Based on the letters of Earl Philip Reinhalter (1922-1953). Edited by his son, Earl Philip Reinhalter (1950-).


<- PREVIOUS LETTER January 11, 1943
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
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Jan 11, 1943      
Monday      
Hello Ma:
      Well, here I am in South Carolina and right on the Atlantic coast. We left Lockbourne Saturday Jan 9 at 6:15 PM and got here at Myrtle Beach on Monday Jan 11, at 7:30 AM. Some trip! I slept in an upper bunk. No, I didn't fall out. There are plenty of pine trees around here and the land is flat. It is kind of hot here. I took off my winter underwear and only wear one suit of clothes at a time now. Nothing happened on the trip worth mentioning, except that one soldier pulled the emergency cord by mistake and stopped the whole train for a while. The food down here is not as good as at Lockbourne and we have to stand up while eating. This is something like leaning on a bar. The closest town to our camp is about 5˝ miles away and has a population of about 400. Yes, I said four hundred. There isn't much to do at night except listen to the radio and read. This morning, when we first got here, I and four others guarded the jeeps and trucks which were on the train flat cars. Our barracks are so far from the mess halls that our squadron has to ride by truck convoy to eat. I am one of the drivers and I drove a jeep. There were seven other boys in this jeep beside myself. I had it up to about 48 miles per hour and drove about 20 or 25 miles today. These jeeps are plenty windy when you drive fast. I went thru mud, but the jeep kept going right along because I had both the front and rear axle drives in gear.

      Well, this place is not as good as Lockbourne was, but from what I hear, we won't be here very long.

      Here in the barracks, I have an upper bunk. My head is about 10 inches from the ceiling. When writing this letter, I am holding the paper against the ceiling and am lying on my back on this upper bunk.

      Sunday night (Jan. 3), I said goodbye to my 20-year-old Columbus girlfriend. She was rather nice too, having gone two years to Ohio State college. She taught Sunday school every Sunday morning. I was supposed to eat dinner at her house this past Sunday; but at that time, I was on the train going south. She promised to send me her picture, though - says she wants mine too. Well, so much for that -

            Until sometime later,

Earl


P.S. Those negatives which you asked for are in this envelope. Those pictures which I sent you were enlargements from these.


 
NOW AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK!

The Kindle book includes the letters; all 23 issues of the unit’s wartime newsletter “The Squadron Pulse,” which was originally edited by Leonard Stringfield; all 12 issues of the “Pennant Parade” newsletter that Stringfield published while sailing home after the war; complete text of the U.S. government booklet “Pocket Guide to Australia,” which soldiers heading Down Under were given to read; more than 200 photos; pre-war and postwar family history; and over 700 explanatory endnotes.















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