Chapter 3 Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma August 28, 1917 – April 24, 1918 Fort Sill,Oklahoma August 29, 1917 Dear Hazel, I have been looking for a letter from you for a day or so. The mail service is not very good here yet, and your letter is evidently being held up somewhere, but I have a litle time tonight and I am going to utilize it by sending you a few lines. We arrived here last Sunday evening in what I consider the most forsaken country I have ever seen. Our camp here is in a bad condition. In fact, the government was not prepared to take care of us. There is about 6,000 troops here now and we haven’t any water here. We got hold of enough water today to wash our face, but we haven’t been able to get a bath yet. We had no water to drink the first 2 days we were here, but the government is working hard every day to get the pipelines laid out and I think things will adjust themselves in a few days. However, it is pretty hard on the Boys not to be able to get water to bathe in in this hot and dusty country. I am glad you received the flowers I sent you and I am very glad that you enjoyed them. I knew you would. I sent you a letter a few days before I left Riley and I also sent you a picture. Did you get it? Well, Hazel, we are now busy receiving our final instruction and training for foreign service, and I really think we shall see some real service before very long. And I wonder how we shall adjust ourselves to the new and strange conditions over there. We are receiving the final inoculation now for typhoid fever and cholera and we are being issued clothing and equipment for trench work. But we have just received orders to move our camp to another locality and I will have to close for this time, but I am going to look for a long letter from you soon. You won’t disappoint me, will you? I am as ever Your Soldier Brother Carl Fort Sill, Oklahoma September 1, 1917 Dear Hazel, I have been waiting for a letter from you for some time, but haven’t heard a thing from you for about 10 days. We left instructions with the postal authorities in Fort Riley to forward our mail to us as we were not sure what our address would be, but up to this time we haven’t received any mail from there and consequently we are all feeling somewhat blue. However, we are getting settled down here and conditions are gradually improving. I have been swimming this afternoon. There is a fine litle lake about 5 miles from our camp. I rode my horse over there. I took several pictures on the way and I am going to send you one of each later on. There is really some beautiful scenery around here. I am going to take a trip to the Indian Reservation tomorrow. I am told there is about 30,000 Comanche Indians living on the Reservation. We see many of them every day. The come in and watch us drill. They still wear their native costumes here. Another very interesting sight here is the aviation service. They have 60 airplanes here now and it is not unusual to see from 15 to 25 up in the air at one time. I have a friend here in the aviation section who has promised to take me out on a trip some time next week but I am not sure that I want to go up with him. Next week we are going to get our final inoculation for typhoid fever. It is called para typhoid, and given to all soldiers before going in to foreign service. The general impression now seems to be that we will go to France sometime in November. The Oklahoma ambulance company and field hospital will leave here this evening for Garden City, N.Y. from where they will sail for Europe soon and I wish we could go with them. I am getting very anxious to go, but I am going to bed now. It is 10 o’clock and I will finish this in the morning. Sunday a.m. I was woke up this morning at 6 o’clock by the 2nd Mo’s hound dog and say, they have a real hound dawg this year. Co. A of the 2nd arrived here some time early this morning and we heard them coming for a mile. The dog led the march from station to the camp. I expect the rest of the Missouri and Kansas Boys will be coming in pretty fast from now on. I understand they have 10,000 Boys at Nevada, Mo. Ready to come. But I think I will have to close for this time. I am going over to the service at the Y.M.C.A. this morning. Hoping this will find you well and happy and hoping that I will get a long letter from you real soon. I remain as ever Carl P.S. Excuse the soiled paper. We are living in dust here and it is impossible to keep it clean. I am enclosing a few pictures I took at Ft. Riley. [Note: 13 photographs of Ft. Riley camp life] Fort Sill, Olahoma September 3, 1917 [Note: Hazel has marked this letter “special” on the envelope] Dear Hazel, I received your letter from Ft. Riley yesterday, and your letter of Sep 1st came today, and I was so glad to hear from you. I had been looking for mail from you for several days. I mailed you a letter last night and I don’t know if I can find much to write about this time, but this is a holiday and I have ample time and I shall try to send you a few lines. I went up to the Wichita Mountains this morning and watched the field artillery practice shrapnel firing with 3 inch guns. There was 96 cannons out there and it was very interesting. They shoot the shells out of the guns and you can see them go through the air several miles before the explode. They can be set to explode anywhere from ½ mile to 5 miles from where the guns are, and when they explode they scatter fragments of steel over a large area. But Hazel, I am glad that I do not belong to the fighting branch of the service. