Dear Oak Grove Baptist Church,

I am continously thinking of you all and wishing I could be with you. I hope everything is going fine. I am gettin along fine. This man's army is someplace to be. The boys I have met and have watched them, and I think 90% of them are drunkards. I hate very much to have to live with them for it is hard. It is a shame. There is no wonder this old world is at war. Sometimes I have the blues and the going gets awful hard. I think sometimes this Nation is not worth fighting for and then it runs though my mind, Western North Carolina and Watauga County and the fine people there are. The people don't know how to appreciate being in a place like that. There is crime here by the hundreds. You can't pick up a newspaper with out reading where they have made a hundred or two arrests in some of these cities here.

I hope the church is getting along fine. I want you all to pray for me. It is going to take the prayers to help win this war and get it over with. I don't go to church here. A Catholic church is the only church and I just don't feel right going there. So I read my Bible daily and ask God to be merciful for a place like this and the world. I know I didn't attend my home Church regular. I realize now how much a Church means to a community and also it is the backbone of the Nation. I honestly believe if we didn't have places in the country like Watauga County and Western North Carolina we would have no use to try to fight this war. I thank God for the people there. It gives me faith to keep going.

I will close with my prayers and wishing you all of the best of luck and hoping I can return soon.

PFC ECH
Headquarters Co. 10th POE
Camp Stoneman, California




ECH was my uncle. He and my Father served during WWII. They would not send them to the same outfit because of their relation. My Father and Uncle both came home safely.