Dad recieved this letter from his buddy Ed in `42. Dad had tried to join the marines with Ed & a couple other boys from Danbury,Ct. but couldnt enlist because of blindness in his left eye. He was later drafted into the Army in Nov 42.

postmarked Parris Island, SC. June 7, 1942

Hi! Stan,

What`s cooking? Please dont mention beer to me because we got a tavern here but us boots cant go in yet. This is boot camp & until we go through it they call us boots or sh$tbirds. It`s pretty dam tough down here but i kind of like it in a way. I just saw "The Shores of Tripoli" down here and is it a lot of Bullsh$t. Us guys dont see many uniforms just dungarees all the time. We scrubb them at night and in the morning put them on wet. We get up at 4 and if the sarge is sore we get up at 3 and go to bed at nine if

they let us. They take us for a hike and if we look tired on the way we run all the way back. Our rifles weigh about 9 lbs, on a hike we have them slung on our back when you run the butt keeps hitting you in the a$$ and beside the cartrige belt, bayonet & canteen of water. The water here tast like pi$$ & in the afternoon the sun gets it pretty hot. I only been here 9 weeks but my shoes need retreading. I almost got in the brigg for pulling a guys bunk on the floor. Last Sunday we turned the place upside down, four guys like Chet Oseicki were trying to take me down but they didnt make out we had a lot of fun. We shot 22`s today in a week we`ll shoot for record with our 30`s. I got to show some of these Tenessee boys some shooting because if i get 237 out of 250 shots thats expert and they give you a medal and 5 bucks a month raise. Theres a guy here named Pearson from Danbury here says to tell you not to spoil any more hats. I heard Abe joined the Army.

I learned how to throw hand grenades anyway so far and how to use a bayonet they tell us to go for the throat becase all you need is not more than 2 inches of steel and it pulls out quicker. Tomorrow we shoot in the morning and work pick & shovel in the afternoon. I`ll send you some action snapshots as soon as we get some freedom after boot camp. We got some nice beaches here but theres stingrays in the water & there poisonous.I hope they send me to Cuba because you can get layed for a cigarette or a bar of soap.

Every week we have inspection, two of the guys had the crabs but no hand clapps yet. I dont know what write about anymore so if you write ask alot of questions & have a dozen or so beers for me because it will be long time before i get any. I got 5 bucks pay coming in about 3 weeks. I`ll close now so take care.

Your Pal

Pvt. Ed

P.S. Tell the boys i was asking.

I was hoping to find more info on the fellows who were on last night so I sat there in front of the TV with a post it pad and pen.

Paul Fussell, Infantry

PROFESSOR and AUTHOR:

http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0...1272672,00.html

Glenn Frazier, P.O.W.

Book to be published in 1999!!

http://www.axpow.org/frazierglenn.htm

Walter Ehlers

M.O.H. recipient

http://www.ausa.org/dday/ehlers.htm

http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/ehlers.html

Daniel Inouye

Senator

http://www.senate.gov/~inouye/bio.html

Sascha Weinzheimer

Polio survivor

http://www.sacbee.com/276/story/393081.html

Earl Burke

http://www.384thbg.iwarp.com/rs_earlburke.htm

Here's a photo of my Dad with "Anzio Annie", one of the German

railroad guns in Italy. Those guns were hell

for our guys on the beachhead.

I've often thought that one of the worst things must've

been the noise of war. We can see photos and read accounts, but we can't

ever hear the actual SOUND of war. It must've been unimaginable.

When my Dad came home, he had to get a job right away to help his parents.

One of the first jobs he had was working for a General Motors plant.

Now, my father was a WORKER all his life. As a youngster, he worked cleaning

chicken coops and stables, mowing lawns etc and later in his life he held 3 jobs

to support his family ( and 2 of those jobs were physical labor). He was

never a "quitter" , so you can imagine how stunned I was to find paperwork

from GM showing that he'd quit. Under "reason for leaving", he'd put: "Noise".

I think that's pretty much tells the story.

M2

I just have to "vent" you guys. One of the "people" I work with (a member of the

Looney Left) is also watching the "The War". He just harangued me with:

"This is why we should never go to war...we are cavalier with young kids lives...

it only benefits the generals & those in power blahblahblah..."

Frankly, I know this individual and like most of these folks - he wouldn't give you

a sip of water if you were in Hell, but makes plenty of speeches about "the troops" (but

ALL it is - is noise!).

When I pointed out that we HAD to go to war against Nazi Germany & Japan - of course

he had nothing to say & changed the subject.

I was restrained, but what I really wanted to say was: GET YOUR HEAD OUTTA YOUR BUTT

YOU JACKASS!!

There are an awful lot of these folks around and growing every day (thanks to our

"educational" system and so-called "mainstream media"). Frankly, sometimes I think we are in REALLY

DEEP doo-doo.

m2

P.sS. Gee! haven't I just brightened up your day with good cheer???

HI EVERYONE, 'OLE' MOOSE HAS RETURNED

WITH LOTS OF PHOTOS.

WHO ARE THOSE TWO ?

Attached Files

  20.jpg (Size: 179.48 KB / Downloads: 0)