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to be able to serve in a branch where I can help to relieve the suffering. You wonder how long we will be here. Well, Hazel, it is hard to say, but I can not help but believe that we will be in Europe by Christmas and if it is at all possible for me to get away for a week then I am coming to see you before I go, for of course, none of us can be sure of coming back. Surely a good many of us will not be here to answer roll call after the war, but as I have told you before, I have no fear for the outcome. Let me quote you a part of a letter that a good friend of my Mother sent me some time ago. She writes, “I wish some woman, A Mother, would write a letter than can be nailed up somewhere in the lounging places of the men. I have tried. I find I can not write that letter to a million men. It assumes a right I do not possess, but if I were writing it, I should say something like this. When things get a litle strained over there, as they will now and then, we just want you to remember this. We are here. All of us. Solidly behind you. We love you and believe in you. You have entered upon a new life that is always strange, and often terrible. Home and things at home seems very far away. But we are praying that some day you are coming back to us and the old familiar things again. Remember this: if prayers, high hope and sleepless nights avail, you are coming back to us to take up life again where you left off. We know things are different over there. War levels many barriers. The very proximity of Death makes Life seem a thing to be lived fully. War itself is a great adventure. Here at home, things go on in the same old way. With this difference our eyes are strained to the time when you are coming back. You will remember that, won’t you, when things get a bit strong over there? We want you to come back. God only knows how we want that. But we want you to come back the better for having gone. The finer, the stronger, for having fought for a great cause. We want you whole of body if so ordered, but whole of soul by your own strength.” And then she adds, “Carl, I have never preached to you. You know I am not a preacher, but I am asking one thing of you. :A clean slate: I want you to come home from this school of war with a clean slate, and if in the fullness of a purpose we do not understand, you are not to come back to us here but must meet us again in a land where there is no more wars but everlasting peace, then that clean slate of yours will be a fine thing to take along over there.” I consider that a fine piece of advice and I am taking it with me. Hazel, I remember as a child when I went out to play. Mother always warned me not to get hurt. That sounds funny now, but there are so many ways to get hurt and particular so in the Army. And cigarette smoking is one of them. No, I do not smoke, Hazel. I am on of the 10 out of 100 soldiers who does not smoke. Cigarettes, liquor, and vice are the 3 evil influences we have to fight. Of course, it is only the younger class that falls for them. We are fighting them all hard, and I think with liquor barred from the Army now, we are going to beat the other two. As I see the young men coming in to camp by the hundreds every day now, I wonder what kind of soldiers they are going to make, and what kind of men they are going to make, and I hope they will all come back home the better for their experience. I think that of all the experiences and adventures I have had in my life this far, those I have gleaned from my 14 months in the Army have had the most profound effect in shaping my destiny. The recruiting posters tells us that a year in the Army will teach our Boys courage. It will. It will also teach us how to die, and in teaching us this, it will teach us how to live. We learn how to obey in order that in the latter Battle of Life we may know how to command. It teaches us democracy and if after we have learned to defend our country and ourselves, we are called upon to make practical use of our education for the benefit of posterity. We learn tenderness and manliness and how to sacrifice without thinking about it. Pacifists argue to the contrary, but if anybody can show me a man who has seen service and is a Pacifist and denies my statement then I am willing to take the short end of a bet that his record in the War Department shows him on the sick report when he wasn’t in the guardhouse for being a dirty, careless, inefficient soldier. Military service in the U.S. Army is a real job with variegated details. Many of them unpleasant to some natures, but none of them degrading. And the Army is the finest school in the world for teaching a boy courage, cleanliness, self reliance, and efficiency. But Hazel, I must close now. How is this for a long letter? It is almost supper time now. I remain as ever, Your big but not handsome soldier brother, Carl P.S. May I look for a long, long letter real soon? I did not start out to write a book. