Somewhere in U.S. on a transport ready to go.

I am feeling fine and seeing some new things. Things are certainly crowded here on board, not because we are loaded so heavy but because we don't know our way around yet. All get lost and jammed up in some stairway and can't get either way. Ha!

Of course, things are not exactly as we like them here on board. It's all right out on deck - it's just dandy up there - but down in the sleeping quarters, it's the same thing as a groundhog hole. I don't like it all down there but can put up with it long enough to get across. I'll let the other fellows do the growling. We have some fellows who would not be satisfied in Paradise.

I don't hardly know what to write here. We have orders to not write so many things that I don't know what to write. But one thing, the talk there before I entered the service was that the soldiers were treated so mean and not allowed to write the truth home. That's all bs. We can write all we want to on how we fare so long as we don't write anything that would be of any military value to the enemy. Of course, some fellows aren't treated right any place. They probably thought they were going to a nursery when they entered the service. My idea always was never to expect too much and I'd never be disappointed. And it's a poor soldier who can't bear a few hardships. In fact, he isn't a soldier at all; he isn't even a decent citizen. So get the idea out of your head that we are censored on anything except what would be of military value to the enemies.

We don't have to buy stamps any more. Our postage is free. All we have to do is write the letter and leave it unsealed, then pitch it in the bag.

I am the only from Brown Co. to go but it's no trouble to find a boy from my state. We are well represented here. I was talking with a boy this morning from Indianapolis.

Don't ever let it occur to you that I won't come back. I'm going to be back to celebrate my next birthday with you. As long as there's life, there's hope; and I'm very much alive right now or else I'm a most thundering lively corpse. Ha! Ha!

So will close, as ever your son,

Don't put D.C. on the letters or it will stop at D.C.