"The place is cold as the devil..."

New River, NC
December, 1942

Dear girls,

Well, I’m all set – in our hut here, that is, but we don’t start work until tomorrow. There has been so much wild scuttlebutt that you don’t really know what to believe, but from all soundings I’ve been making, the setup sounds very much as I thought it would be. We have a bunch of rookies, I think, though I haven’t seen them yet. And we will probably stay here at least two months training them. In fact, I am giving a series of lectures on chemical warfare – about which I know very little as yet.

The place is cold as the devil, and expensive eating, and way out in the middle of the pine and Spanish moss swamps; but they all seem to like it pretty well – especially for its informality – wear dungarees and boots all the time.

Sabini is shipping out tomorrow. Roy Wood is, strangely enough, in charge of the platoon next to mine. [Frank] Shattuck bunks next to me, but will soon be with his wife. There are for others of us in here, none of whom I knew very well before, but they seem like swell guys.

My train ticket down cost me [$] 6.08. How, I don’t know – but I didn’t get in here until eight last night, what with late trains, standing four hours for the bus and etc. It is late.

Love
Phil