April 7, 1943. Dad writes to the family back home with news that he received word on his next assignment. “I am going to the same Mormon city that Stanley was sent to before he was assigned to Washington, and that I certain. I wonder how Salt Lake City will treat me.” He muses, “When I get to Salt Lake I will be the nearest of all the fellows. Some break!”
He quickly moves on to a joke he heard on the radio, “Did you hear Phil Baker’s joke on the program ‘Take it or Leave it’? He said, ‘If the average life of a skunk is 3 years, then why is Hitler 52?’ He says he also just heard the news on the radio that “Bolivia declared war on the Axis powers and 30 German factories were destroyed.
Hitler Political Cartoon c February 1943.
He is also enclosing some postcards of the Palmer House hotel in Chicago. His buddy Joe Damusis was in Chicago over the weekend and brought the postcards back for him. Apparently Damusis was able to take advantage of a special rate available to soldiers who register through the USO of $1.00 a night.
Scan of Palmer House Hotel post card
He writes that, “We are preparing for inspection this Sat. of barracks and lockers. You have to set the bed in a certain manner, make the sheets and blankets with a 6” collar and all that baloney. It’s too much work so I make my bed once in the morning and sleep on top of the whole works covering myself with the comforter. In the morning all I have to do is straighten out the wrinkles. Phooey on the monkey business. As yet I haven’t been gigged on anything.”
He finishes on two notes referencing his continued training and his anticipated reassignment, “Tomorrow is another test and I guess I better start studying. Write me before April 16th if you want me to get your letter while I am here.”