Wednesday 24 March 1943

Well here I am this morning three hundred and fifty miles further south. Before I start on this new life I better finish the old one. Monday morning we fell out at 6 AM with our rain coats, canteen, and gas mask. We were issued rifle belts and we fixed our canteens on them and our rain coats were hooked under them. After our usual period of waiting we were lined up ready to go. Just as the sarge was about to say forward march a guy came out of the orderly room and said all cadets fall out. Well, we hollared and then turned in our belts but we hollared too slow. They took us out to the drill field and drilled us all morning and in the afternoon they took us on a hour walk of five miles plus our exercises. Well, we knew something was in the wind. After retreat we went back to the barracks and there it was, a shipping list. There were just seven of our old bunch on it. Well, we fell out at the supply house at 6:30 PM and they took us over for a physical. Boy was I scared. First they took your temperature, that was OK. Then you stripped and they looked at your throat (mine was sore), that was OK. They looked for measles, mumps, and spiral meningitis. When I passed the last guy I sure did get dressed in a hurry and got out of there. Well, they told us that was all and that we should fall out in front of the orderly room at 7 AM the next morning ready to. Well, I packed my barracks bags and went over to the USO and sent you a letter, then back to bed. The next morning I turned in my blankets and locker and got over to the orderly room with time to spare. They marched us up to the shipping house and we waited around until 9AM. Then we got on a train, five cars, about 300 of us. We didn't know where we were going but the Captain said we would eat lunch in Fort Worth. Well, we got there about 3:30 P.M. Boy was that a slow train, we went about 50 miles out of our way. At Fort Wroth we were marched about six blocks from the station to a cafeteria. Boy was it swank. I've never seen anything like it. A woman played an electric organ all the time we ate. It had brown wood panelling and mirrors. And was the food good. You got all you wanted. After we left Fort Worth the Captain finally told us where we were going. Well we got here about 11 o'clock at night and then they marched us to the college. I guess we were unexpected because we had to sleep in the gym. They had cots, canvas ones like we had on our trips, and two blankets. No sheets, pillows, or mattresses. The whole 300 of us are in the gym. This morning we got up at 6 AM and we went to chow at 7 AM. There are lots of girls around, that's good. We ate in the cafeteria and had a fried egg, french toasts, a pint of milk, oatmeal and an apple plus some jam.

The first good news is that there are two Glen Ellyn boys here with me. Both were in my class. Jack Replinger and Ed Doyle. There is also a boy from Elmhurst here, he was in my math class, Dawson. They tell us we are going to take English, History, Geography, Math. We will also get pilot training here. The school is the South Western State Teacher College in San Marcos, Texas. The town is between Austin and San Antonio. It's warm here today and all the trees have leaves on them and there are lots of birds. It's hard to believe but while I was at Sheppard Field the only green thing on the place was the evergreens in front of the orderly room. There is positively no grass there at all. The school is located on a high hill and when I say high, I mean high. You can see the lights of Austin at night and they're about 30 miles away. When you go from one building to another you have to go up or down steps. As soon as I get my room and get settled I think I'm going to like it here fine. I don't know when we are going to start classes. In fact, there's nothing else I know so I'll write more when I know more.

Love,
Rae