A Farm Kid Joins the Marines
Dear Ma and Pa,
I’m doing well and hope you are too. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer that joining the Marine Corps is way better than working for old man Minch. They should enlist quickly before all the spots are filled. I was a bit restless at first since we get to stay in bed until nearly 5 a.m., but I’m starting to enjoy sleeping in.
Before breakfast, all we do is smooth our cots and shine a few things. There are no hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, or fires to lay—practically nothing!
We have to shave, but it’s not too bad because there’s warm water. Breakfast is pretty good, with fruit juice, cereal, eggs, and bacon, but it’s lacking in things like chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie, and other regular meals. Tell Walt and Elmer they can always sit with the two city boys who live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, keeps you full until noon when we eat again. It’s no wonder those city boys can’t walk very far.
We go on “route marches,” which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to toughen us up. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to argue. A “route march” is about as far as our mailbox at home, and then the city guys get sore feet, so we all ride back in trucks.
The sergeant is like a schoolteacher—he nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board, and the majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don’t bother us at all. This next part will crack Walt and Elmer up: I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why! The bulls-eye is about the size of a chipmunk head, doesn’t move, and it’s not like shooting at the Higgett boys back home. All you have to do is lie there comfortably and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges; they come in boxes.
Then there’s hand-to-hand combat training, where we wrestle with the city boys. I have to be careful, though—they break pretty easily. I’m the best at this, except for Tug Jordan from Silver Lake. I’ve only beaten him once. He joined up at the same time as I did, but I’m only 5’6″ and 130 pounds, while he’s 6’8″ and nearly 300 pounds dry.
Make sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry up and join before other guys catch on to this setup and come rushing in.
Your loving daughter,
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