Letters To Home - October 30, 1951

Grafenwohr, Germany
October 30, 1951

I hope its warmer there than it is here. We came here Sunday afternoon and are living in buildings this time. This whole area was used by General Rommel when he trained his Afrika Corps during World War II. We're living in their old quarters. It would be nice to stay here for awhile, especially this time of year. This is a nice little camp, and we're close to everything.

Yesterday and today it was pretty cold. The sun is warm, but there's a cold wind that blows most of the time. These barracks are quite comfortable, and we have a coal stove in every room. The smell of the coal smoke reminds me of both Fort Dix, and being back on the Erie when an east-bound freight goes by. We'll be heading back to Schweinfurt next Thursday.

So far, we've been doing quite a bit of firing, which makes me happy. I guess we'll be doing quite a lot more of it while we're here. Today, the whole battalion lined up the guns in a single line and fired to see which ones fired the furthest. If ours doesn't fire like the rest, we'll have to trade with either "A" or "C" Battery. Our gun is quite old, so I hope we trade.

I saw that article about Bob in one of the papers I got last week. I heard from him about a month ago while he was still a Corporal. Have you heard anything about Paul or Walter lately?

I see that the 28th Division is coming over soon. The 43rd is all here now. I hope a dozen more come over.

Our border patrol duty has been changed from one week to two weeks at a time. That's O. K. We have a pretty good set-up at Wildflecken right now.

When this maneuver is over we'll probably be done with maneuvers until April. Of course, we'll still be pulling border patrol on schedule.

I had a pretty rough day today. I pulled the lanyard most of the day, but once in awhile spelled the loader while he took some training as asst. gunner. Not used to all that weight being passed around. Feel good, though, and it's fun to change jobs once in awhile.