November 2, 1942
8:30 AM
Headquarters, 103 Medical Battalion, Texas

Dear Sis,
I got your letter last night and thought I’d better answer it right away. I came over here to the service company yesterday to have a broken windshield replaced, but they can’t get one until tomorrow so I am just patiently waiting.

That proposition sounds OK to me and you know I’ll do anything I can to help you through school. I sent a $90 money order and a five dollar check home yesterday, so I can’t send you anything right now, but you can take what you need from that for this month.

I’ll go you one better, I can send you $25 a month till I’m transferred, there may be a mixup then (usually is) and service record and payroll, so I might have to skip a month or so. If that should happen, you can fall back on the bank account until everything is settled. I should be able to send some more to the bank then too, if the paratroopers pay as good as the reports say.

$25 should be enough for me to get along on, and as I won’t be able to get a furlough till God knows when, I won’t need any large amount.

Any extra you happen to have, you can put in the bank, just in case something happens. I don’t want you to depend on me too much ahead as my future is very indefinite and may be rather limited.

I realize just what I’m getting into and if I ever go into combat in the troopers, don’t expect me back. They drop you behind the enemy lines for a flank attack and you’re on your own, they have no way of picking you up.

It’s pretty risky. They say “if your parachute don’t work bring it back and they’ll give you a new one”, but the trouble is taking it back.

Just the same, I’ve got too much red blood to sit around here, and at least they build you up there instead of taking you down. I got damn tired of this laying around, and I think that is what causes my little illnesses. We aren’t active enough to stimulate the constitution and it makes me feel listless and nervous.

I’m glad you see my side of it, though I was pretty sure you would. I don’t know just how I can explain it to the folks, though I wrote to dad about a week ago and tried to. I think dad will understand because he has a lot of that restlessness in himself, but we can’t blame him for siding with mom, who is the other way.

I got a letter from mom about a week ago, an answer to the one I mentioned parachute troops in, and she said they didn’t want me to consider it. But it was too late then, I’d already taken the physical.

Maybe you can kind of explain it to them, especially that I didn’t join after she sent that letter. Of course I knew they wouldn’t cotton to the idea even before that, but I guess they’ll get over it

Maybe the transfers won’t even go through, but I think it will. I know as far as Division it’s ok, and there’s no reason that it should be stopped there.

What did Junior have to say about it, anything? If you see him again, tell him to scribble a few lines on a card and ship it this way. If he gets into the service I want to keep in touch with him.

I imagine the folks knew about the transferring before I wrote. Some of the fellows got letters from home asking if it were true that certain boys from Wellsboro were contemplating suicide. They said it was all over town.

Don’t worry about me celebrating too much. I know how to control myself. That was the first I had anything to drink for about five months other than that bottle of brandy that Joe and I had when I was home. Four of us did spend $84 that one day, $120 for the weekend, but it’s the only time any of us had been out of the maneuver area. I spent about $28 but I bought a lighter, tobacco pouch, some books and other things out of it. I got a card from mom and a letter from Alice Saturday night. I was writing to mom when they had mail call, so I finished that and wrote a three page letter to Alice.

I haven’t heard from RR in a long while. I don’t know what’s wrong. I admit it bothers me a little, but if she thinks I’m going to put up with her fooling around, she can just back up and start thinking all over again. If she don’t want to write, it’s OK by me, I can concentrate on Alice then and might be better off at that.

Maybe that’s where the truth is. Maybe that’s where the trouble is, she knows I’m corresponding with some other girls, because I told her so, and haven’t heard from her since.

By the way, that night problem Jerry and I went on was definitely OK. The best looking redhead I’ve ever seen. For some reason or other, redheads always attract me. I know several of them in Alexandria. Of course any girl looks good to a soldier who has been in this wilderness a while, but I still don’t like blondes.

Mom said on her card that they were taking the baby to a specialist in Elmira and that he was a little better. I surely hope so, but if he still looks like me, I don’t know.

What are they doing, fixing skinny up for the army? I hope his foot comes along all right. He always was rather sensitive about it.

So you got along pretty good with Bert? Well, well!!! He is a nice fellow, intelligent, and fairly good looking. You could do a lot worse, I admit.

Say, how in heck did mom find out I had some cash lying around? I had been keeping that for a surprise trip if we happen to get furlough, or for Christmas if we didn’t. I had to send it home now anyhow, as I didn’t dare loan it out for fear I’d leave and get stuck for it. Like I did when Britain left owing me $30 and still does.

You talk about terrible weather up there! It has rained off and on, mostly on, here for the past week and a half. We had patients in the ambulance returning from cleaning and couldn’t find the infantry a couple of nights and had to sleep out. Of course, that would be the time for it to rain like hell and my buddies and I just three blankets over us.

It really gets cold down here, two of us slept on the floor of the ambulance last night with a comforter and two blankets (doubled) and five blankets. With all our clothes, except shoes and leggings, we slept pretty comfortable..

This is the last problem for now, but they have one more C. P. X. (command post) problem to wind up maneuvers. We expect to be in camp on schedule the 10th. Mail should be addressed to Camp Livingston after the fourth, and you won’t get this until after that.

Please excuse fingerprints. I’m waiting for the air to get warmed up enough so I won’t freeze while washing. Reckon I’ll have to shave too. I haven’t whittled them down since last Friday and someone may get very unhappy about it. When you write, tell me something about your friends, etc. I’d like to know a little more about your, how do you say, public relations? Who knows I might even take a notion to write to some of them if I think they deserve my interest ha ha.

I went to the USO show the other night. They have them during rest periods. It was “Playmates” with Kay Kaiser and John Barrymore, and old picture, but good. I also saw another good picture a couple of weeks ago but can’t remember the name of it. I’ll be glad when we get back to camp and I can patronize the new theater they’ve built while we have been gone.

Well, I think I’d better sign off because if I wrote another page, I’d have to put covers on it and think up an appropriate title. Your loving brother,

Wayne

PS. Just had mail call and got your card. Also got a letter from Alice at last. I read the card and I reckon I’ll close this and read the letter.

Love to all,

Wayne.