Letters Home: "We don’t do any walking. We take the tanks, even if we do get them stuck in the mud"

April 16, 1952 

10:00 Wed morning

Dear Mom and Dad and All,

I got a chance to answer your letter so I guess I will this morning. Monday morning we left camp for 3 days in the field.  It started off bad by raining Monday. It’s nice today so I guess I will warm up today because the sun’s out nice. [1]

It's too bad about Arloa, they were nice people. Has Cub come back yet? [2]

They told us Monday where we were going. Europe. They didn’t say Germany for sure but I think it will be-anyway it’s not Korea. We are going in July. Some of us will be going to Calif. to test some new tanks. [3]  That will take 4 weeks. 2 there and 2 traveling. It doesn’t cost us anything, the ones that are going.

I should be home the last part of June before going overseas. I wouldn’t want to be in Europe if Russia starts anything but it's still better than going the other way. I think we leave from New Jersey.

I am going to write R. a letter yet this week.  What do you hear from Jr? He should be home before long. Maybe I will see him before July. He gets out in August. I haven’t had much time to do any writing lately.

We live in Tenn. But the post office is in Ky. The state line crosses through camp.

My car still works OK. I went to Dunbars Cave last weekend. Roy Acuff and his Smoky Mountain Boys own the place. Its about 10 mi from here. Nashville is 58 and Chicago is 400. That makes 600 miles from home. Seems farther than that but I guess it isn’t. I can’t think of any more to say right now so I will sign off for now.

Love, 

V.

PS. Fri. I got the clothes and another letter yesterday. I slept under a apple tree last night. Me and another boy had 4 blankets two tents and 2 raincoats so we kept warm. It warmed up quite a bit today. I think we will be out 5 days next week. As long as the weather is warm its fun. We don’t do any walking. We take the tanks, even if we do get them stuck in the mud. 

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[1] "the sun’s out nice" may sound unschooled (the sun's out nicely?) however I prefer that construction to "the sun's out and it's nice."
[2] Cub was the family dog. I have no clue who Arloa was.
[3] No doubt one of the new Patton Class tanks then being rolled out.