November 3, 1917

If the past week is a sign of things to come then I believe that this adventure may be a little harder than first believed. First off I can not stand the officers that the army has put in power to train ourselves. God help us if our only training comes from these old men trying to live out their pasts. These officers, or so there called, wouldn’t know a war if one came up and hit them in the nose. All of the officers in charge of training are out of shape and want power more than anything else. My drill team’s specific officer, Officer Adams, or better known as the local milk-man, was anything but qualified for this task. Officer Adams, was an older man of about sixty years old who weighed more than seemingly my entire drill team put together. While ordering us to sprint and dive to our bellies, upon which we would crawl for twenty yards and then restart the sprinting, Officer Adams would sit in a chair in the middle of the field because his weight was too much for his knees to handle. One time Adams caught my friend William make a snide remark about his weight and forced him to sweep out the leaves out of the vast training grounds. However the actual drills and physical work were far easier than trying to just get a good nights rest. Here at Camp Logan I live in row three and column seven in which my tiny tent meant for two is crammed with five fowl smelling, cold, and always hungry fellow soldiers. There is talk that at Camp Taylor where I was last stationed at, that the soldiers are threatening with mutiny unless the officers do something to help with the conditions. The first night I made a mistake I will never make again, which was skipping the dinner that was prepared for us. Even though I was liable to get more sick than healthy from this excuse for food, I will always cram it down my throat because the next day I passed out three separate times before the next meal came at lunch the next day. Well, I am too exhausted to write and longer and the candle-light in my tent is nearly burnt out, and I will have to wake up at four in the morning to continue this cycle of training. I cannot wait until I can finally get over to France and get some shots in on some Germans.

Sincerely, Charles Jefferson