Dear Mom and Dad,
Well I made it here to Ft. lee without too much trouble. I guess I must have just missed Jim when I got on the plane, but I did get his card.
There is an awful lot to tell you and I might forget some of it in this letter, but eventually you will get it all.
When I got off the plane at Richmond, it was just like walking into Gone With The Wind or some other fictional story of the South. the first thing I noticed, and still notice a great deal, was the heat. It just hangs on you like a wet wool blanket, with absolutely no breeze to disturb it. The airport had remarkably few people in it for a major city airport, and I will always remember standing outside waiting for a cab, with sweat dripping off every part of my body and the only sound around to interrupt the heat was several very loud crickets.
At the airport I met another fellow who was to report to the officer basic school also, so instead of getting a hotel room that night, we went straight to Ft. lee and reported in. It was dark on the way in, so I didn't see much of Virginia, and so far I haven't been out of the camp so I won't make any comments about the state at this time.
At this time I am staying in the BOQ and I must admit that they are very nice. The rooms come up to the standards of many motels I have been in, including maid service, done by a staff of hard-working negro ladies. The only problem is that we must pay for the room at a rate of $2.00 per day and also as far as eating goes we have to more or less fend for ourselves. There is no regular mess hall that we eat at and we have to find, and pay for our meals to the best of own abilities. So far I've been eating at a few small cafeterias that are close to wherever I am at the time, during the day.
By far though, the best place to eat is at the FLOOM (Ft. Lee Officers Open Mess). that place is really fantastic, and they have a buffet dinner for $2.50 that would make both of you very happy, including the huge salad table and main courses like sword fish, standing rib roast, etc. (including baked potatoes)
But of course all this stuff adds up, and right now I am a little tight for money but the future looks very bright financially. First of all, in a few day so they say, they will give us a $200. advance on our first pay check, then in a few weeks we should get the $300 uniform allowance. Then in about four weeks everyone will have to move out of the BOQ and find a place to stay off post. This will be very inconvenient without a car yet, but very profitable. This is because at that time we will start drawing the full TDY pay, Now believe it or not the full TDY pay is not $16 per day like I thought but $25 per day!! (non Taxable) Just before we move off post (this is done to make room for another class of basic officers coming in) they will give an advance for a month of TDY pay which will come to almost $1000 (1 thousand)! This TDY pay is completely separate from basic pay and since I will have to live off post for the remainder of the time I'm here I will get the TDY pay for the whole time, including the second 10 week school I will go to.
As for the school its self it looks like it will be very hard, to say the least. To give you an idea of the studying we have to do, yesterday they issued our books which came to a grand total of 35 good size books and pamphlets. The first four weeks are going to be almost like summer camp. They call it the Intermediate Military Training Phase. During this time we won't study much about the QMC but will concentrate on basic military stuff. I hate this type of work but I've got go through it anyway.
One good thing, though is that when we are done for the day at about 5:00 our time is our own, unlike at summer camp, and the BOQ's are very nice places to come back to, also unlike summer camp.
Well I still have a lot of things I must do tonight to get ready for tomorrow, so I really must stop writing now and say goodbye for a while
Love
Marty
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