Dear Mom & Dad,
Thanks a lot for your letter. I was real glad to hear that you are recovering OK from the accident. Also, thanks for the pictures of your new car. It looks like you got a good one this time, in fact, when I first glanced at the pictures I thought it was a Cadillac
Really not a heck of a lot has been happening over here which would be of interest. Our new commanding officer of the Brigade seems to be a real go-getter and has been working everyone fairly hard. He's expanded our working hours by two, which means all officers now work from 7:00AM to 6:00 PM. enlisted men get off at 5:00 PM. Starting tomorrow morning all officers and NCO's in our headquarters have to do P.T. beginning at 7:00AM to 7:30. He claims that we will work up to running two miles a day. I have my doubts. Things like that make me glad I am almost out of the Army. As far as when I will be getting out, I still haven't heard. Every day that goes by convinces me more that I will be here until July. If I was going to get out in March or April, I would have received my alert orders by now.
I have sent away for applications for graduate school, to Portland State; University of Minn and San Francisco State College. None of them have arrived yet. I am also going to send for applications for the University of Oregon, University of Washington, Wash. State, University of Portland, and Stanford University, also Penn. State. I don't think I will apply to every one of the above, because it costs between $10 to $20 just to apply and it could be quite a sum to apply to too many. After looking at all their programs I will decide on which ones and apply to as many of them as possible, to give myself a wide range of choices. At the moment I am only considering getting my Masters in Psychology and I think I will want to concentrate my energy on that. I have considered a school like Stanford because if by some chance I were to get accepted it might be worthwhile to attend there if just for the name sake alone, even if it isn't close to home like I would prefer, and is somewhat more expensive. Penn State, because they give priority in admissions considerations to veterans, and University of Minn. because of the catalogues that I have seen so far, they have the best Psychology program I've seen and there is something to be said about being close to relatives, even overly religious ones. The other schools on the list are there because they are relatively close to where I want to be, and they all offer some kind of graduate program in Psychology. I'm not going to decide on any of them before I find out more about them and see who will accept me. In April I will be taking the Graduate Record Examination, which will be given in the Army Education Center in Nurnberg. I'm not looking forward to it, because it's supposed to be fairly difficult but I have to take it since so many of the schools require it.
For the next week I will be without transportation, because my car is in the shop . Yesterday (Sat) I drove it up to Aschaffenburg, about 100 miles away to a lotus repair shop to have my 12,000 mile or 12 month check-up done . It's a long way to take it, and the guy is kind of expensive, but he's the only one Iv'e found who I really trust to do real good work. Besides the tune-up and check up that he will do, I am having him fix all the minor problems with it that have been bugging me for so long. When I pick it up next Sat. It should be in A-1 condition. I am strongly considering having my car shipped back with me. I am thinking about picking it up on the East Coast when I get out of the Army, and driving back home across country. I think that would be a real fun and interesting trip.
Speaking about driving, I have favor to ask of you. My Wash. drivers license runs out on May 29 of this year, and it really looks like I won't be back until July. Could somebody check for me down at the drivers testing place and see if there is some way I can renew my license from over here by mail. If there is no way that I can do it without being there in person, then could you ask if a United States Army, European driver's license is valid in Wash and if so for how long. Also USA license plates. I know that both plates and license are good in many states for up to 60 days, but I don't know which ones. I should have checked this myself when I was home, but at that time I really thought I would be back by May.
Well like I said, I don't have much news of interest this time, so I will stop this letter for now.
By the way , I guess you better start sending my mail the the address below. I'm beginning to lose contact with the Officers Club and picking up my mail there is becoming a little more inconvenient than it was before.
1st Lt Martin L Burrows
HHC 3rd Bde, 1st AD
Attn: DIC
APO New York Ny 09139
