Transcription of Document FFDoc-0001.pdf

Dear Mom,

Well, I've finally put in my first day in the Army. I suppose you'll get my postcard first, and all the preliminaries are noted there. nothing much happened after that. What we were waiting for in the recreation tent (read postcard), was to be assigned to a tent for the duration of our stay here. We have a regular tent city here, mud & all. I've been assigned to the 5th Receiving Company (all the boys call it the Frozen 5th; it's cold) here at this meat mill. That's all it is: a meat mill. The first thing you notice when you land here is that everybody is waiting to pull out to permanent camps. And that's the way you feel when you've been here a day. But let's not get off on the wrong track. From here, the Army in general looks good, and the eats are swell and plenty of 'em too (we had ice cream tonite). But between waiting for things to do, and taking a lot of guff from buck privates who've been here only 2 or 3 weeks, it's a crying shame. The whole trouble is there's too damn many jerks running around in circles. Tomorrow I'm due for processing (medical, intellectual & mechanical aptitude tests, & maybe classification), and there's a slight chance that I may get my GI issue.

At any rate, from what I've heard, I'll probably be here for anywhere from 3 to 6 or 8 days. Some fellows stay 20, 40 or 60 days. Tell Dot there's a lot of WAAC's here. Take a chance on writing. The address is on the envelope, and I may get the letter, altho I'm not sure. Boys I bun with are reg'lar fellows. Can't telephone, caused we're restricted to area. More later.