1 Aug 45
Dear Dad,
I am now home for two weeks, and then I must report at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.1 From there I will be sent to an in- fantry basic training camp, probably in Texas or California.2 About a week before Christmas I ought to be home.3 Since I made approximately 150 on the ACCT test, I have been rec- ommended for Japanese language training after basic, in case that there is a quota at either U. of M., or the U. of Penn- sylvania.4 Seven other fellows were also recommended, and we are all going to basic. While I was at South Dakota State College, I contracted bronchial pneumonia, and spent eleven days in the Brookings Municipal Hospital just across the street from our barracks. Then I went back to the barracks, but stayed on quarters for one week before I went back to classes. Then there were three weeks left in the term and I had six weeks of work to make up. I made it up, although it
1 Fort Leavenworth was a major recruitment center for the army in 1945, and is located in the city of Leavenworth in the northeast part of the state. Today, it supports the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) by managing and maintaining the home of the US Army Combined Arms Center (CAC). CAC's mission involves leader development, collective training, and Army doctrine and battle command (current and future). Fort Leavenworth is also home to the Military Corrections Complex, consisting of the United States Disciplinary Barracks – the Department of Defense's only maximum security prison – and the Midwest Joint Regional Cor- rectional Facility. Historically, it was built in 1827, it is the second oldest active United States Army post west of Washington, D.C., and the oldest permanent settlement in Kansas. Fort Leavenworth was also the base of African-American soldiers of the U.S. 10th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army, formed on 21 September 1866 at Fort Leavenworth. They became known as Buffalo Soldiers, nicknamed by the Native American tribes whom they fought. The term eventually was applied to all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866.
2 As it turned out, it was in Texas.
3 As this turned out, by Christmas, dad was back in the states at Camp Breckenridge, KY,
mother and I had joined him, and we were living in Morganfield, KY. Stewart visited us there on his way to his next assignment.
4 I guess the end of the war with Japan changed the need for Japanese language training in the army.
took me 'til 5pm on Saturday, July 28 to do it. I didn't have to do all that I missed, but I had to do enough to prepare myself for the GI tests. In physics, the top score was 55 and I got 54, out of 72 questions altogether. The following are my other scores, compared with the top score and total number of questions.5
Course
Total No. Top Mine
Geog. 80 65 57
Math. 50 45 44
Eng. 115 99 90
During the last week we took the college finals. We had our last class on Friday, July 27, and I came home on Saturday night.
I shall be at Leavenworth from a week to ten days. but I don't know where I shall be after that, so you might as well wait to write me until I reach my camp. I am in good health now, and hope to be caught up on my sleep by the time I leave home. Two weeks all at once seems like a miracle compared to the short passes I have had in the past. I will be lucky to get home very much in the future, however, especially if I be- come part of the occupation troops in Japan.6 I am still un- decided as to my lifework, but perhaps I will decide before I am out of the army. I am relieved to be done with studies for a while, at any rate. If I am allowed to go to school after basic, however, I will probably appreciate it.
5 It gives a picture of just how bright Stewart was that he was out much of the term and still did this well on these exams. But it sounds like he worked very hard to make it up.
6 Again, as it turned out, he was with the occupation in Germany, not Japan. One wonders
how his life might have been different if he had been sent to Japan. Would that have changed his vocational decision?
Maybe you can get home by Christmas, but if you can't, we'll make the best of it. I think your mail will start coming steady now, so long as you do not transfer again.
Your loving son,
Stewart
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