By then, Knox and Molly had moved back to the farm on Spring Creek. I helped
Knox on the farm quite a bit. It was still during the depression and steady jobs
were scarce. But I worked all the time at various jobs. If I wasn\u2019t helping Knox, I
paid board while working elsewhere. A lot of the time I stayed with whoever I was
working for.

I drove a tractor for a lot of people, breaking land and etc. A lot of times I drove
at night from dark until daylight. I would stop at midnight, eat a bit, gas up, and
grease everything and go again until daylight. Then someone else would take over
and I would sleep during the day. But I earned it. I rode the \u201cbinder\u201d at night and
was responsible to keep it running 24 hours a day. There was four in the crew and
none of the rest could even thread the damn binder. It was complicated but not
hard after you once learned it. A big ball of binder-twine set in a box on the binder
and fed through a complicated process to tie the bundles. If you watched and
caught it before a ball of twine run out, you just tied on the next ball and it kept
feeding correctly. If you let it run out you had to thread the whole thing over. I
would be sleeping in the daytime and have to get up and re-thread the whole works.
I couldn\u2019t do it at all now.

The T-Patch represents the 36th Division. Originally composed of Texas
National guardsmen it was mobilized into the Army of the United States on
November 25, 1940, at Camp Bowie, Texas. Although Selective Service
trainees later filled the Division to combat strength and reinforcements
from all over the nation gave it an All-American flavor, the citizens of
Texas still regarded it as their own.

Back to what I did between high school and the service. I told you in the last
letter about working all one year for Wray Walker. He had what was the very
modern equipment and a lot of people wanted him to work their fields. I started
out plowing land, then sowing small grain, corn, and etc., then harvested grain. Then
we thrashed from the Brazos (River) to Lake Worth. During the day I drove a small
tractor and pulled a bundle trailer. When we changed fields, I drove the big
tractor and pulled the thrasher. Somebody else moved my trailer. I remember
taking the equipment across the old suspended bridged across the Brazos about
daylight one morning. Nobody would ride across with me. It was quite an
experience. It was all uphill until the center, then I eased along in the lowest gear
and rode the brake on the downhill. It really swayed a lot.

They come up with this deal that everybody could enlist for one year and be
discharged. I wasn\u2019t working steady as it was still in the Depression. I thought I
would get in, serve my year, and a lot of jobs should be open when I got out. I had
been in just a little over a year when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. They had
already passed legislation to hold us longer and that finished it. It took me four
years, nine months, twenty-seven days, and fifteen minutes to put in that year.

I joined the National Guard just before they mobilized it and we were made a
regular Division. I joined the Artillery Unit, C Battery, 132nd FO of the 36th
Division. I was lucky to be in that rather than an infantry company as it was a lot
easier and not as dangerous.

We mobilized at Weatherford, stayed in the armory there a short time, and then
moved to Camp Bowie at Brownwood in the dead of winter. It was new and the
streets and roads were deep mud (it was a wet winter). For a while we slogged
around in deep mud, graveling and grading streets. We did have floored tents with
stoves. Our mess hall was in a building and we had latrines with showers inside
another building. I was a country boy, used to being outside so it didn\u2019t bother me
near as much as it did some of the city boys. In fact, a lot of our boys were farm
and ranch raised, so we made it fine.

I told you about moving to Camp Bowie and how muddy it was. I missed a lot of the
work to start with. Right after we moved I started to Radio School and spent
several months just doing procedure and Morse code. You can\u2019t imagine how boring
it was to listen to Code all day, five days a week for months. I got good at it and
then never used it but a very short time. From North Africa on we used voice code.
I remember absolutely nothing about Morse code now.

We had it pretty easy at Brownwood, mostly just routine training. The first year if
we went on duty we could come home. After Pearl Harbor that all come to a halt.
Everything went by the books. Where I was in school a lot I missed a lot of extra
duty. However, it seemed all through my tour of duty if prisoners were to be
guarded I caught it. I caught stockade guard more than the rest. That was army
men that were up for everything from AWOL to murder. They told us that if we
let a prisoner escape we had to serve his time. It was a scare tactic, as I never
knew of it happening.

I remember one incident on stockade guard that was laughable. Three of us from
the outfit was together: N.H. (Cheesy) Martin, H.W. (Little Ug) Johnson, and
myself. On that type of guard you went through a rough inspection. We were on
the end of the last rank in hopes they might stop before they got to us. They gave
the order to \u201cDress, Right, Dress\u201d. We had to back up to get in line. Ug was on the
end, then Cheesy and myself. I felt Cheesy\u2019s hand on my shoulder shaking so I knew
he was tickled about something. I cut my eyes around far enough to see that Ug
was gone. We had backed up to about a 10-foot deep ditch and he fell in. He was
flat on his back and his eyes were big as saucers.

Another time they had the bugler blow his call. Somebody had looked at their
watch wrong. So he had to blow it again. He run out of wind about halfway through
the second one. He wasn\u2019t blowing anything but spit. I believe that was the worst
call I ever heard blown. Something like that helped break the monotony.

Another incident I recall was another odd job I caught as I said I always seemed to
catch the offbeat ones. We were in formation and my name was called along with
two others, to report to the main guard tent. I thought, \u201cNow what have I done?\u201d
The officer of the Guard said you three have special orders. We have a prisoner in
the hospital that you are to guard. As a cold rain was falling I was elated to get
inside. As it turned out, I would rather have walked in the rain. The officer said,
\u201cAs there are no bars on any doors or windows, you will stand in the room with him