June 17, 1943

Jefferson Barracks

Missouri

June 17, 1943

Dear Mother;

My morale has come up 100%.  I got 3 letters today and they sure looked good.  I got them this morning at 11:00 mail call.  I expect that I would have received it yesterday at 4:00 but we had no mail call.  We are also over the typhoid shots and I feel a lot better.

About that watch I spoke about, I saw it in the main P.X.  It is a 17 Jewel Swiss movement and looks exactly like two other watches I have seen that cost $50 and $45.  The only trouble is that I haven't enough money as it costs $26.50 and I have about $20.  I may put some money down on it and send for the rest from the bank account.  However don't send any money till I send for it.

I forgot to write that I saw Harold V. {ed note - a friend who attended the same church} Sunday and he was sure glad to see me.  I almost missed him as he was about to go to town.  He looked swell in his uniform and a new pair of shoes.  He lives in a two story bunk house where as we live in little 8 man huts.  He is in the second story and the hottest part of it.  He seems to be having a swell time even thought he hates this heat and weather more than I do.  He has only 2 Mass. boys with him where as I have 50 fellows from Mass. with me.  They are swell fellows.  The fellows in the hut represent a cross section of America; they represent the major religious faiths and you can imagine some of the arguments we get into every so often.  But all the same I would not trade them for someone else.

When you wrote (we don't write about him!) I forgot and didn't realize just what you meant until I had reread the letter a couple times.  I still haven't forgotten him (you know that).  I know he won't know me when I get home.

I feel terribly ashamed to say that I don't miss home.  I do however feel sometimes that tomorrow I will be going home and when I realize I am not, I wish I could.  The chief reason is that we are busy from 5:15 a.m. till anytime after 9:00 p.m. when lights are put out.  We have a definite schedule to follow until 4:00 and then the time is our own to write letters, do our laundry shine our shoes, make our bed, take a bath and a multitude of other things that have to be done.  We can always go to the movies or go to the P.X. or go to the amphitheatre and see a Broadway show.  I saw Hellzapopping (spelled wrong) and thought that it was kind of corny.  {Watch this scene from the show, Hellzapoppin'.  It's probably the most athletic and energetic Lindy Hop I've ever seen!}

This business of writing letters is some job.  I would like to write to all the fellows, Mabel, Grandma, and Grandpa Rounds and everyone but I can hardly write more than 3 letters a night, so if you see or write to any of them, tell them that I am thinking of them and will write as soon as I find time.  I am missing Chow now and will have to sneek in late.

I have something else on my mind but I can't remember what it is so I will sign off.

With love,

Your Pvt. Austin.

{ed. note - The paragraph about "(we don't write about him)" was so confusing to me that I went through the letters his mother had written him to see if I could find out what she was talking about.  In her letter she describes seeing young robins in the garden.  The next day she found one dead and guessed that (we don't write about him) had killed it.  Is it possible that they had a cat or dog with the personality of Lord Voldemort (You-Know-Who)?}