vividreports: Stewart Letter #23

Letter #23

Ch (Capt.) Barney C. Crockett Pvt. Stewart C. Crockett_____

220 General Hospital APO 513 ASN 17183138 Co.B. ASTRP

c/o P.M. New York N.Y._______ Box 217_________________

Brookings, South Dakota ____

July 4, 1945

Dear Dad,

My eighteenth birthday came and went while I was in the Brookings Municipal Hospital with bronchial pneumonia. I have been out of the hospital since 30 June, but I am still in quarters because lying on my back for 11 days with a moderately high temperature most of the time weakened me so little.[1] On 28 July I have a two-week furlough coming up, at the end of which I will report to an induction center, probably Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, for further assignment to some IRTC.[2]

This campus is very nice, although there is not much entertainment offered to the young men seeking relaxation after a week of work. We really have to work here, too, because the professors are conscientious and the officers mean business. I thought at first that taking the second term over would be monotonous, but it has proved to be very interesting and educational. Even the subject-matter is different in chemistry, and different things are stressed more strongly in geography and physics. In addition, we have more outside work here. I can understand the analytic geometry much better as a result.

We have six hours of military training a week now, instead of 2, as at Lincoln. We have disassembled the M-1[3] and the BAR,[4] and while I was in the hospital, the class took up extended order drills.[5] The physical training is out-of-doors when the weather is dry, so we get plenty of sun. We had a three-mile, cross-country run a few weeks ago, and we went through the very realistic obstacle course in military training the day before I went into the hospital.[6]

(continued)

In English we have to write 8 themes this term; at Lincoln, we wrote one or two. Besides the extra work, we have less study halls during the day because we have military training during the week instead of on Saturday afternoon. Now we have Saturday afternoon free. This allows the men to go home earlier on weekend passes. I went home at the end of the third week of this term, hitchhiked, and made 230 miles in 9 hours, three of which were spent in traversing 30 miles. At Lincoln, it was impossible for me to get home for any time at all.

Incidentally, it was not an army doctor who diagnosed my case, but merely the doctor at student health at U. of N(ebraska). The army medics took it for granted at first, but cultures soon proved them wrong.[7] I believe it was largely my bitterness at this incident that made me want to quit the program, but Capt. Olson and Sgt. Treacy, of this station, persuaded me to stay. I am not sorry now, for I would have lost the right to further AST training, and I would not have had a very good chance at advancement at first.

Perhaps I will not get a chance to see you again until we are both discharged,[8] but we will have to hope for the best. Write me when you find out whether or not you go to the Pacific.

Your loving son,

Stewart

[1] I wonder if there is a typo here. It doesn't make much sense as written. I wonder if he meant "weakened me so much."

[2] Infantry Replacement Training Center. More informally - "Basic Training," or "bootcamp."

[3] The M1 carbine (formally the United States Carbine, Caliber .30, M1) is a lightweight, easy to use, .30 carbine (7.62x33 mm) semi-automatic carbine that was a standard firearm for the U.S. military during World War II, the Korean War and well into the Vietnam War.

[4] The Browning Automatic Rifle. The BAR was designed to be carried by infantrymen during an assault advance while supported by the sling over the shoulder, or to be fired from the hip. This is a concept called "walking fire"—thought to be necessary for the individual soldier during trench warfare. The BAR never entirely lived up to the original hopes of the war department as either a rifle or a machine gun.

[5] Extended order drills are also called combat drills. Combat drill trains a small unit in the looser, extended formations and movements of battle.

[6] I can't help but wonder if this was partly what put him in the hospital.

[7] Stewart is referring to the misdiagnosis of gonorrhea he told mother about in Letter #21 which unnecessarily kept him in the hospital for a week or more at Lincoln.

[8] As it turned out, the war ended in August, dad was sent back to the States from France and by the time Stewart finished basic training in December he was able to see dad (and mother and me) in Morganfield, KY on his way to Germany.