November 5, 1943
No. 64
Palermo, Sicily
Dear Folksies,
I have been kept busy for the last couple of weeks and never did manage to sit down at a typer long enough to do much good. When I have had some few minutes time then all our typers have been busy. Mine, at the moment, is somewhat on the fritz, but is in the process of getting fixed by one of the boys.
Today is the kind of day that makes us all rather thankful that we are so nicely situated inside of buildings and that we have sidewalks between the various buildings so that slushing through mud is not a necessity. I am remembering our sojourn at Pickett a year ago, when we stepped out of our cabins into the reddish mud of Virginia. Nope, this place is definitely rather nice and though the buildings are rather cold because of the tile and the wind whistling through the large hallways, we have managed to close up most of the window frames with tar roofing paper and thus have warmed them up a bit. The heating situation is still a big question, because of the great quantity of fuel needed to heat these buildings and the question is, do we have it?
George Davis left us yesterday. He is to be an Adjunct for the American Military Government of Occupied Territories (AMGOT). It ought to turn out to be quite a good break for him and certainly should be interesting work. His replacement has not yet arrived and no one is very anxious for him to arrive from all the stories we have heard. I don’t know why the Col. doesn’t just let Fadley handle the job instead of getting a new man in when our Table of Organization doesn’t call for a QM officer anymore anyway. But so it goes.
Understand that Miss Bell is returning to the U.S. She is the oldest of the nurses and under the ruling that 1% of the outfit can be returned to the U.S. she is being sent back. Speaking of trips, the Old Man had a nice 7-day one, which took him to the land of Cleopatra. Wish we could get a nice trip like that. Such is the life of a Colonel.
Loads of love,
.
