June 8, 1943

{He mailed 3 letters at his first opportunity.  It's long, but be strong and endure to the end.}


From Pvt. Austin L. Rounds
29th Training Group
Squadron C
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri

To Mrs. A.P. Rounds

15 Wilson Rd.

Stoneham, Mass.

June 8, 1943

Enroute to

Missouri

Dear Mother:

Please pardon the poor writing as this is the best I can do under the conditions.  The train is traveling fast enough to make it hard to write.  But we are slowly but surely tracing our way (on the map) to St. Louis.  We are now somewhere in the middle of Ohio.

William has probably told you that he left me inside the N. Station where I met that other fifty or so.  There we had to wait till 9:00 for the train to Devins and in the mean time we had our group picture taken by an army photographer.

There was not much to the ride to Devins other than that I hoped it would stop raining as it did not you can guess what would happen when none had a rain coat.  It began to rain for good when we hit (train bump) the station.  A lot of future infantry men were there ahead of us and they marched off ahead of us.  But to heck with the infantry, we rode in trucks and did not get wet at all.  At the camp we had a meal that was very good, mash potato, peas, apple sauce, a pork chop, bread and butter, and something else I don't remember and topped it off with a piece of pineapple pie.

As time means very little to the army we stayed about 6 hours instead of the 3 to 5 hours.  All I could do to amuse myself was to play "bid whist."  It was a lot of fun and easier to score than just bridge.

All this time it had been raining and the roads were a mass of puddle.  We got our orders to line up in front of our barracks with our suit cases.  And there we stood for a half hour until we were soaked.  We then walked a 1/4 mile and am now on a Pullman with all the luxuries of a 5-cent a mile fare.

The meals on the car before are not too hot as most of the cooking is done in the baggage car.  We are being fed all right and I don't think that I will starve. 

We are having a swell trip.  You would really like it.  Everything is swell. Even the clothes are beginning to dry.  All last night we traveled up hill until we came to the Hoosac tunnel in Northern Mass.  Hear (sic) are the towns.  Devins 5:10 pm, Fitchburg, Royalston, Sheldon Falls, N. Adams, and then the tunnel at 8:25.  The next part of the ride was mostly down hill, Troy N.Y 9:45, Albany.  Our beds were then made and I slept through until Albany, then to Syracuse, and woke finally in Buffalo 5:00 am. All this time the hills began to flatten out and became smaller.  The cities and towns farther and farther and smaller.  This land is an awful lot like N.C. but much wetter.  I don't see how they can use machinery.  Pop can tell you what happens when you use a tractor on wet land.

Next came Erie Penn 7:40, Conneaut Ohio 8:20, Ashtabula, Madison, and then Cleveland at 9:45.  Hear (sic) we had a chance to get out for the first time and walk around.  After Cleveland we saw the Great Lakes and it seemed like the ocean.  The land that comes down to Lake Erie is very flat and much land erosion can be seen.  The rivers that lead to the lake and the lake itself near shore are very muddy.  It was the last bit of water that size we shall see for a while so we watched until it was well out of sight.

Since then we have been going through all the little towns in Ohio even down the main street. 

It is getting very hot but I am enjoying every bit of it.  We may sleep on the train again tonight and I expect we will reach our destination early Wednesday morning.  

I am surely getting a chance to see things.  ( We are going down the middle of a street again).  We are writing as we ride on the Nickle Plated Road, a R.R. I never saw such piles of coal before.  In every town we find enough coal to keep it going a long time.

Ohio is very flat with the acres divided by a line of trees.  Every once and a while you see a grove.

I may not write again, because the train is going too fast and I may be too busy, later on.

It is now 4:00 pm and I am closing

As Always,

Austin

P.S. Tell Lenny not to get impatient.

From Pvt. Austin L. Rounds
29th Training Group
Squadron C
Jefferson Barracks, Missouri

To Mr. A.P. Rounds

15 Wilson Rd.

Stoneham, Mass.

Enroute to
Missouri

June 8, 1943

Dear Pop,

I am writing this as a kind of continuation of Mother's letter.  As so much has happened in the last 2 days I can't see why I should write twice.  I am writing this under much the same circumstances but I am in bed and have a little bit steadier rest than my knees.  I am in an upper birth, and as I will sleep alone I should get a lot of sleep.  The only trouble is that we will reach Missouri between 1:00 and 2:00 in the morning.  I doubt if we will have to get up then.

The meals have been fine considering they originated in the baggage car and were served onto paper plates.  With such little K.P. to do this army could be heaven.

We are really a troop train.  There are seven cars filled with soldiers both with and without uniforms.  Some of them have ratings already and I don't know whether they will keep them or not.  I have been keeping track of the towns I have gone through and I will send it home when I get a chance with the route all mapped out.  It is about 1200 miles long.

I have seen some of the damage done by the recent floods.  Levies were built along the tracks to keep the water down and away.  In some places the tracks lay on bare ground and the ties and foundation very inconspicuous.  The rivers raised 5 to 6 ft and left large deposits of brown dirt and large pools of water.  This water seems to be very shallow as the grass sticks up in many places but it covers a large area.  From what I have seen of the water standing on the land as it is, it seems possible that this water will remain for many days.

I can't get over seeing the long rolling plots of land that reach as far as the eye can see and broken only by a narrow slip of trees or a town.  Often the highway runs through these trees and it in turn stretches for miles without a turn.

Back near Lake Erie and farther we saw wine cultivated.  They were grape vines and the Harris Grape Juice people were the buyers.  In Ohio we saw pigs, cattle and corn.  Indiana is much the same only the farms are getting larger.  I hope I will wake up to see the Mississippi River and the damage done by the flood.  It will be dark and then and I don't know how much I will be able to see.

I am sorry I had to leave you this way but it was not all my choice.  I am however glad that I have started and will find out just where I will be in a year.  I hope the potato business goes good.  I really miss the farm and the machinery.  It was a lot of fun to drive that tractor.

Don't let Mother worry because there is nothing to worry about.  Tell her that I thought the party was swell but I am still worrying about the two glasses. (We are riding down another main street in some small town.)

There is so much to say but it is now lights out and we are supposed to go to bed.

(See if you can get another prescription for those eye drops.  I lost some when the bottle tipped over)

Sincerely yours,
Austin.

{This is the map of the route that he included.  You can see that he drew a line along his route from Boston to St. Louis.  Below is the list of towns that he passed through.  It's a little hard to read.  I wish had pictures him riding through Main Street.}

{2nd letter included in the letter to his mother}

Jefferson Barracks

Hi Everybody,

This is just a short note to let you know that I arrived safely.  I have been assigned to a "hut" that is really a pretty good cabin.  I don't have much time to tell you much other than that this looks like a good place to stay a while.

My address you can find on the outside of the envelope.  I have been issued all my clothes for about a year, hot and cold alike.

You will likely get my two letters at the same time as we could not mail them en route.

It sure is hot out here.  I don't know how hot it really is but this is the first time I swet (sic) like I did today.

I am in a hurry to get out and cool off so I will sign off.

Sincerely,
Austin.