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In the posts of July 30 and August 3, Harry mentions that a friend in southern California sent him a subscription to National Geographic. I wondered how he knew people in southern CA. Today’s letter to Hilda and Nathan Firestone answers that question. Although Harry is writing on Ft. Warren stationery from Wyoming, he has finished his training and is writing from southern California. Never one to waste anything, he must have stocked up on writing paper in case there wouldn’t be any where he was headed.
August 15, 1943
Dear Hilda & Nathan,
Thank you very much for both your letters.
I am attached to a truck company now whose task it is to transport supplies and troops in combat zones as soon as we get across. The outfit I was supposed to be assigned to had moved overseas already when I arrived here. It took almost two weeks to get permission from headquarters to let me stay with this company.
This camp, 8 miles from San Bernardino, is one of the many Desert Training Centers there are in southern California. Names of places like Sahara Desert, Gobi Desert, Mecca, Indio, etc. will give you an idea of the heat we have here. A couple of days ago I drove to Yuma, Arizona and back. The oranges I had in the truck tasted like hot orangeade and the water in my canteen could have been used to shave with.
We get up in the morning with a mouthful of sand and cuss words. As we are on field rations now, we get powdered eggs (with sand, bread, coffee, Wheaties, and fruit. (breakfast) At lunch we get canned stuff (with more sand) and fruit. For dinner we are served some more sand (with canned food).
As you know, I have been cheated out of a furlough which I was supposed to get in Wyoming. I may be able to get a three-day pass in the near future which will enable me to stay in S.F. for a bit more than a day. Then I’ll have to do a lot of running around, maybe I can swipe a jeep and bring it with me.
The reason that I was able to send Paul the rations was that I mooched them from some pals who refused to eat them. (They went to town and had a steak dinner.)
When I get my pass, I’ll wire you immediately. I’ll be looking forward to your cooking, indeed. Please, be sure to add a pinch of sand, a pinch of dust, and half a handful of red ants (diameter 5/16”) to everything you cook to preserve my good health. The lack of the above-mentioned ingredients might cause me discomfort.
Well, I guess that’s all for today. I hope I’ll be seeing you soon.
Sincerely,
HarryP.S. Would you like me to get some sand fleas for Mouffle?
We saw a photograph of Mouffle with Harry and Eva in the June 20 post.
Harry was one of the most optimistic people I have ever known. He often spoke about how lucky he had been in life. Given his and his family’s losses and life experiences, I so admired his outlook. One of the things he felt most fortunate about was that he did not ship out to Europe with his original unit, as he mentions in this letter. Because of transportation issues, he and a fellow soldier took much longer to get to their destination and the unit left without them. Harry told me that most of his original unit died soon after arriving in Europe. I had always thought it strange that the U.S. Army would have sent a native German speaker to serve in the South Pacific. Apparently it was because of missed connections.