The Driving Course and the Missing Wool Socks

The weather is still hot when Ralph writes on April 18, 1943, but it has cooled some. He contrasts this Texas weather with the reports from Margie of an all-day snow storm in central-Ohio in the middle of April.

Ralph spends a good bit of time in this letter describing the training for truck drivers. He writes of driving and of spending time at the motor pool maintaining and cleaning his truck. He goes to some lengths in describing the test course for drivers and the amazing capabilities of the deuce and a half. “They have a test course laid out here so you can go over it once and drive under almost all conditions. We drove those trucks through places nobody would think of trying to go with an ordinary truck. We went through gullies, ditches, mud, sand, woods, and everything else. There were about 10 trucks in the convoy (procession) with two men in each one. We’d go over the course, then change drivers and go again. The Lieut. Led the way and he sure did go. He said those trucks were made to go anywhere and take anything, and I sure believe he’s right. He went pretty fast and we had to keep up or try to. We went 20 and 25 miles an hour over roads with holes in them a foot deep and through winding cowpaths, and between trees and gate posts where there was only a couple of inches to spare on each side of the truck. We didn’t have any time to look at the birds, I can tell you. And after you get back you feel you’ve been through a threshing machine or something.”

He goes on in the same paragraph to describe the truck itself. “The trucks we drove are 2 and ½ ton, 6 X 6. That means they have six wheels and there is power in all six. You can use the front-wheel drive or not, depending on where you are going and what kind of ground you have to dive over. There are four wheels on the back with dual tires. They have five speeds forward, and high and low range transmission, so there are really ten different gears.”