Wall_June_1944

June 9/44

My Dear Edna: (Imagine me a maried man too. I do that to make sure my mail doesn't get put up on your board.)

I received your most welcome letter last night as well as the form letter with all the addresses on it. I am glad to hear you are going to take a vacation and that our lovely sister Priscilla is going with thou. Let me warn you to get pullman reservations, bring along a folding cot or else prepare for a rough trip. It is no fun traveling south of Washington. As a matter of fact it is rough traveling any place now. If you can fly, by all means do it, as it is well worth the extra cost. (Listen to me. I must sound like an old lady.)

I am at present undergoing jungle training in the Philip Hawaian Islands, (I almost made an untrue statement.) and am enjoying myself very much. I enjoy doing anything new (one seldome does anything new in the army after his basic training) We spent two nights learning not to travel in the jungle at night unless it is absolutely necessary. You step over vines, and step up on vines, and gradually realize that you are proceeding about thirty feet above the ground. Suddenly you realize you havent put your foot on the muddy ground for an hour. This

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doesn't alarm you too much; but, when you lose sight, or I should say touch, of the man in front of you and find he is going in the same direction as you are just about twenty feet below you, you do begin to wonder a bit; and, when you find out he doesn't know where the ground is either, you even worry some. You can't fall through because their isn't a clear place large enough to accommodate you. (I just ran out of ink and the jungle offers no accommodations for replenishment.) Say my last statement out of parenthesis is not meant to criticise you--what I should have said was me or us meaning any of us soldiers. I better be careful of what I write.

Well, chum, I gotta close now. Some of the men are whooping it up out in back and firing a few rounds. I better go see what's going on. Maybe I can play with them. Anything for excitement.

Say hello to Priscilla for me, huh.

So long for now.

Hank