Letters To Home - March 4, 1951

Fort Benning, Georgia
March 4, 1951

Still on maneuvers. Will be out until Wednesday morning. Rained a bit this morning, and a bit cooler, but still better than being up north. Winter seems to be about over here.

Went out Thursday night and fired some time-fire for the officers. We were shooting at 2400-yards, with fuses set for 9.2 seconds, which made the shells burst about 100 feet off the ground. Quite pretty to watch. Driving back to the barracks, were quite startled to see (and hear, because of the language) bodies dropping from the sky. Seems that a night-training mission by the airbourne had gone astray, and they were falling directly into our area. No one hurt, I hear.

Friday afternoon we marched twelve miles; much griping and complaining from the softer souls. Not too bad, except Spring in Georgia is getting warm. We're in the hilly section of the state, so the terrain is rugged at times.

Captain Galloway told us this morning that as soon as we finish our artillery basic, we'll all get a 7-day leave, plus travel time. I should get either 10 or 12 days, travel time being figured at 500 miles per day. If I fly, that will put me away ahead of the game. Our 8-weeks training is finished on March 14.

Nothing doing this afternoon, so most of us pitched some horse shoes, then got together for a game of touch football. We use the packing shoes off the shells for horse shoes. They work quite well.