While stationed at Camp Blanding, Florida, in 1943, Myrl C. Phelps Sr. wrote many letters to his mother. These letters were compiled and tell the story of a soldier waiting for what was next, along with the adventures, boredom, and homesickness of that time. He trained to drive trucks, but he had hurt his back as a teen; rather than being taken to the hospital, his dad had him lie flat on a sheet of plywood while he healed. He aggravated it in the Army, so they discharged him. He was drafted into the Army. The following are some excerpts from those letters home…

“One of the guys I have gotten acquainted with since I have been here asked me to come over to his hut last night but couldn’t say what for. Well, when I got there he had a 5 pound box of chocolates and a big box of cookies his girlfriend sent him, so boy did we have a feast. He is from NJ but seems like a good fellow.”

“I have to go do guard duty Wednesday night, and how I dread it as all you do is walk around in circles.”

“The outfit next to us is shoving out tonight, and they think they are going overseas as they have been here quite a while and they have been just hanging around. Gee I only wished I was going with them as that is one thing I want to go across.”

“My back has been bothering me more lately than it ever has since I got out of bed. It is getting so it aches steadily night and day. I am going on sick call in the morning and if they don’t do anything about it, I am going to keep going on sick call till they either put me in jail or do something for it. The doctor at the hospital says I have no right in the Army but that doesn’t help my back.”

“We just had all our huts inspected and we ourselves were inspected and what do you know, they gigged me because I had dirty fingernails and I didn’t even think they looked at them, but I guess they must have.”

“I met a fellow last night that is from Everett, Mass. and he used to be in the CCC camp in Danbury. He was in the last company that was there and it did good to talk to someone who knew something about the good old state and not someone that came from a dump like Florida.”

“Last night we got to raising the devil here in our ward [hospital] and one fellow dumped a pail of sand in another fellow’s bed and we rolled everybody out of bed and tipped the beds all over and were throwing water around and at 1:30 this morning the nurse had to call two captains and two lieutenants in to make us behave ourselves and go to bed.  I got to sleep about 5:00 this morning. (Some hospital, let me tell you.)”

“I am going to turn in my clothes tomorrow, and I am short a helmet which will cost me somewhere between 4 and 6 dollars. Someone stole it while I was in the hospital but won’t kick too much if that is all I lost as one fellow lost 3 shirts and 3 pairs of pants which cost him $27.”  In a future letter he writes… “Well, I turned in all my clothes today. They gave me a complete uniform and one extra shirt so at least I will have something to wear home. I had to buy a helmet which I thought would cost me between 4 and 6 dollars, but it is only going to cost me $2.19, which isn’t very bad if you ask me.”

“You say you were disappointed because I didn’t take the CDD [Certificate of Disability for Discharge]. Well, I had my choice last Tuesday of either taking a CDD or get a Section 8, so I took the CDD.  The Section 8 means that I am crazy.”