Note: I recently received many letters from my Aunt Virgina. The next few installments will be out of date order from the previous letters. The letters to Virginia are much more candid than the ones to his parents. Virgina was his rock to lean on.

Arnold's Letter Home #6

March 13th, 1966: To his sister Virginia, her husband Bob & daughter Dawn

Fort Hood, Texas

Hello Ginny, Bob an Dawn,

I'm glad to see you're all in very good health. I'm glad to hear chubby has straitened out. Tell him I said hello. You said you've been having good weather there, its been hitting around 60 t0 85 here. When it gets hot here it gets real hot, there's no trees. The only time it's cold is from 4 in the morning to about 8.

I don't know where I'm going for A.i.T. but I hope it's Ft. Devens. I'll get my orders my last week here. They told us at an assembly that 90 percent will go to Vietnam, that's what happened to the guys in the last cycle too. The food here is OK sometimes, but they never give us enough. Every morning it's pancakes or eggs and a bowl of cereal. Dinners and suppers are usually a little bit of meat and potatoes and peas. They're starving me here, but in two weeks I gained 20 pounds. I weighed 158 when I got here and now 180. 

I have to get up at 4:00 and go to bed by 9:00. The Armored Division is tank training, it's called Hell on Wheels. I have a little badge in here that I wear on my clothes. I sent one to a girl in Lynn too. She sent me a lucky piece, but that's all I could get to send her. Ha. We start on M14 rifle tests tomorrow, Monday.

I read a couple of pages out of that book you sent me, I'll finish it as soon as I can. It's pretty good, thanks for sending it. But whether I believe in Jesus or not I'll never go to church again. Last Sunday, at church here, a priest stood up and preached about Vietnam. He actually told us that it was good to kill over there, he said by hating and killing communists you will help others to live free like us. When I heard that I lost all faith in priests and churches. A priest to me is just another man. I've done a lot of bad and I'll probably pay for it in hell, but I never once went against Gods words and said it was alright to kill. 

Boy I can't wait for my 2 years to go by. I'm gonna buy me a CH and travel around the states till I get tired of it. But I'll never get tired of a bike. Ha ha. I intend to race bikes for a living too. Well, time to go. Me and a couple of my buddies are gonna take some pictures outside. 

See you all soon,

Love,

Arnold