Saturday 13 March 1943

Well, another week is gone and I'm still here, but I doubt if I'll be here next Sat. This morning it was quite foggy but we fell out on our posts anyway. We had to carry our gas masks with us. We were marched over to the gas chamber and there we waited all morning to go through. When it was finally our turn we put on the mask outside of the house then three at a time went through the door and stood in a little room with a door at the other end. The door opened and we went into the large chamber. It's just a wooden frame house with tar in all the cracks. They crowded about a hundred and fifty of us in the room and I kept waiting for him to turn on a valve or jet to let the gas in. But all of a sudden he started telling two men to take off their masks, then they walked the length of the room and out a door at the end. Well, I was about the last to go out and when I took off the mask it hit me. I held my breath before I took off the mask but boy my eyes. It felt like onion juice was poured in them. It was so bad I couldn't keep them open. After I staggered out into the fresh air my eyes still burned and watered for about five minutes. Now I know what tear gas is. After we got out we had an hour of marching before chow. In the afternoon we went out on the cow pasture and had an hour of exercises and then we went over the obstical course. We came back about 3 o'clock and had a tetnus shot, our second one since we've been here. So far we've had three typhus, two tetnus, and one vaccination. My vaccination didn't take. The tetnus, the one we had today, juts hits you for a few minutes and then you don't feel it any more. It's the thyphus that makes your arm sore. We didn't have to stand retreat tonight because of our shots. Another guy and I are going to town tonight and I'm going to try and get my picture taken. I have to see the town once before I leave. Well, I have to start to get ready so I better close this and say good night.

Love,
Rae