Letters from George

Dear Anna

Quit your worrying. Everything is all right. I am with a combat unit but it will be three or four months at the least before further training. By that time the war might be over. It won't be long according to the war news we have been getting!

Right now it is like being in a Concentration Camp. They work us from five thirty in the morning until six at night. We eat and after that most of the time we go to a movie on marching or gun training. I am still in quarantine and must be in bed by nine. We have about an hour a day to ourselves and we have to clean up, shine our shoes and shave then.

If no more new men come in I will be allowed to go to town next week. When they start letting us out at nights I will really like it. They give us ten weeks of basic training which is marching, learning to use a gun, and drilling. After that I will specialize in some trade. I will be either pontoon bridge construction, barbed wire entanglements, or road construction. We do very little fighting. We clear the way for the Infantry men.

I appreciate the dollar you sent me but I really don't need any money. There is little to spend money on out here. I have more than I can use now so I sent Sarah a couple of bucks. There is no use of you sending anything to eat. We get either pie or cake at every meal and plenty of fresh fruit. I have oranges and apples stacked up on my shelf now.

The weather here is crazy. Everyone in the camp has a cold. In the afternoons it is hot enough to just wear a shirt. The sun is direct and I'm getting tanned. In the mornings and nights it is so cold we wear both our jackets and overcoats. The elevation is 7500 feet.

If they didn't send Sarah the stamps that were coming Charles can get them and then if he will. Maybe the amount they took out came to and even bond and I don't have any stamps coming. Ask Charles a little later he will try to find out the amount of money I made this year. I don't think I will pay the income tax until after the war but we have to make out a form anyway.

Your letter only took a day to arrive. It was sent the eleventh and I got it today, the twelfth. That is faster than any air mail the rest of the boys got. Its 24000 miles from here. I was really glad to hear from you. It was the first letter I got that was addressed here. I got one from Sarah and one from Les Schultz but they were sent to Fort Dix and mailed to me from there. I hope the rest of the family writes.

Let me know how Franny makes out after his X ray. Best of luck to you and Charles and the Engler Family

Your brother Georg[e]