September 28, 1941

9 P.M., 9-28-41, Sun.

Hi Folks:

It’s late – I know, and I should be in bed. But something very important to tell you about – I’m Coming Home!!!!! And sooner than you think too. In fact I’ll be home exactly two weeks from the moment of this writing. Surprised? Yup, the furlough starts Oct. 11th as announced by the Capt. At last Friday’s retreat. Boy I’m really excited about the whole thing.

The Capt. is going to arrange for special buses to popular spots like Chicago, Detroit & New York. But there aren’t enough fellows from Mpls. to fill up a bus. So the best thing I could do is get a ride to the nearest large city & then grab a fast train from there home. On a special bus to Chicago it would cost me about $18.00 – round trip and would take about 30 hours to Chicago. I’ve decided that speed is more important to me than cost so here’s what I’m going to do. I’ve signed up with seven fellows from the barracks, and we are renting a station wagon taxi which will take us to Milwaukee for $25.00. It will make much better time than the buses will. Of course then I’ll have to hop on the “400” or “Zephir” to get home but that shouldn’t take long. We will be allowed from Sat noon (Oct 11) to Sun eve (Oct 18) – about 8 short days in all. That isn’t so much time so you can see why the time element is so important to me. The 8 of us are going to see the Capt. about leaving Fri nite. That would give us an extra 24 hours – hope we can get it but you know how the army is.

As far as money is concerned – I’m hurtin’. So you will have to help me out a little. I’ll need about $30 dollars. I hope you will get my money order for $15 that I sent home, so you can send it right back again. I hate to ask for so much, but if my furlough hadn’t come up so soon I might have had enough money of my own to get home on. As it is, I won’t need the whole $30, but I don’t know how much the train fare will be. I guess it’s always the best idea to have a little more money than not enough. I will be getting paid on the 6th – a week from next Monday, (tomorrow) I’ll be getting the usual $21.00 less $1.50 for laundry – a net of about $19.50. That means I’ll have about $50.00 to make the trip – that should be sufficient. Please send the money in a hurry, cuz I only have two weeks left here. – Thanks.

I don’t know why the furlough was changed from the 26th to the 11th but it is rumored that our training cycle has been shortened by two weeks. I guess they must be shoving us through to fill up vacancies created by all these 28 yr. old men leaving. That’s just one of my wild ideas. We never know the real reason for anything that goes on here. We don’t even know what we are going to do the next day down here. Everything is a military secret.

Well, I don’t see how you can arrange to meet me, seeing that I don’t know exactly when I’m coming, but here’s what I’ll do. I’ll write you as soon as I find out for sure just when we will leave camp. When I find that out, I can just about estimate the time we will hit Milwaukee. In the mean time I want you to send me the data on the train schedule from Mil. To Mpls. Maybe I can figure out just which train I’ll be likely to catch & let you know. I’ve written this in an awful hurry because it’s late & I must be heading for my bunk soon so my apologies for a sloppily written letter. I guess I’ve said the important things so I’ll be off to bed. I’m Assistant Charge of Quarters tomorrow & I’ll have to be up all nite so I need my sleep. The Sarge is C.Q. & I’m going to be his assistant (flankee?). I’ll have to run errands during the day, post the guard, make bed check, answer phones, etc. – good experience though.

Well I’ll see you soon then & boy am I happy about that – sure hope you’re both O.K. & get my bed ready please. – not on the porch.

So long ‘till Oct. 11

Love

Pvt. Dorance