July 31, 1943Dear Kay,
I got both your letters on the same day about a week ago and for a girl who has lots of correspondence, you did certainly did well with those letters. I guess you are really busy there and I miss places like Waikiki.
I’ve been in water once since I am here, for swimming, that is. The place wasn’t very clean but then we were dying for a swim and in we went. What really surprised me was the fish which at first I didn’t know were there. They kept biting the hair on our feet or rather our legs.
It rained but that didn’t bother us; our clothes are almost always half wet with sweat anyway.
I’ve heard that flu was running around Honolulu and I’ll bet you’re glad you’re through with it.
I’m glad the measles running around here has stopped.
I am thinking, as I look at your two letters in front of me, that you certainly can write good long letters. It takes me a long time to write a letter but I’ll try to even yours.
Glad to hear that Scooter’s in the service. I guess he’ll be one service man who will really be welcome around there. Sure, I remember Rex. I can imagine how he grows because I only saw him twice, and the second time I saw him, he was twice as big. The beach boys seem to be doing very well for themselves and I guess you can really be proud to know them. I never knew them very well but I am familiar with their looks.
I don’t know any of the kids birthdays but they come and go pretty fast on you, don’t they. It seems that you’re always the one to get them their gifts on every occassion [sic], from birthdays to holidays. But I bet it makes you feel real good when you realize how happy they are to get those things. I especially like to see Mom and Dad happy, not that I ever did anything to make them happy.
My aloha to the Bath house gang too. This being the 31st, theres [sic] no use in wishing Ethel a happy birthday. Vulgar of me to say so, but I’ll bet she wishes her 23rd birthday was still a few years away.
I do hope you two are getting along as well as you don’t do every once in a while. All in all though, I do hope she had a nice birthday.
I did hear from Nakashige and if any other fellows ask about me, just tell them that I’m fine or tell them anything you want to.
I had to put off this letter because we’ve been out in a bivouac or camping area for a week. We’ve been on the firing range, firing our m-1 Garand rifles. I qualified as a sharpshooter with it. You either don’t quality, quality as a marksman, sharpshooter, or an expert. I could have made expert, but I just didn’t, and I’m not offering any alibis. Hal, I believe, made an expert rating with their anti-tank gun. We have quite a few experts in our company, but I believe the majority are sharpshooters. It really is good to shoot the rifle after you’ve had so much handling of it. On the first shot, I thought she kicked like a mule, but then, it was raining and a rifle always kicks harder when the rifle or the ammunition is wet. We fired about 200 rounds (1 round is 1 shot) in these days, which is very little, and our shoulders never more than hurt very little. The 1903 Springfield (World War I) rifle, I understand, kicks a lot more. Its [sic] still in use, but we didn’t fire it, the M-1 being our standard rifle. We have a very small fellow in our platoon, and every time he fired from the squatting position, he’d practically fall over. One fellow, a very quiet and unassuming person, fired all over hell during the practice firing. When the lieutenant looked at his score book, he remarked, “If you don’t shoot better than this in the record firing, I’ll disown you. I’ll give you to the third platoon.” He came out on the record firing with one of the highest scores in the company. A few others didn’t quality with the rifle. That [sic] enough on the range business, or is it. After we came home, some guys in our hutment were talking range terms in their sleep. One fellow swore very loudly in the middle of the night and woke half of us up. We’ll be going out again in a few days, but not for shooting so I’ll start filling myself with 15 days supply of coke, ice cream etc, starting right now.
So long
love
Stan
P.S.
Yes, all these fellows in the picture are Japanese, Yankee Japs.
