Starting Basic Training at Camp Swift

Ralph found himself at Camp Swift, a largely new Camp with lots of dirt and new buildings. His company is the first to use their barracks. They are also part of a new regiment that didn't exist a few months before. He is surprised to find himself assigned to the engineers.

Ralph finds his sergeant to be "a pretty nice fellow." But he also writes that "some of these sergeants around here are tough as nails, though. They bawl you out something awful, sometimes for things they never told you about in the first place. But I guess that's the way they do it in the Army" (Letter dated Feb. 22, 1943).

No portrait of basic training would be complete without a description of the ubiquitous and nerve wracking weekly inspections. "We have to clean the barracks up spic and span, have everything on our shelves neatly folded and piled, our clothes hung on the hangers a certain way and all buttoned up, our extra shoes shined, laced up to the top and tied and set in a straight row under the bunks. We have to have our beds made a certain way and without a wrinkle. Then we have to dress ourselves up spic and span, be shaved, our hair not too long, our shoes shined, etc. Then the officers come around and look things over" (Letter dated March 6, 1943). He goes on to say that those who have something wrong end up with K.P. duty for Saturday and Sunday, while those who pass the inspection get to go into Austin with a weekend pass.

Ralph shares that the First Sergeant of his company, who is 22 years old, is getting married. The men of the company each pitch in half a dollar to a dollar to help them get started.

The food is getting better by this time, and they aren't eating off their mess kits. He describes one meal of liver, mashed potatoes with turnips in them, sliced tomatoes, pickles, bread and butter and coffee as "pretty good, with the help of some salt and pepper" (Letter dated Mar 6, 1943). In the same letter, he asks his parents to tell his brother, Frank, "the next time you have one of those swiss steaks, or anything similar, to keep it to himself. If I can't help eat it, I'd just as soon not hear about it!"

By the 6th of March he had been on three hikes - two of those overnight. He complains of the cold, cold nights reporting that one night the temperature dropped to 18 degrees.

As for many young men, the first weeks of basic training were pretty tough emotionally, as well as physically. Ralph writes, " Now I don't want you to think any more about some of the things I said in the last several letters I wrote to you and Frank. I was awfully low down in the dumps that first week and things looked pretty black. But, now that my cold is better and I'm getting better acquainted and more familiar with the ways and routines of the place, it isn't nearly so bad. While I would give almost anything I own to be back home, and, although I won't pretend that I like it here or like the engineers or their duties, it isn't near as bad as it seemed at first. I'll be alright and I don't want anyone to worry about me" (Letter dated Mar 6, 1943).

Ralph closes the March 6th letter with a P.S. "We just had another mail call, and I got another letter from Margie. That makes at least four from her, so far. She sure is swell. Keep an eye on her for me as much as you can. I wouldn't want anything to happen to her for anything."