Spalsbury: #77 Letters Home August 2, 1944

Archive

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St. Joseph Museums

Name/Title

Spalsbury: #77 Letters Home August 2, 1944

Entry/Object ID

2021.2.321A-C

Scope and Content

Letter Home from Pvt. R. C. Spalsbury, 17135556, Hq Co - 216th Engr Bn, A.P.O. 412, Camp Chaffee, Arkansas to his parents Mr. and Mrs. G.C. Spalsbury, 806 South 11th, St. Joseph (10), Missouri. Post Marked AUG 2, 1944, 5 PM, Fort Smith, Ark., 8 cents Air Mail stamp

Context

Wednesday Morning - 2 August 1944 Dear Folks - Well, here I am in Camp Chaffee. We got into Ft. Smith at about 5 p.m. yesterday, and rode out here on one of the Camp busses. The camp is about 10 miles from the city. Ft. Smith is a typical midwestern city of about 50,000 - so I hear. We - 6 of us - reported up to the Classification Section of the 16th Armored Division Headquarters this morning. We'd already been assigned to the 216th Engr Bn, some to each company. But when we got here, the Personnel Adjutant stuck us all in Headquarters Co, which doesn't mean much. Some fellows here are taking basic training, it seems. Never having been in the Engrs before, maybe they'll make me. Who knows? We were helping down in the Supply Room a while ago. One fellow asked if any of us could type, and I said I could, so he said to report down there after chow. Perhaps they want to try me out. I told the Mail Orderly about the deal Capt. McCoy told me about, and he said maybe I would eventually work in Personnel, since (so he said) a lot of the men have been trying to transfer to the Paratroopers, which would leave a lot of openings. In spite of all this, I'm afraid the picture looks pretty black. I try to be optimistic, but it doesn't do much good. The humidity is high here. I'll write more in a day or two. Love, Bob P.S. - I'm wondering how long it'll take this AIR MAIL letter to reach you. Maybe a FREE one would get there just as fast from here. Let me know.

Collection

Marshall White

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Letter

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Correspondence

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Other Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Archive Items Details

Title

Letter Home from Pvt. R. C. Spalsbury, 17135556, Hq Co - 216th Engr Bn, A.P.O. 412, Camp Chaffee, Arkansas to his parents Mr. and Mrs. G.C. Spalsbury, 806 South 11th, St. Joseph (10), Missouri. Post Marked AUG 2, 1944, 5 PM, Fort Smith, Ark., 8 cents Air Mail stamp

Description

Handwritten letter home to parents back in St. Joseph after being called up to serve in the US Army during WWII. Pvt. Spalsbury, at the time of this letter, has completed Basic Training at Camp Callan, California, was stationed for a short time with a STAR Unit for ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) soldiers in Pasadena, CA then moved to engineering training at Loyola University in Los Angeles, CA. After flunking out of the ASTP program, Robert was briefly stationed at Camp Roberts, located in central California assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center. Then Robert was stationed at Camp Haan in southern California, a U.S. Army training camp for Coast Artillery Anti Aircraft gunners. During his time at Camp Haan, Robert was transferred from Battery B to Battery A and began working as an office Clerk in Battery A. At the time this letter was written, Robert had recently been transferred to Camp Chaffee at Fort Smith, Arkansas. There is a significant gap in letters between this one and the last letter Robert writes from Camp Haan, California post marked approximately 5 months previously. This is the longest gap in correspondence of the Letters Home collection to date. A future letter makes reference to time spent in Yuma, presumably Yuma, Arizona and potentially Fort Laguna a few miles west of Fort Yuma (operated by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers). Fort Laguna was one of twelve U. S. Army desert training camps used during WWII. Camp Laguna was deactivated and demolished at some point this same year, 1944. This letter is only one page, front and back, written in blue ink on plain stationery with a matching plain envelope.The page is folded in thirds. This is the first letter which features an 8 cent Air Mail stamp reflecting an increase in postage rates.

Dimensions

Height

10-1/2 in

Width

7-1/4 in

Condition

Overall Condition

Very Good

Relationships

Related Person or Organization

Person or Organization

Robert C. Spalsbury