Category: Letters

May 14, 1944
Sunday 1:15 P.M.

Dearest Mother & Dad

Well, honies, here I am in the Army and, I’m happy to state, getting along swell. If it wasn’t for being away from Louise & Julie and all the folks, I’d like it without reservation. As it is, I like it with only that reservation.

Mom, I’ve particularly thought of you on this Mother’s Day. Frankly, in the stew and confusion of leaving I forgot about it being so close, but the Day had a real significance for me today. I went to church on the Post here (I can’t leave the post) and heard a splendid service & sermon by an Army Chaplain. The church was full, and I thought of all the Mothers in this country whose sons are in the Army. I also thought what a good chance I’ve got to get along okay in the Army because of the things you have done for me, Mom. I didn’t send you a card or a present, but I wished for you today and if you could have read my thoughts I think you would have felt it was a swell Mother’s Day for both of us.

Mom, I surely appreciate your letter and the sweet poem. I brought it with me and intend to keep it. Dad, I appreciated your letter too and want to thank you for helping Louise with the furniture.

I have just prepared a bulletin of Late News on your oldest son, but I am sending it to Louise first & she can pass it on to you. It tells what I’ve been doing the last few days.

Write me soon and use the address as shown on envelope. I’m not “Dave” anymore, but “William D. Jr” so address me that way.

You all don’t need to worry about me at all. I’m fine, feeling fine and am not going to have much trouble getting acclimated. Write soon.

Love always
David

Pvt. Wm D. Johnson Jr # 34945847                    May 23, 1944
B. Co, 226th trng. Bn.
69th Regt. IRTC
Camp Blanding Fla.
“B” Co.

Monday Nite
9:45 P.M.

Dearest Mom & Dad

Just 10 min. till lights out but I want to write you all a note. I am fine but dont have time to do anything yet. May be we’ll have more time after we get started.

Got your note Mom before I left McPherson and surely was glad to hear. This is tough training, but I’ll make it. I’m in a Message Center and will train as telegraph operator & intelligence. It is still infantry tho & I have to take all the infantry trg in addition to the schooling.

Tell Macey & Rip my address when you write them. I haven’t had time to write them yet. Please tell Louise you heard from me & I’m fine. I may not get a chance to write her in a couple of days.

I’m in a specially tough branch. We’ve got to be the telegraphers & cryptographers about 500 yrds behind the fighting but we’ve got to be hard fighters to cope with the infiltration tactics & parachutists of the infantry.

Don’t worry about me, it is doing me good.

You all write & don’t count letters with me.

Love always
Dave

Pvt. W.m D. Johnson Jr 34945847                    June 2, 1944
B Co. 226 Trg Bn.
69th Trg Regt IR.T.C.
Camp Blanding Fla.

Thurs 9 P.M.

Dearest Mom & Dad –

Your letter yesterday, Mom. Surely glad to hear from you. Also had a nice long letter from Macey comparing notes on our training.

Dad, I’m proud of you getting elected 2nd V.P. of American War Dads. Also glad to hear from Mom that you are setting the woods afire as Mgr of the fur. dept. Also glad to hear of your prospective trip to Chi.

Mom, you were right in stating that I realize now I lived “like a lord” when a civvie. This life makes you realize it pretty quick.

I’m still doing fine. It gets hot here, but it rains unexpectedly and a breeze comes up now and then. They feed us salt on a scientific basis, so I think I’ll stand the heat ok even tho its pretty hot. As the Cap’n pointed out it isn’t near as hot as the pacific islands.

I won’t have any time until Sunday and won’t then if I catch K.P. which I am due to catch most any day now.

Macey seemed in good shape & very much pepped up over the prospect of seeing his family.

I haven’t written Rip but plan to tonite.

Dad, I haven’t heard from you yet. Hope all goes well at the store.

I’m getting pretty brown – You all wouldn’t know me. Also today I finished my gas training by going thru it & into gas chamber. I’m fine & hardening up every day & will be breezing thru in a few more weeks. You all write soon.

Love always

David

Pvt. Wm D Johnson Jr 34945847                    June 11, 1944
B Co. 226 Trg. Bn.
69th Trg. Regt. IRT.C.
Camp Blanding, Fla.

Sat 5 P.M.

