March 28, 1943
Sun. 8:45 P.M.
Dear Folks:
Well I go to town again tomorrow. We also have open-post again next Sun. We finish our classes this week. We have our final exam in naval forces on Tues. In this course we learn to identify navy ships. Both Jap and U.S. We had 2 exams today. They weren’t finals. One was in maps & charts. I had 100. The other was on Physics. In this I had 92.
One of the fellows wanted to know how I even pass anything. I can’t keep awake in any of the classes. The guy next to me spends about half of his time poking me to wake me up. And then I fall right back to sleep. So I don’t learn hardly anything in class. I do study a little at night. And then I use a little common sense on the exams and I come out okay. A lot of them flunked Physics. I never even looked at the book from the last exam until last night. I had to remember a few formulas and then when I got to class I figured out how to make use of them. After this week I may be able to write a few letters without neglecting my studies. I have passed my 8 words a minute in code.
Tomorrow I think I will also go over to the classification center and look up Herbie Post.*
I got the proofs for my pictures. They were lousy. My hat looked way too big and it looked like I needed a shave. I already gave them the money so I will have to have some developed.
We started classes at 10:00 today and had them right through until 5:00 except for time out for dinner. Boy I’ll be glad when we finish these classes. But this is only the beginning. They tell me the further you get along in this training the tougher it gets. They couldn’t hurry us an awful lot more than they do now.
Well shucks! I thought I had a lot to write when I sat down here but I’ve run out already. Well write soon and let me know how everything is. Say did I understand you to say you got White Rocks or not? And how many? I forgot now. I’ll try to write more when we finish classes April 2. Then we will have 2 wks of drill, P.T., and gunnery practice etc. No studies.
Well so-long,
Alva
*Herbert Post was born in Alpine Township near where Alva’s family moved in 1935. He also attended the Alpine Baptist Church and was three years younger than Alva. Herbie enlisted at the age of 18 in June of 1942 and left for aviation cadet training six weeks after graduation from high school. He trained as a navigator. Sadly Herbie was shot down and killed over Japan in March of 1945. He had just gotten married two months earlier before going overseas.
Ancestors Across the Ages 