July 22, 1954

Dear Mom, Dad, and Snapper

I had a couple of letter and a nice box of candy. The candy sure is good. I had a letter fro Larry too. He wrote a nice letter. Asked about army wars and waves etc. I sure got a kick out of what Jim R said in his letter about his Sgt and hoping I wasn’t like that. They just have to be like that especially around a basic training camp. He should see some of the Sgts we have in this company. Sgt Slone the 1st Platoon Sgt is about the meanest one I have seen yet. I think I sent you a picture of him. The other might he was Sgt of the guard and he caught a new guy sitting down and he hit him in the head with his night stick. Nothing was ever said about it. Our First Sgt got relieved and transferred because he was mean and to hard on the troops. So Jim hasn’t even seen any Sgts yet. Wait till he sees some of the 12 and 14 year Sgts.

I was on guard last night from 4 till midnight, not much went on. I guess I will go on tonight from midnight till 8. I like that shift now because one of the Sgts is our platoon is on R&R. We only have a couple three or 4 days left before we go out in the field anyway.

How is the hot weather in KC now. You ask about the weather here. It rains most everyday. It is hot but not bad. Some nights it’s hot and before Arkie gave me a mosquito net I had to cover up with a blanket to keep from get bit up. I guess you will be going on your R&R – vacation – soon after you get this letter. That sounds like a nice trip to make. Yellow stone should be nice that time of the year. Wish I was going to the states but no chance for awhile yet. I heard they had a cease fire in Indo China. That should ease things up a little. I mailed you a lighter I bought in Japan. It’s not just like you wanted but that was the nicest I could find. I have a roll of color film that I took in Japan and I am going to mail them to Hawaii to get made into slides. Well we are going to the field the 27 so it’s just 5 more days. We will be out there 2 or 3 weeks.

Well don’t have much more to write about so I will close. I’ll write again today if I get any mail in.

Lots of Love, Ted