June 11, 1944

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