November 26, 1942

Fort Benning, Georgia

Dear Sis,


Sorry I haven’t been able to write before but haven’t had time. We have the day off so I’ve been trying to catch up on my correspondence. I’ve written a letter to Alice and one to Jean Grinnell and a card to Bill Urban. I still have to write to Mom and Jack McDonald if my arm holds out which I doubt.

I got your card this morning, right on Thanksgiving day. They forwarded it from Livingston the day it got there!

I haven’t heard from Ruth R. yet and I’m getting pretty disgusted. I may have to find me a new girl. Ha ha. I might write to one of the girls you sent if I had time, but then I might pick the wrong one and all that effort would be wasted.

I wrote a card to Jerry a day or so after I got here, but I haven’t heard from him yet. I’ll write him a letter when I can. I heard from Fern a couple of days before I was transferred and answered at the same day. I haven’t heard from her yet.

You ask what I pulled on her. One night when Jerry and I were in town, we went into a novelty store. I happen to see a box with three corn cobs in it. The first one was red, the second white and the third red. There were directions with them; first use red cobb, then use white cobb to see if the other red one is needed, and a picture of an outdoor toilet.

I called Jerry’s attention to it and said we’d ought to send it to someone. I asked him if it would be OK to send it to his sister and he said it would. He got as much a kick out of it as I did. He got a letter from his mother a week or so later saying that Fern was rather indignant about it. Jerry said he couldn’t understand as she was usually took things like that ok. He wrote to her and explained so everything’s back ok now I guess.

We get a partial pay next week, Saturday probably $40. I’ll send you some if I can, but there’s no telling when I’ll get paid again. They said it would be about three months before things were straightened out and we got our full pay and all backpay. One of the fellows said he skipped three months and got $300 in a lump. I’d rather get mine in time if possible and I think I can work it with my individual pay book.

This training is plenty tough. We had to get up at 5:15 eat breakfast at 5:45 and march a mile to 8 o’clock classes. We have an hour of ju-jitsu, an hour of harness practice, running and calisthenics for an hour and an hour of tumbling from platforms rope climbing 30 foot, etc. In the afternoon we have four classes of chute packing but have to stand straight with hands clasped behind the back all the while except when actually working on a chute. All classes are 50 minutes with a 10 minute break in between. You should try running 20 minutes without stopping and then add five minutes a day for a week. We have to run 40 to 45 minutes on Saturday to qualify and go to the next stage of training. The exercises are tough too, and if you do anything wrong; like look away from the instructor while he is talking, or just don’t move fast enough to suit them, you get 15 to 75 push-ups. (Lift the body up on the arms holding back straight and the toes and hands touching the ground). The most I’ve made at once so far is 30. Try and see how many you can make.

Well, I’ll have to close for now.

Your loving brother,

Wayne

PS. Excuse my writing, I’m laying on my stomach and it isn’t the best position.