July 26, 1944

Pvt. August Haferkamp 366847575

Hq. Co. 3rd Bn 135th Inf.

APO 34 c/o P.M. New York, N.Y.

Italy

July 26, 1944

Dear Mother.

I received your letter a few days ago that you wrote me on July 11. I also got the clippings from the paper that you sent me. I was glad to get the letter and clippings. I would have written sooner but was busy again and never had time. We are to have about 3 weeks rest now so I should have plenty time to write letters.

I wrote to Freddie about a week ago but as yet I haven't heard from him. I hope I do soon. I sure hope he gets my letter. I tried to tell him just where I was at. If he is still in a replacement depot I know just about where he is. We are many miles apart but I wish we could get to see each other.

Sorry to hear it is so hot and dry at home now. I guess you won't get much out of the garden this year again. Too bad after all the hard work. It is dry and awful hot here too but the gardens look real good. I don't see how they raise anything in this hard ground. It is clay and just like a rock. We have been getting tomatoes & corn out of the gardens along the way. Soon the grapes will be ripe and Italy is sure full of them. The spot I'm in now is full of olive trees and I've got my tent under one for the shade.

We just got paid for the month of June. I was wishing that they would wait a few days so we would get paid for July also. I get $20.80 every month and soon we will get another $10.00 a month. I intend to get a money order yet today for $25.00 to send Dora as there isn't many places where we can use money.

I'm glad Bill likes his job better now. Too bad he has to spend so much time on the road. Yes, I know Tom who used to work for Atlas when I did. I guess a lot of those fellows who quit there wished they were back now. Dora said Bob Ehmler works for Curtiss Wright now but didn't say what he was doing. He has night shift all the time over there.

I was surprised to hear about Mrs. Reurup dying. Was she sick very long or what was the matter with her? I suppose you all went to her funeral.

It sure doesn't seem like a year that Vincent was killed but time sure does fly by in a hurry. It was bad enough him getting killed but then when our own guns do it it is worse. Well that has happened more than once. Edward can be glad he is still back in the States. Fellows back there don't know how well off they are. So Evelyn has another little baby boy. It's been some time since I've heard from them.

I guess Henry Lee & Mary come to see you a lot these days don't they? I bet they'll be real big by the time I get home again. Did Henry Lee ever get the letter I sent him?

I believe I told you in my last letter I wrote you that I had a letter from Uncle Henry. He wrote it on the 4th of July. I may try to answer it yet today.

Well I'm out of news so I'll have to close and hope you are all well and feeling fine. I'll try to write more in a few days. So long.

Love,
Gus


This letter was postmarked July 30, 1944. Aunt Mamie wrote "Received 7 Aug." on the back of the envelope.

Dad writes in this letter about the death of Mrs. Reurup, but, though the name seems very familiar to me, I don't know who this would be. I think I have seen this name in my parents' papers but spelled "Reuhrup." 

Bob Ehmler is Dad's brother-in-law, the husband of my mother's sister Virginia Cool Ehmler.

When Dad first entered the Army he was stationed near Chicago, where some of his cousins lived. One of them, Vincent Howard, had recently been shot down by friendly fire. This sad fact is something Dad hadn't written about in his letters home at the time. I wonder if it is something the family learned about after his arrival in Italy. He also mentions Evelyn, who was Vincent's sister, and I think that the Edward he mentions was Vincent's youngest brother.

Henry Lee and Mary Haferkamp, Dad's nephew and niece, lived with their parents, Dad's brother Henry and his wife Leona, on Olive Street, about three blocks from my grandparents' home on Laurel Street in Staunton. I think Dad has mentioned them coming to see his parents more often because school is out.

October 16, 1943

Sat. Oct. 16, 1943

Dear Mother & All:-

I received Mamie's letter this morning and Bill's a few days ago. I was glad to hear from both of them. I just stopped writting and went out to mail call. I got the Staunton paper so I read the news. Dora sent me all the back issues of the paper.

I had a busy week again and they say next week will be worse. Monday we go out to the rifle range and start shooting our rifles. We have to get up about 4:30 A.M. as we are to have chow at 5. We will go out there 5 days straight. I was on K.P. yesterday. Had to get up at 5 a.m. Wash, make my bunk and go eat breakfast before the other fellows got there. I started washing dishes at 6 a.m. and never had my hands out of the water until we finished the dishes at 9:30 A.M. Sure was a hot job and today the four fingers on my right hand are all full of blisters from the hot water and G.I. soap. That soap I believe is about 50% lye. The fellows ate in the field at noon so there wasn't many dishes then but they came in for supper. I kept myself away from washing dishes then. After they were all done we had to scrub the place. We got thru about 8:30 P.M. Sure hope my turn don't come so soon again.

Bill said he may get the job as fireman at nights for 4 months at home. Well, I hope he gets it as I know he is the best fitted fellow at home for the job and he sure put enough work in for them already and never got a cent out of it. I got a letter yesterday from Bob Ehmler and he said that they had another lay off in the fire dept down there. They now have 6 men on a shift and work 7 days and off 1 which makes 3 men on a shift and 7 shifts. They want to put them on 24 hrs on and 24 hrs off. He said the Chief has been mad ever since the lay off. Bob Simon is down in Baton Rouge, La. I guess that's were I would have been now if I wasn't the extra man when they left.

I'll try and write to Freddie yet tonight as I guess he likes to get mail to as I know I do. I don't see why he couldn't get out of the army if he went after it in the right way.

Dora said her brother Bill was home on a furlough again. I don't see how he gets so many. I won't be able to get one before my 17 weeks are up which will be about February 1st and then I'll get shipped to another camp and maybe won't get one then.

It has been real warm here the last few days but tonight's paper said it was going to be colder by tomorrow. They say it gets down to about 30 above here in the winter. Well that's not so bad.

I got my package which Dora sent me last night. Sure glad to get my pen also the handkerchiefs & towels. I took my field jacket to the tailors today to have the sleeves shortened. I'll get it again Tuesday. That is a real nice coat. Too good to wear in the fields.

One of the fellows in my hut came back today. He was in the hospital since last Sunday. He got sick from his shots & vaccination. I thought I would get a shot today but I never. Most of the fellows are getting there teeth pulled or fixed but so far I haven't been called. When they looked at mine they marked down 4 what ever that meant.

Well I think I told you all I know so I'll close hoping to hear from you all real soon. I'll write when ever I get time. I had a lot of letters to write and I should get caught up this week end.

Gus


What a picture Dad paints here of life in basic training. This is the first letter that he has written in ink. All the earlier ones were written with a pencil. The explanation is that my mother, in the package that she had sent him, included his pen. 

In this letter he mentions his sister Mamie and his oldest brother Bill. Bill, like his youngest brothers Freddie and my dad, had served in Staunton's volunteer fire department. Though I haven't found confirmation, I believe the fire department was trying to staff some positions as paid, filling gaps left by the men who had left for the military. Dad also writes of Bob Ehmler, who was married to Mom's older sister Virginia. They lived in the area of St. Charles, Missouri. I don't know who Bob Simon is. The context makes me think he was from Staunton. Though there is no Bob Simon in the 1940 Staunton City Directory, there are two Simon families.

Dad has mentioned in this letter and some earlier ones about his brother Freddie trying to get released from the Army. I remember hearing about this as a kid. He had been drafted in 1943 just before his 38th birthday. On November 11, 1942, Congress had approved lowering the draft age to 18 and raising the upper limit to 37. Dad seemed to think there was no reason that his brother wouldn't be able to gain a release from military duty. It didn't happen.