The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1941-04-03
Soldier Boy
Writes to Boord

~~s~s~s IVY
Writes to Boord
The Lincoln County draft board
is in receipt of a letter from one of
the boys sent from here into the
U. S. army. 1t will be of interest
to many people and is printed be-
low:
Fit Lewis, Tacoma, Wash,
March Is, l941
Local Draft Board
Libby, Montana
Dear Sirs:
Thought l would drop you line
as you said you would like to hear
from us. don't know whether the
other boys got around to write or
not We were talking of writing
while we were in Reception Center
before we got split up, but thought
we would wait until we knew where
we were detailed. was detailed to
the 10th Med. Regt. Some more Of
our bunch are in the needles, too, l
think. / know Hackney and Pluid
are in my company and we have
been in the same barracks all the
time.
/ suppose Archie Minde told you
about the trip to Missoula. Too
bad they culled Archie out. Tell
him Hello for me. We had a
nice trip on out here. Kept us two
days at Reception Center and is
sued us uniforms, kits, etc. Then
we came over here, about six or
seven miles farther, to join our reg
iment. This is quite camp-hard
to keep track of anyone, SO many
thousands of men around / haven't
seen Mike Miller since we arrived
here. think he was detailed to
F. A. They were expecting us here
and had new barracks and every
thing waiting for US. Haven't got
the recreation rooms and everything
fixed up yet. They have two or
three free shows week for those
that want to go. Also church serv-
ices on Sundays, and are planning
on getting a supply of sporting
equipment soon. The only fault /
find is the canteen service. Seems
as though you have to stand in line
from 80 minutes to an hour to get
in and then by the time you get
waited on they are sold out or
haven't what you want. Maybe they
will improve, hire some more clerks,
or do something to speed service up.
OF course later on we can go to
town or down to Old Fort and trade
but now while we are under quar-
antine, we have to stay in our area.
am writing this from the hos
pital as caught cold and had a
cough for several days. Well, on
Tuesday one of my officers decided
/ was sick, SO made me come to the
hospital although didn't think
about needing to. Well, they
checked me in here, said / had the
flu and lots of other things like
laryngitis. Guess that's what they
call sore throat, etc. I'm feeling
OK now but coughed SO much that
! lost my voice. | can just barely
whisper, and they won't let me go
until get SO can talk. hate to
be here, / should be with my COM
pany and drilling and learning. !
only got in one and a half days
drill before | was sent in here, SO
l am anxious to get back and get on
the job.
This is a beautiful place and
think it will be OK when we get
used to the climate. We can see
beautiful Mt. Rainier from our bar
racks window. And American Lake
and other lakes within walking dis
lance of our barracks. We get good
food-lots of it. They served us
turkey with trimmings last Sunday.
Our officers seem to be good fell
lows and that's what counts; If you
have good officers things are much
nicer All our commanding officers
in this department are doctors; I
guess most of them anyway. In
event of war, the men in our COM
pany will be stretcher bearers, hos
pital orderlies, etc. After we re-
ceive our six weeks combat train
ing, if we are not transferred to
some other part of u. S., some of us
will probably be put in some OF
the hospitals here. There are ten
acres of hospitals here. I applied
for cavalry but they put me in the
medical corps. / guess it does not
matter just SO one does the job that's
given him to the best of his ability
Well, ! must ring off I was
known around Libby as Henry Will
lams but had to use first name and
middle initial when ! signed up, so
now I'm
PVT. JOHN H. WILLIAMS.