The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-12-21
CHATTY AND INTERESTING
LETTER FROM LOCAL BOY


Jas. Broderick is in receipt of a
letter dated November "a and writ
ten on the back of the Thanksgiv--
ing menu from Carl Haglund, now
with engineers in France, as fol-
lows.
Dear jim.
ABOUT II years ago l sent YOU
menu from California. but this is a
little bit different as times have
cnanged plenty. This isn't all tur-
Key, there's plenty of mud Gas you
remember) and severe shortage of
cigarettes and BESIDES there's a
war on.
AT present Tm driving a "a ton
pickup, mostly in and out Of Paris.
and once IN awhile trip back to
Cherbourg or up in Belgium and
pretty soon to Germany (tho I'm in
no hurry about that. I'm on the
road most of the time. We used to
Jungle up along the road and had
pretty good times, now the weather
is too darn bad. I've been getting
one day off every week and gener-
guy fpend Y in paris, plenty to do
there and lots of sights to see. /
take to the subway and get around
pretfv well. Can't talk French
wort1 damn but the natives most
~ can speak a little English and
between us we get along. The Red
cross has good set-up here and
there are plenty of shows and other
entertainment, so we don't lack in
things to do in the little spare time
we have
a lew OF the guys are going home
on rotation plan. They have over
three years overseas service. | now
nave ~ months, so not much chance
for me on that score. Also some of
the truckers are going to England
by air and bringing back new stuff,
although I'm not SO keen about a
trip like that.
we have our own printing unit
here that produced this menu and
they're working on some Christ
mas cards for us. Good BOYS. Also
have a band who play during our
dinner, and we even have crooner
We also are blessed with one of
the best mess sergeants in the ETC.
Ii you know the addresses Of
any OF the guys that l know over
mere, let me know, will you? / NAV
nave chance to look them up in
my travels. l know the location Of
OFT Oft but haven't been that wav
yet. While in England I went
through Girlo Schagers camp five
times and didn't know she was
there.
] heard from Squint once and
later heard that he got the Purple
Heart-what happened to him? we
caught hell last December in Eng
land IN an air raid. They killed four
of my buddies and wounded 20
more. We didn't have fox hole
but we learned a lesson from that
We dug plenty of them in Norman
dy-deep. Now we don't even both
er about black-outs. We live in
places that the Germans used to
have, though they have to be
patched up a little-our air corps
really fixes things up! We also
have plenty of their equipment and
supplies. We are smoking their ci-
CARS now though they are not SO
good, they beat nothing at all. The
front lines are getting all the cigar
cites and God knows they need
them worse than the rest of us
The guys here are taking it good
naturedly, though we'll soon be
shooting snipes with the French
men!
Inls started out to be a note and
now its newspaper. This is the
first time I've been on a type
writer in ages and l need practice.
SO shall close for now, wishing you
and the family Merry Christmas,
and say Hello" to the rest of the
gpyK And tell Harvey to write.
u Aurevoir,
Il Carl.