With The 9th Armored Division At Fort Riley, Kansas - April 5, 1943

April 5, 1943

Dear Mother,

I sure waited long enough to write didn't I. I've got a fair excuse this time. We just got back from a three day bivouac. There was only about sixteen from each company. It was more of a trial than anything else.

We covered a lot of ground in three days for an army convoy. With every company in the Division out it looked like all the soldiers in Kansas were out.

Friday night they messed us up. About dark we picked up our beds and drove 35 miles to a new location. After we got there they told us we would move out again about two o'clock. It was so late that we hated to open our bedrolls. We tried sleeping in the vehicle but it wasn't made for resting. After a while it got so cold we opened one bedroll and three of us tried getting a little rest. At two o'clock I woke up and decided we weren't going to move so we got all the bed rolls and slept until about five thirty.

We got into camp in time for pay and that made us feel a lot better.

The anti-tank section went down to the obstacle course this afternoon. They have ropes across a small stream. Some you swing across and others you go over hand over hand. We got to swinging across three and four on one rope. Well this didn't work any too well cause the lowest man seemed to drag his feet in the water. Some of the boys tried carrying others across on their shoulders. The boys weren't as good as they thought. About half way across the load got too heavy and splash right in the middle of the drink. I fooled them I stayed dry.

Love
Kenneth

Here is $30.00 more towards a farm.