Transcription
[Transcription begins]
158 Engineers,
H. + S. Company,
Camp Maxey, Texas
5 – 23 – 43
Dear Miss Blaney,
I am quite a way from home and very lonesome for the while. This camp, which is located in Paris, Texas is about 2200 miles from good old Providence. You really don’t know how much you miss home + your friends until you are so far away from them all.
How is the Service Club functioning? I hope it is going on as good as usual. Under your management, Miss Blaney, I know it will always keep on, because you really put everything you got into it, and then the students will like working with you, I know. I enjoyed every bit of it, especially when you are doing it for your country and for those of whom you know.
I have been at this camp for three days and at Ft. Devens five days. I left Devens last Tuesday afternoon at 2:15 on a troop train- real class. Pullman cars. We also ate on the train, and slept there too. We arrived in Texas, Friday morning at 2:30, all tired + sleepy. What a ride it was!
On our way down here we experienced a very spectacular incident. We were caught in a flood in Indiana. The Wabash River was rising at the rate of 2 inches per hour. We were forced to stop because the water was over the rails. The engineer finally solved the problem by taking a detour so to escape the flood. You should have seen the people standing on their home sites just watching their houses being washed away. What a horrible thing to witness, that is something I will always remember.
Is there much excitement at school now or aren’t there enough fellows? I hope everything could be back to normal conditions when we lived so freely and enjoyed everything we did- especially the times at Bryant, such as Greek Letter dance, Commencement, fraternity dances, etc. By the way, are they going to have the Greek Letter this year?
I have quite a few letters to write, Miss Blaney, so I’ll close hoping you are in the best of health and everything else is all right.
Yours truly,
John [Transcription ends]
