Dear Mom and Dad,
I'm very sorry to hear about Aunt Leone; sure do hope its not very wide spread yet. I am trying to get an advance
pay of $100 on next month's pay check. I will send it home if I can get it. I wonder how much I should be getting
back from my taxes? I want you to send it and the $100 to them until I can get some more saved up.
I'm glad to hear that Grandmother is still felling well. Tell her not to work too, hard in this hot weather;
heat can fool you sometimes.
By the way the next time you send some food, please put an old heavy table spoon in it for me. I need one to use
to melt polish into my boots, and we can't use Army spoons. By using a hot spoon to melt the first real thick
layer of polish into the leather, I can reduce my time from 45 minutes to 15 minutes per pair of spit shined boots.
That pound cake got lots of compliments from the platoon, since I got it at 1200 pm the night we had that compass
problem.
We sure are hearing a lot of people talk about quitting now. We lost the third one today, and they aren't supposed
to be able to quit till the 8th week. Our company is the original OCS company, and is naturally the toughest
company left. One of my roommates, ...., is planning to quit in the 8th week, too. I don't anticipate any real
problems in the course, except boredom and the long passage of time.
Tell dad to do me a favor during the next year and keep his eyes open for any chance to buy some land down around
home, cause I sure would like to get a chance at some. I have talked with several banks, and when I get my
commission I can easily borrow enough money to get 15 or 20 acres of land. I have done a lot of thinking about the
future since I've been here, and I have made some plans for the future. I planned already to get rid of my college
debts as soon as possible. Then I plan to do this: Buy some land and build a small "shack" home
before I get out
of the Army. Then I am going to try to go back to work with AEC for 2 or 3 years. After then I can get myself read
during my 2 or 3 years of work to finish school. The Army will help me, and so will AEC, to finish school. Then I
can get a permanent job somewhere (hopefully with AEC again). I am going to also try to help put the rest of us
through college as I go. I won't have to go but a year and a half more by the time I get out of the
Army, because
I can get some credits for my OCS work, and I am going to take as many
correspondence and night school courses
while in the Army as I can.
Big plans huh! Well maybe so, but you have to think big to get ahead in this world today, and that's just what I
plan to do. I may change my ideas a little, but that is the general scope of my future ambitions as I see them
from my present vantage point. I hope you have enough confidence in my ability to think for myself to see
"eye to eye" with me on this; course it doesn't really matter since I've already made up my mind. I've thought
for nearly all the past six months about this, and I have faith in my decisions.
Well enough of that for now.
Love,
Homer
PS: I'm on duty tonight as the Charge of Quarters so that's how I have all this time.
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