Dearest Mom & Dad –

I know you all have been thrilled at the chance to see Jess & the chillun again, but I’m sorry they didn’t get to meet Macey as planned.

Dad, I got your letter and surely was glad to hear from you and thanks & thanks again for the $5.00. I surely appreciate it and will use it for something I really want to do when it comes along. Louise told me she visited you at the store last week & you were doing fine. You really have taken over in that business.

Yes the training here is rugged, but just when you think you can’t do any more, you find that they change over. Our M1 (Garand) rifle weighs about 10 pounds with bayonet fixed. When we practise bayonet fighting we have to whip the rifle around like it was a toothpick and that really calls on the muscles.

The other day we were studying anti-tank tactics and tank recognition & defense. We got out in a field and the tanks drove over our foxholes. They were trying to teach us as infantry men how to protect ourselves from tanks and fight back. All this stuff is pretty interesting, but sometimes you get pretty tired. They try to give us the more strenuous stuff early in the morning & late in the afternoon & seem to try to keep from killing us with heat.

So far we’ve completed courses is first aid for wounds, gas defense, malaria defense, and a lot of other things. We went thru actual gas (DNB – Tear Gas – not very dangerous but hard on the eyes & burns the skin) where we had to get our masks on in the gas etc, and then we marched about 2 miles with masks on. The tear gas was a very heavy concentration, then we went through light concentrations of mustard, lewisite, & chlorpicrin without masks just so we could get a good idea of the smells of the gases.

I’m fine aside from the fact that the army finds a new muscle in me to exercise every day with the result that I have a sore muscle every day – a new one. But they’re getting fewer & fewer so I guess they’ve about got them all. I feel good and guess (haven’t weighed yet) I’ve lost about 8 to 10 pounds.

Mom, I know you were in the usual stew with the family to feed and bed down in your little apt, but I know you all were thrilled to see them. I’m sorry Macey couldn’t see them on the weekend as he had planned.

I haven’t written Rip yet. When you all write him, give him my address and apologize for me and tell him I’ll write soon. They don’t hardly give us time to do the necessary things and writing is quite a luxury the way time is around here. Rip’ll understand about that.

I hope you all are well. While I didn’t exactly get to see you every day when we lived in B’ham, still I knew I could see you and I miss the thought that I can’t just run down to Mtg. any time.

Thanks again, folks, for the Father’s Day present. Which I shall enjoy spending when I see something I want but would ordinarily pass up as being too much of a luxury. You all write when you can and in the meantime here’s lots & lots of love to you both.

David

Pvt. W.D Johnson Jr 34945847                    June 27, 1944
B Co. 226 Trg. Bn.
69th Trg. Regt. IRTC
Camp Blanding, Fla.

Monday

Dearest Mother & Dad –

Surely was glad to get your last letter Mom. I haven’t answered it sooner because, as I have said before, I don’t have time to do much writing and I try to keep Louise posted as she seems so worry when she doesn’t hear. You all understand, don’t you. But I haven’t written Louise any too much.

I’m glad you thought to look at Rip’s horn & glad it is okay. I tried to fix it so it would last a while before I left.

I did K.P. yesterday and peeled the proverbial tub of potatoes & washed dishes mainly. We feed about 215 men in our mess hall. That’s a pile of dishes. But the Army has good equipment and a good system for handling.

Grandma really is bloodthirsty! Tell her I said she ought to come down to see me & Id let her follow me over our bayonet course where you jump ditches, into trenches, under wires, over logs etc & every few feet on the course there is a dummy which we are sposed to imagine is a Jap or Nazi and we make a lunge & drive the bayonet through it. All the while we’re sposed to be shrieking blood curdling yells and they really get after us if we don’t yell while making a bayonet charge. So Grandma would love it.

I haven’t written Rip yet, but you all remember me to him in your letters.

Dad I’m really proud of you in your new club work & I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying it. Your trip sounds interesting & I know you’ll enjoy it. It’s swell that Mom can visit Alice.

You all write as often as you can, but I know you have a pretty stiff correspondence to keep up but I’m always happy to hear from you all. Give my regards to G’ma & Dixie & all the family.

Love always

David

Louise tells me that Julie really loves to be with you all. (Included upside down on top of first page.