Dear Mom,

Well here I am still in the same place. I don't think we'll be here much longer, though. I've met quite a few of my old pals up here - guys I was with in cadets and down at Yuma. Yesterday Dan and I went canoeing on the lake. It's a rather large lake but not very deep. It has lots of coves and inlets so we had fun paddling all over. There's one spot fixed up for a camp site. There is a rock fire place and a tepee made out of trees. There are also some log tables with a supply of potatoes there, too. The lake is very beautiful, in fact it looked so good Dan and I went in swimming. Of course we didn't have suits but that didn't matter. The air here is really wonderful. It's so clear with just the right tinge of pine scent in it. The sunset was really beautiful tonight. Here's one for the books. A carton of spuds (cigarettes) costs twenty-five cents. The only catch is they don't have any matches here so if you don't have a lighter you're out of luck. I told you about the chewing gum, didn't I? I'm fine and everything is all OK. Give my love to all the family. You don't know how hard it is to write a letter when there's nothing to say or nothing that you can say. It kinda looks like the war will be over before we ever get across. Well, enough for now - more later.

Love,
Rae