7-19-1943

Dear Don;
I received your welcome letter today and I was terribly sorry to hear that you and Earl had a hard break. I know how you feel about it and about going to sea, sometimes I feel the same way, but I know if you went to the fleet you would never feel right about it unless you were assigned to it. You fellows just had some bad luck and if you are willing to take advantage of the course again I know you will make it O.K. I’ve been talking to some regular Navy men—one who was just awarded the Purple Heart in a review here Saturday—and believe me he wants to stay here and go to school so that when he goes back to sea he won’t have to do the dirty work. Hell anybody can go on a ship as a seaman third and scrub decks but you a hell of a lot more than anybody. Before you do anything drastic, well just think about it awhile—you’ve got brains and so has Rapp—a hell of a lot more than me or anyone at your school but everyone is bound to run into some “snaps” at one time or another and if you go back to school and study you will get it and So will Rapp.
Boy have we had a time today. We have been filling out pay check papers etc. We get paid $26 tomorrow—our first Navy pay. We also got clean linen –that’s one thing we don’t have to wash and that’s sheets. I washed last night and my white jumpers and pants came out purty lite. (tattle-tale-gray)
Coon and I are still together & I guess we’ll be here for quite sometime. The school work isn’t too hard but it keeps us busy. The athletics is what wears us out. Boy they run the heck out of us. We have a good obstacle course & we run that everyday—This stuff really builds us up.
One of the old salts took a Malaria attack today & did he look sick but he snapped out of it pretty good—He caught it down in the Fiji Islands.
Well Don I’ve got to study now so take care of yourself & be sure to do the thing that you think is right—tell Rapp hello.
Best of luck
Your brother
Bill
P.S.
I am sending tithing home too.