Camp Pendleton, California
July, 1943
Dear girls,
Out in the field again and somehow we have a few hours off – the training is coming pretty fast now, cramming an awful lot into each day. We are actually working almost steadily; of course on the whole I more or less enjoy the work so that the days pass quickly – it’s just that at times I get to feeling that it’s all pretty sterile – plowing a field of dry sand. Not because we are not going to put this training to good use – we certainly will. Nothing is a greater test, a bigger and more thorough examination of knowledge than battle. Most of my life has been that, you know – learning, then pulling all you know together for an exam. Only this time my success will depend as much on how well I have taught as on how well I have learned.
Finally made me First Looey yesterday. Not a big promotion, but a welcome one. Only twelve of the Second Looeys in the Battalion made it, but all three of us in Co. “A” did.
Got a cute letter from Kitsy and an Uncly one from Uncle Dud, and another from Aunt Kit.
It’s really very pleasant out here. Right now I’m sitting in a grove of enormous sycamore beside a gurgling little stream – smooth brown grass hills all around. The valley, polka-dotted with olive green bushes – clear blue sky, warm sunshine, and a fresh breeze. Really, mother, you missed the best part of California, because I never took you out tramping in these hills. This is the distinctive beauty rather than the cities. This is what I will always think of California, this and our house at Laguna. The brilliant blue-green water, the rocks, and the curve of the shore up to Long Beach.
Chow call. We’re going out all night and tomorrow morning – every letter is read a half a dozen times. I carry them around in the field and read them in rest periods.
Love,
Phil
The other lieutenants were most likely Endecott Osgood and Roy Wood, both platoon leaders.