs) would have to be [the] roarin’
drinkin’-type.
All over the camp they have little exercising units set
up every block or so. AND believe it or not I’m in my glory by
finding 3, 4, or 5 punching bags in a row—guess you don’t
know that our Home just must have a punching bag
room c̅ adjoining shower. I promise to have it sound proofed
‘n stuff so I won’t “drive-you-out” c̅ noise like I did the
St. Francis House personel. Father really final decreed against me.
The main glory of the PXes[5] (one every block, almost) is
a malted milk of the Wisconsin type [10¢][6]. I’ve learned something
funny—if I have an appreciable daily intake
of milk I don’t get constipated—otherwise I go 3 days.
Write me whether of nor the post script on my letter
last night was cut off—the one about bed bugs having
me bitten all to Hell. Maybe this falls into the category
[2]
of reporting derogatory things c̅in the Army, which apparently
can be censored BUT truth is truth!
Starting at noon today 50% of our officers are be[ginn]ing
to get 12 hr passes. I am signed up for a 12 hr pass
tomorrow but one is never sure of getting it to materialize.
I have only 2 things in mind—one to buy a hood for
my improvised fieldcoat, long & the other other is to see Aunt
Katherine for a good bath, clothes/washing, & meal (I hope!).
Yesterday I sent the foot locker down to Express.
The Express agent says it will not move out of their office
until we reach our destination. The only thing in it is
the Kleenex I wrote you about. I’ll enclose the Express
receipt &the key in this letter.
Speaking of letters—let’s see if I can answer
all the dope about Army mail. First of all I don’t believe
I would ever use “blue envelopes” as those are only so
that the officers of an outfit cannot read the private
information of their enlisted men.—it thus is read
by the base censor instead who doesn’t know them at all.
As you have seen already, I sign my signature on the
front of the envelope which certifies it past our outfits
censors & thus goes to the base-censor-of-the-theater of operations.
The base censor only “spot-checks” an officers mail—
grabs only random letters to check upon officers. I’ll try
to do what you say about writing regular enveloped
letters as often as I can, & use the v-mail only for speed,
short notes, & letting you know all is well. Remember,
dearest, there are going to be awful gaps in both your
mail & my mail—we just can’t beat it & we
just shouldn’t worry because of “gapness”. Oh yes,
my first few letters from overseas will be v-mail for
the sake of speed.
I could write lots about the officers (& some men)
in our outfit as a person gets to know them awfully
fast under said circumstances. I like almost 100%
of the guys—really! There are a couple who surely
need to be “told-off” but I’ll let somebody else do it.
We have a Chinese MD by the name of Kam Sung Tom,
He’s a nice fellow of the sorta young irresponsible type.
He goes great for all sorts of wierd stuff—like
hypnotism in Gynecology for example. He eats at
[3]
every single meal. 3x as much as anybody
else—yet he weighs 108 lbs; is about
5’10” tall; & can’t find any clothing or shoes
“slim” enough to fit him. Our C.O is a very
“silent-like” guy—infact nobody knows
hardly ever knows what he is thinking-or-
reacting about you. As time goes on I’ll
write about other personalities I suppose.
Oh, yes, I didn’t mention that our 40
nurses are almost solely from either Ohio or
New England. The Chief Nurse (a Capt) can be
spotted 10 miles off because of her routine
“Charlotte-Hatchism”. Charlie Gillespie, for
example, knew 4 of those nurses & I & others
didn’t know a one. Each doc sorta would
have liked to see a familiar face, I suppose,
but for me I would [have] liked to have seen only
Miss Herbster so I could write home Pediatric
hints.
I won’t go into all the descriptive
details but I will voice a panoramic
oppinion—remember how you once said
“Maybe after looking all around the United States
we could better make up our minds as to
where we might settle to live”—well,
all I will say as of the moment is this—
as regards climate, you sure as Hell would
have to go a long way to beat good ol’ Nevada
for real climate to live in. We will probably
never go back their [sic] but I will always
believe that Nevada’s climate & physical
environment is almost unbeatable.
Only 2 officers out of the whole 39 got letters
today so something must be wrong someplace.
Anyhooo, c̅ or s̅[7] a letter I can always send—
All my love, Dave
[1] Bracketed text is part of original.
[2] Bracketed text is part of original.
[3] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[4] Bracketed text written below text in parentheses.
[5] Post exchanges for shopping.
[6] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[7] Medical abbreviation meaning “without.”