November 26, 1942

Fort Benning, Georgia

Dear Mom and All,

I received your letter and a Thanksgiving card from Wanda today. Evidently you hadn’t gotten my card yet when you wrote. We had today off and I’ve been trying to catch up on my correspondence. I wrote a letter to Alice, one to Wanda and one to Jean G (she wrote, and I had to answer it), and a card to Bill Urban. I still have to write to Jack McD, if my arm holds out.

I found muscles I never knew existed in the past three days. We get up at 5:15, eat breakfast at 5:45, fall out at 7:20 and March a mile to classes. We have 4-50 minute periods with a 10 minute break between each half day.

We have one period of Judo (Ju Jitsu), one period of running and calisthenics (have to run 45 minutes Saturday without a break), one period of harness practice and rope climbing (30 foot), and one of tumbling from 4 foot platforms. In the afternoon we have four periods of chute packing and stand up all the while.

If I remember right, I wrote and told you about all this a few days ago, but I wasn’t sure after all the letters I’ve written today. Whew!!

We had a good dinner today, first good meal yet. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, several kinds of pie and cake, cold drinks, and coffee, cigars, cigarettes, etc.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough day. They add a little to each exercise every day and after skipping a day we get just that much more. I have quite a cold and it bothers me to breathe while running, but if I drop out, they’ll carry me in, because I’ll be finished completely. I got myself into this, by gosh, I’ll do it or die trying.

I had met Reed Dibble and remember him well. Dale thought quite a lot of him, how did he take the news? We have men here from all over the United States. The most happy-go-lucky bunch I’ve ever seen and the ones that have qualified are, bad for anyone to cross. This outfit is rated higher than the Marines now for toughness and fighting.

If one gets in a fight with anyone except another paratrooper and needs help, he just hollers “Geronimo” and they come from everywhere. They told us about three fellows who got into an argument in town. Two of them kept arguing and the third went into a telephone booth and called all the USO. By the time the fight started, the place and sidewalk outside were crowded with paratroopers.

Well, my arm tires and I’ve got to use it tomorrow so will close.

Love to All,

Wayne

PS. I ache in just one place – all over. Tell Jay to try running 30 minutes without stopping, or do 40 push-ups (lay flat on your stomach and lift the body with arms without bending the knees or back and only the hands or toes touching the ground); right, or lay on the back with arms extended and lift the legs up to a 45° angle then spread the legs far apart and bring them together keeping the knees straight about 30 times then let the legs down only 2 inches at a time and stop 2 inches from the ground and put them back up the same speed.

If he tries the latter have him pound his stomach hard with his fist or it will be sore for a week. If he starts with a few and adds a little every day, he will be able to do it easily. That’s what I had to do yesterday along with all the rest of it

PPS. I’ll bet I addressed that card and letter to Mansfield instead of Crooked Creek. I did the same on this, but noticed it in time.