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Camp Pendleton April 30, 1944
[letterhead: UNITED STATES MARINES CAMP JOSEPH H. PENDLETON]
Dear Eva;
I was wondering why you waited so long to write, you are always bawling me out for not writing. Well I don't know as yet when I will be home but it shouldn't be too long. I had corporal of the guard the other night and was talking to the battalion top sgt. he said it would be two weeks or a little longer. I could help you get rid of that ham without any trouble at all. The last few weeks we have spent on maneuvers and problems. Easter Sunday we had to get up at four o'clock in the morning and fire the rifle range. We spent all Sunday firing weapons. The other times we have been doing different things, we spent a week making rubber boat landings. It was a lot of fun, but a little rough at times. The last night on maneuvers we had a thirty mile hike in which we were supposed to have a problem against another battalion
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as our enemy. The other battalion was given word that we were equiped to use or defend ourselves against gas. In reality we didn't even take our gas masks along and had no intention of using gas against them. The other battalion thought they would beat us to the punch and they used tear gas against us. Our battalion certainly turned into a cry baby battalion, every body was crying. Last week we went through an infiltration course in which we had to crawl a hundred yards through land mines & booby traps while machine guns were firing over our head and they were using real ammunition. So you see I have really been busy.
I haven't heard from Henry, I didn't even know he out of the hospital. I am glad he is out of the army. Maybe some day I will be able to put on civilian clothes myself. I know that when I go over this time I won't be back until its over, unless I am wounded. That is the reason I am so anxious to get a furlough as I would like to see you all before I go. The fifth of August I will have four years in the marines. I don't regret any of it but I would like to get out before I forget
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what it is like to be a civilian. The war is far from won, anyone who thinks otherwise is doing a lot of wishful thinking. I look around me now at my buddies and know that some of them will never come back just as some of my friends on the ship never made the return trip. Yet the people at home brag of our easy victories. No victory is an easy victory if only one man is killed.
Eva I am sending you a emblem of the division I am in. The V stands for the fifth division and also for victory. The spearhead is symbolic of the fact that marines spearhead the attack. Have it sewed on my blues on the left sleeve, about a quarter of an inch below the shoulder seam.
Tell everyone I said hello and I expect to see them sometime in the near future.
Love to all Jewell
P.S. Tell Henry to write and give me his new address.