Pvt. W.D Johnson Jr 34945847 July 24, 1944
B Co. 226 Bn 69th Trg Regt IRTC
Camp Blanding Fla.
Sunday
Dearest Mom & Dad –
We’ve had a siege of rain lately and it’s been pouring all day. When it does, everything we have gets damp because we don’t stop for rain around here.
Surely was happy to receive your two letters yesterday, Mother. It’s always good to hear from you. Louise had already mentioned how speechless Julie was over her activities at your house last week. She was particularly excited aver the electrical storm.
I really enjoyed Rip’s letter and program and Macey’s letter. I’m going thru the same stuff Macey is only I haven’t made an officer drop my rifle yet. In about 6 more weeks I go on bivouac for two weeks just like Macey is now and when bivouac is over we have a final week to clean & turn in all equip. and get ready to be sent some where & be attached to a division.
Being on the communications end, when we go on bivouac, we are the communications men in the command posts at the front line. We go with other companies some of whom are the enemy. We use blank ammun ition. They try to knock out the command posts and bust up our tel. Wires etc & we have to tel. messages re. the enemy & try to keep our lines clear & in operation. We have to do scouting problems and our last big problem is a 36 hour battle during which we move a number of lines, dig a few dozen fox holes, sleep in them (if we sleep) and generally play at war under battle conditions.
We eat “C” rations only for 3 or 4 days of bivouac, but we are all looking forward to it because it means this 17 weeks of terrific pressure will be at an end. I surely have toughened up and despite my age there are a lot of the younger kids who have fallen out when I kept on going. Every morning we double time for 20 minutes with full equipment; packs, rifles, ammo. belts, bayonets- & in short we have everything hung on us but our foot lockers. My feet have become larger & I now wear a size larger shoe than I did in civilian life. It’s caused by so much walking & the extra weight. We go over the obstacle course which includes hurdles, ditches, swinging ropes over pits etc with rifles & all equip. One of the hardest obstacles is a 7 ft wall which is slick as glass and about a foot thick. It’s a real ace accomplishment to get over it with rifle & equip. but I manage to do it. Lots of the fellows – many younger than I, can’t get over it.
I just mention all this so you’ll know I’m doing OK. Unless something about me breaks down that I don’t know about or unless the[sic] pull some new form of torture out of the hat, I feel that I’ll be able to take all the[sic] dish out from here on out in a breeze.
I’m doing well on my code. I’m now taking 10 words a minute whereas, as I think I told you, 8 a minute is the minimum requirement for passing and I’ve already ace accomplished that and we are only 1/3 thru our code training. It just takes a special knack to recognize the dots & dashes as they come buzzing in over the wire. Some people, no matter how smart, don’t have that knack. It’s a development of the ear for sound and usually musicians have it. You don’t have time to count the dots & dashes consequently you have to be able to recognize the sound of the characters as the[sic] come in like a machine gun rattling. For instance, here are some characters and you can see how keen the ear must be to distinguish between them when thy come in fast.
T = – E = .
N = -. A = .-
D = -.. W = .–
B = -… J = .—
6 = -…. 1 = .—-
0 = —–
These aren’t all the characters but will give you some idea how confusing they could be to someone who doesn’t have a keen ear. If you miss hearing just one of the little “dits” it changes the meaning of the characters. Since every – thing is code & some codes mean more than just the letter, it is important to get characters right. We never send clear text messages. Here’s how one looks Z047K 9BOL4 K0Z1C CCDD0 etc. The cryptography we are learning ties right in with TG (telegraphy) so we have something very interesting to break the monotony of the strenuous physical training & it really helps. We are also learning all about telephones, switchboards, and wiring. I’ll come out of here with quite a bit of knowledge I didn’t have at first.
We still seldom have time for anything but work. Please don’t think hard of me for not writing regularly. I think of you all many times and am about getting set to write sometimes, when they yell out that there will be a rifle inspection. Sometimes they do like this: We carry our rifles all day in the rain so at night when we get in we have to dry them out & clean & oil them to prevent rust. Then just after we get them oiled, they send out the word that there will be a dry inspection which means you have to take the rifle to pieces and dry all the oil off all the parts. Then you have to oil it again before you go to bed so it won’t rust during the nite. I have worked as late as 1 AM on my rifle.
On Monday morning we’re sposed to get clean linen, so we don’t make our bunks till we get it. They call out over the loud speaker that we’ll get clean linen tonite. So we make up our beds. So tight that you can throw a quarter on it & it’ll bounce back in your hand. Just as you finish making the bunk, they bawl over the loud speaker that they’ve decided to give you clean sheets, so you have it all to do over again.
By the time you get this, Louise should be on her way down here. I hope that I can get some time with her but I’m afraid she might be somewhat disappointed as she doesn’t realize how little time we do have. But it will really be wonderful to see her and I just wish Julie could come too. Tell Julie I will write again soon.
Mom, don’t worry about sending me a cake. For this reason: The officers have issued orders that we will have no food in the huts. This was brought about by the inspectors finding some cookies & cakes in the huts with roaches on them. So they just issued orders – no food. It is important that we don’t have vermin and the consequent possibilities of disease. Mrs. Mac sent me a lovely cake last week and we had to eat it all at once to keep from getting caught with food. They told us they would court Martial the next guy caught with food around his bunk. It seems not worth the effort to you to bake a cake & sent it when I have to cram it down along with the other 15 guys in our hut so we can eat it quick and destroy the evidence.
Don’t mention this to Mrs. Mac as we enjoyed the cake, but we divided it into 16 pieces & ate it in about 2 minutes so I don’t feel, knowing how much trouble it is to bake a cake & wrap it for shipping, that it is worth your while to send me a cake.
I hope all is well with you all. Don’t worry about me and when Louise returns, I feel sure she’ll give you a first hand report that will set your mind at ease.
Write as often as you can and remember me to Mace & Rip as I don’t get to write them much either.
Lots of love to you both.
Always
David Jr.