Feb 13, 1943
Sat 7:45 P.M.
Dear Folks:
Well I guess I better write you folks. I think I will send this airmail. It takes too long for regular mail to travel.
We got paid today. I got $40. This paid me for the month of Jan. A little over 2 weeks. I will send home $40 by money order. I can’t send it until Monday now so you probably won’t get it until some time after you get this letter. If you need this money for Pete’s sake use it. I don’t need it. I will still have $45.
I was on K.P. again. I went on Thurs. at 2:30 P.M. I worked until 7:30 P.M. I got up at 4:00 A.M. the next morning and I didn’t get out of that kitchen until after 3:00. I got back and took a quick shower and had just enough time to dress for retreat. It was time for supper when we got done with retreat. After supper we had to scrub the floors and everything in sight because we was supposed to have a big inspection today. As you see I was pretty much on the move from 4:00 A.M. until 9:30 P.M., 17 1/2 hours. While on K.P. I was cook’s helper. I did everything you could think of. Help scramble eggs, open cans of corn until I was blue in the face. I ended up trimming hams. Oh yes! I went fishing too. In the sink. I handled quite a few fish yesterday. The only good thing about working in the kitchen is I have all the milk and ice cream I want.
Today we learned some jiu jitsu. That is a form of wrestling only you use leverage. You can break a man’s arm or leg with a certain twist. You learn how to throw him over your head and bring him to his knees. All kinds of things. In short it is a good way to kill a man quick if you want to get rough. Of course we aren’t learning that part–yet.
They are going to take a moving picture of us in action on this stuff Tues. We learned how to put a man flat on his face if he goes to shove us. I learned how to put a man on his back if he goes to stab me with a knife. I learned how to throw a man on his back if he takes a roundhouse swing at me. On this one the guys feet go way up in the air. It’s all in grabbing a man in the right place and exerting a little pressure. The other guy doesn’t have a chance. If he resists he is liable to end up with a broken arm or leg. When somebody is practicing on us we do not resist. We just make the move towards him and then relax when he grabs us. Today I was practicing with a big redhead. I was throwing him and then we exchanged places and he was supposed to throw me. Well I forgot and ended up by throwing him. It was the one where his feet went way up in the air. This is a lot of fun. We will probably get a little rough after a while.
This morning we had an open ranks inspection. We had to stand at attention, salute some big shot officers who walked up and down the ranks and looked us over from head to toe. All the time we had to look straight ahead without moving a muscle. After this the Colonel was supposed to inspect our barracks.
They quit just before they got to our barracks. But we was all on pins and needles all morning. This afternoon we also saw a film on gas attacks and protection against gas. Some night we are going to have a gas attack. We will have to get out of bed and put our gas masks on. They will probably use tear gas or just plain smoke.
8:40. I was just practicing some of that jiu jitsu stuff. Boy there is a lot of ways to throw a man. I just now learned one whereby I could throw a man over my head and probably ten feet away if I was mad. We had a couple of mattresses on the floor.
Well folks write soon and write some long letters. You don’t say very much.
Yours truly,
Alva
Ancestors Across the Ages 