Dear Ma and Pa,
I am well. Hope yo are. Tell brother Walt and brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.
I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till 6 a.m., but I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing.
Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water.
Breakfast is strong on trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kink of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours hold you till noon when you get fed again.
It's no wounder these city boys can't walk much.
We go on 'route marches, which the platoon Sargent says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. a 'route march is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.
The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges, they come in a box.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan form over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5' 6" and 130 pounds and he's 6'8" and near 300pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving Daughter, Alice
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7 comments:
Okay that last line was funny, love Alice. Lucky I didn't open the browser all the way or I would have read that first.
Sounds about right. My son is somewhere in between Alice and those city slickers, as far as his account of life in the Marine Corps. A 155 pound kid, driving a 7 ton, heavily armored, troop carrying vehicle, preparing to go into combat, makes me realize just how easy I've had it all these years.
Is your son heading overseas Dave?
Yea, You think of some big burly Appalachian when you read it.
Funnnnnyyyyy!
Yea but at the same time some might think "yep" rednecks.Our veterans that are serving are from ALL walks of life!Joe Bidens son is serving.As are a lot of other sons and daughters.God bless them all and keep them safe.Peace!
Dave, as a former Infantryman, we always held the highest respect for those drivers that took us into places that we never even want to go. They were our heroes! How is your Son doing by the way?
Dave, I agree with Ric.
I was on an Amphibious Ship in the Navy. We landed the Marines on the beach. One thing that will always sit in my mind, was when a bunch of us squids were in an outside bar and got into a disagreement with some other patrons. A bunch of Marines came out of nowhere and cleaned their clocks. They then said they were stationed aboard the Denver and were apart of our 'crew'. I will never forget that, or them. It was our job to land them safely, and they did the real work after that.
I made many short term friendships with the Marines aboard ship. Ask any one of them about their Corpsman.
Thank him for me again.
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