8:30 PM
20 November, 1963
Dear Folks,
Got your letter, the fruit cake, and the peanut brittle, etc. All today, all the guys and me too were awfully happy to see it come. Thanks!
Please pardon the fact that I haven’t written recently. We have been in the field for about two weeks now, and it looks at the moment as though Thanksgiving will be spent out here.
There has been a lot of rain, snow, sleet, and a cold that just doesn’t seem to care how many clothes you put on. Commo seems to have been hit hardest by this alert. The phones have been silent for about 3 days. I’m beginning to wonder if there is anyone else left out here but us.
Still, a battalion of tanks came down the river bed headed north about an hour ago, and the engineers have been skittering around ever since trying to undo the damage they did.
You know, it’s hard to believe I was 20 years old as of yesterday. It has been an awfully fast year. And a lot happened during it.
This tent has all sorts of things in its favor that no home should be without. A field phone that doesn’t work. A coal-oil stove that soaks the ground around it in kerosene, a typewriter with no carriage throw, a file desk with nothing in it, and a camouflage (this is probably the most useful thing around, because air harassment has been nil in this camp). I imagine this camp is one of the smallest, most nearly forgotten ones in Korea at the moment. There are about 8 CP tents here, and numerous pup tents around. It consists of civil affairs personnel, 16 personnel, DSO personnel, and a few non-combatants. There is no activity whatsoever in camp the majority of the time. The best I can figure it we are somewhere to the rear of division rear, along the Han, and north Seoul and Yong Dong Po. I understand (through the grapevine) that EUSA HQ moved out of Pusan and the 7th Division is up on the line with the 8th and 9th Cavalry right now. Also there is a kind of confirmed rumor that the 7th Special Forces Group has moved off Okinawa and is up there with the best of them. The Slikky Boys are terrible out here. The Colonel caught pneumonia this week and they hauled him south this morn.
Closing for now- write soon and I’ll do the same.
Happy Thanksgiving!
As always,
Jack
So Far From Heaven 