Letters To Home - December 17, 1950

Fort Dix, New Jersey
December 17, 1950

The barracks almost deserted this evening; everyone on guard duty. I had fire guard duty during the big storm a few weeks ago, so I'm excused this time. Weather very warm and clear.

Just finished a rough week. Fired three new weapons and went through the infiltration course, which is a scary thing. We had to crawl on our stomachs about a hundred yards, through barbed-wire and past random explosive charges, while .30-caliber machine guns fired over our heads. We went through it twice; once in the afternoon and once again at night. Night was prettiest; about every third round was a tracer. It's not much fun while it is happening, but, once it's over, you feel a certain sense of pride in surviving.

The weapons we learned this time were the grease gun, the .45-caliber Colt semi-automatic pistol, and the M-1 .30-caliber carbine. The grease gun is a small, crude submachine gun, with a wire stock, which shoots .45-caliber pistol cartridges, with a rate of fire of about 450 rounds per minute. Very inaccurate, but it does put out a good field of fire. The Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol is fun, though. I managed to hit something 16 times out of 25 tries, which satisfies me. The carbine, though, I have mixed emotions. It is .30-caliber, shoots a cartridge about the size and power of the .32/20 Winchester rifle and pistol round. The magazine holds 15 rounds. The weapon is gas-operated, semi-automatic in nature. I qualified with 139 hits out of a possible 160, which I'm happy about.

Half of the company will get leave for Christmas, and the balance for New Year's Day. I have a possible ride home, depending on whether Ed gets the same leave time as I do.

Have been going to the movies quite often lately. We get the new releases often before the large cities do.

Big dance at McGuire Field tonight.