Dear Ranger:

Having read a number of letters in the Ranger written by the boys from around John Day, who are now overseas, I decided to sit down here in my foxhole and attempt to write one myself.

I’m sent the Ranger every week and believe me, it sure helps a fellow’s morale to look through the old hometown paper and read the news of the valley.

I received word last night that both Jack Loyd and Wade Donaldson are here in France. I would sure like to run across them. Jack and I came in the Army about the same time.

The country we are getting into now reminds me much of the Hood River Valley there in Oregon. There are a lot of oak trees and apple orchards. The fields are beginning to get bigger, and the hedges seem smaller as we drive farther inland.

Most of all, we Yanks here in Normandy sleep in our foxholes. A person feels much safer down in the ground two or three feet, while the “Jerry’s” 88 shells and bombs are dropping nearby.

I’ve had cold sweat run down my face a number of times since I’ve been over here and believe me, that sweat wasn’t caused by the heat!

The morale of the boys over here is holding up darn good. Once in a while, when things don’t go right, or we don’t get any mail, we get sorta “down in the dumps,” but we are up to par again before long!

Our chow situation over here is getting better all the time. When we first came over we ate so darn many dog biscuits (referring to the biscuits that come in a “K” ration) that we all began to bark like dogs. Well, that’s sorta stretching it, but was darn near that bad.

Eugene Davis of Prairie City is in my Company. We’ve been together ever since we came into the Army. He drove the Prairie creamery truck before he was inducted.

Well, it’s about chow time, so I’ll close – “Cheerio!”

Cpl. Pete Baucum

Combat Engineers

(Reprinted from the Aug. 11, 1944, issue of the Blue Mountain Eagle.)