France 11-10-
Dear Col,
Your letter of the 10th Oct, reached me here, indicating the wonderful mail service. Kaj just received his order for the rotation and is expected to take off when transportation is available. So will “Candy” Tanaka and Fitzhugh. (The Texas longhorn.” Both of them a pretty well hagged out- Fritz being hit twice, Candy once- and its still a miracle when I think of the time they lugged Candy in the aid st. He also suffered trench feet so both of them really deserve this rotation.
Yes, Lefty Kobashigawa is that baseball player and with Kaneko, they went a long way. “Lefty” has received both DSC and Bronze Star plus a cluster on his Purple Heart. I don’t know whether I mentioned it to you but the last time I met Col. Hougen JAGD he showed me your letter- and also mentioned of receiving some from Wash. DC in reply to what he expected to write about concerning the personal affairs of our boys. The 34th are our greatest booster. But with the departure of Gen R – I hear things changed and their fighting spirit sagged. We are now with the 36th as soon, our APO is expected to change. The one puka puka is not what it used to be and you can understand the cause-when we hooked up with our junior outfit. There is no question and that the best thing was for the one puka puka to have taken over the situation in Shelby. Even in the one puka puka, things are not what it used to be as Mac is the only old timer. The new ones are all glorying in the “famous” 100th but they forget the trying time when things were not as “famous” and there were few stout hearted men who had the necessary faith to stand for us. Guess you would of have been right on here with your French. Col. Singles is doing OK as few others. After a year in Italy it’s a difficult change- too soon to learn to parlez vous. But the kids will come around as they did in Italy. However the situation is different. The French are better off and cleaner for one thing. This is a really beautiful country. It won’t be like a soldier if they didn’t mention the mademoiselle, but, when they say Paris is the style center for women, in the world, we are apt to believe it after watching the parade of these dames. Well dressed and painted in all colors of the rainbow- and plenty of good fresh complexions- Col. Geo. Grandstaff say, we’ll all be tempted to shove our hands in their hair to find out how they keep their hairdo so high. We hate to think of this coming winter after experiencing the last. With winter its another holiday season but after 28 months away from the family, I think we can stand a few more months. But the dreadful weather. Cold, rain, and mud is certainly no passing concern to the front line boys. Trench feet and discomfort.
Fortunately we’ll be better fortified in clothing. We hope the new kids will do as well as we did.- all in all. The mention of Maj. Wolfe brings me back to the Guard days. He took lots of “crepe” from the guards and I’m glad he got out in time to get a better position. Please say hello for me. Both Maj. O’Connor and Connelly are throwing on their new air but I don’t think they like the cold and mud. We took in another 600 “kotonks”-real ones who were in the service many years. They were the [illegible] and hospital and service command group. Too bad to see them thrown here but they might as well take it like the rest of us. Best regards from all.
Very Sincerely
Kome
My good wishes to Mrs. Turner