Name/Title
Spalsbury: #91 Letters Home September 25, 1944Entry/Object ID
2021.2.335A-DScope and Content
Letter Home from Pvt. R. C. Spalsbury, 17135556, Co A - 216th Armd Engr Bn, A.P.O. 412, Camp Chaffee, Arkansas to his mother (while she is visiting his grandmother in Oklahoma) Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, c/o Mrs. R. C. Whinery, 309 South First, Tonkawa, Oklahoma. Post marked SEP 18, 1944, 11:30 AM, Fort Smith, Ark., 8 cent Air Mail stamp
The original address is marked out with a forwarding address of the Spalsbury home in St. Joseph, 816 S. 11th St. Evidently the letter arrived in Tonkawa, Ok following Robert's mother's return to St. Joseph.Context
Saturday Night -
23 September 1944
Dear Mother --
Hello there. --I'm sitting high in the air up here on my upper bunk, after a very long day on K.P. I've taken a shower and shaved, and am sitting in my underclothes enjoying the cool breeze coming through the window. ---Yep, I was on K.P. today.....first time since last March when my old outfit moved from Haan to Camp Cooke, and the following week I was a Table Waiter and then on K.P., and that was the last. Only Pvts. and Pfcs. pull K.P. here, and only two per day. That keeps those two very busy all day, but also makes the times they're on K.P. much less. Ordinarily, one can expect it every 3 or 4 weeks here, which isn't bad at all. Another good thing --- we have no Table Waiters here, since we file thru line and our chow is dished out from the pots and pans by the kitchen personnel. Another nice thing, we do not have Guard every day.....just ever so often, once or twice a week. I haven't been on that yet.
The bivouac was the easiest one I've ever been on --- no digging in the halftracks or trucks, just parking them under trees and camouflaging them with a net. However, they manage to keep us busy most of the time.....digging fox holes, cleaning rifles and carbines, attending classes ("concurrent instruction," they call it) on the various machine guns. Pvt. Wood, from Rhode Island, and I were in charge of a light .30-caliber Machine Gun, so we pitched our pup tent together.
Two days we ate C Rations. Speaking of rations reminds me ...the meals are very poorly balanced in our mess hall. There's too much starch, such as potatoes, bread, pastry, and not enough fresh vegetables. When we do have fresh lettuce, they usually ruin it by drowning it in salt and dressing. Oh, well, what can you expect when the officers don't eat in the same mess hall? They eat up at the big Officer's Mess on the hill. And our Mess Officer isn't very efficient. By the way, there are only 4 officers in our Company - a 1st Lt. and 3 2nd Louies - and 2 of them -possibly three - were formerly in Anti-Aircraft. One of them was in the Officer's Pool at Camp Haan for awhile.
I got your letter and one from Dad on the same day while on Bivouac, and another from you came today.
It's five minutes after ten - time for lights out --so I'll stop. Give my love to Grandma Whinery and Robert, and Esther, if there.
Tomorrow we all work in the afternoon, and some also work in the morning, starting at 7 a.m.
Love, BobCollection
Marshall WhiteLexicon
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Category 08: Communication ObjectsArchive Items Details
Title
Letter Home from Pvt. R. C. Spalsbury, 17135556, Co A - 216th Armd Engr Bn, A.P.O. 412, Camp Chaffee, Arkansas to his mother (while she is visiting his grandmother in Oklahoma) Mrs. George C. Spalsbury, c/o Mrs. R. C. Whinery, 309 South First, Tonkawa, Oklahoma. Post marked SEP 18, 1944, 11:30 AM, Fort Smith, Ark., free postage The original address is marked out with a forwarding address of the Spalsbury home in St. Joseph, 816 S. 11th St. Evidently the letter arrived in Tonkawa, Ok following Robert's mother's return to St. Joseph.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 is serving at Camp Chaffee at Fort Smith, Arkansas. He had been working as a Clerk-Typist in the HQ Company but has now been transferred to Line Company A, still working as an clerk-typist.
This letter is one page, front and back, written in blue ink on United States Army stationery which features a red and blue inked emblem centered on the page with an eagle in flight carrying a U.S. flag. The letter was sent in a plain envelope. The page is folded in thirds.Dimensions
Height
10-1/2 inWidth
7-1/4 inCondition
Overall Condition
Very GoodRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Robert C. Spalsbury