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma September 9, 1917 Dear Hazel, You have been very good to me to answer my letters so soon. I received your letter of the 5th this morning and your last letter came this afternoon, and this has been a happy day for me, for I enjoy your letters so much. We moved to our new camp yesterday and we have just completed our camp and gotten cleaned up, and I like it so much better than where we were. I think we have one of the nicest locations on the Reservation. We are camping at the foot of the Wichita Mountains and I think I shall like it very well here after we get settled down. It takes about 2 weeks to get located in a new camp. There is so many litle things to fix up. I have washed all my clothing today except thos I have on. We have no laundry here and we have to do our own washing, but then, I am used to it and I don’t mind. That is one of the many duties that the new soldiers will have to learn when they get in to the Army. I took a ride over the Reservation and I went part ways up in the mountains and took a good many pictures and I will send you some of them later on. At the present, I haven’t a picture of my horse, but I will take one and you shall get one before I go to France. I am very glad that you enjoy the pictures I send you. I am going to try to send you a good many pictures from here for there really is some beautiful scenery around. How I wish you could see the country around here. I saw many interesting sights out on the Indian Reservation Sunday, but unfortunately, I ran out of films before I got out there. I had lunch with a family of them, but they certainly are a peculiar tribe. This family I visited has a grown son and daughter who had both graduated from the college in Lawton. They were well educated but still they remain out on the Reservation and live like animals. They don’t seem to [have] any ambition at all. I venture to say that there are hundreds of young Indians around here who have a much better education than I have ever been able to get, laying around and the government has to support them. Citizens in Lawton tells me that they will come to the city and get a position and work for a week or two, but that is their limit. They then discard their civilian clothing, grab their blankets, and go back to the wild again. They live principally from hunting and fishing. Some of them have a few hungry looking cattle and sheep, and each family has at least a dozen dogs. But they are certainly an interesting race to study. Hazel, it is very kind of you to think of my needs in France. But at the present time, you better not start on anything. In fact, I think about the only thing I will need is a pair of heavy woolen socks. It is true, there are many things we could use, but we will not be allowed to carry but 50 pounds with us. So you see, we won’t be able to carry much. The transportation of an army is a big item and they [are] cutting down our baggage to the minimum. But I will tell you, Hazel, if you will knit me a pair of heavy socks or two later on, I would be very glad to have them, but I want you to allow me to buy the material. I don’t feel that I should put you to any expense. You have done so much for me. I am going over and take a picture of the Houn Dawg tomorrow. I want you to see what he looks like. I think they will manage to store him away somewhere until they get aboard the ship. The Boys all say that if he can’t go with them, why, the 2nd will stay at home. Well, Hazel, I will close for this time. The Boys are pretty loud here tonight and it is hard to write. The Boys are so pleased with our new camp they are having a celebration of their own. They are having a ghost parade right now and I think it is going to wind up with a shirt tail parade. I will be looking for another long letter real soo. I remain as ever Carl Fort Sill, Oklahoma September 14, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your dear letter came yesterday and, as usual, I was so glad to hear from you. And I tried so hard to answer your letter last night but I have been so sick the last 2 days that I had to give it up. However, I am feeling somewhat better this morning but I am far from being well yet. We have received one of 3 inoculations against typhoid fever and malaria, and we were also vaccinated against smallpox, and it has made us all pretty sick. And a man is in a hard shape when he takes sick in military camp, as things are not very convenient. But I am trying to see the bright side of life anyway. You ask me how we manage to iron our clothing. Well, we don’t iron them when we are in the field. We are lucky to get them washed. We had a sad accident here a few days ago. A young man in the aviation section was burned to death. His machine caught fire 3,000 feet in the air. I shall never forget the sight of that machine plunging to the gound. The man was burned beyond recognition when the machine reached the ground. He lived 6 hours after, but I suppose we shall see many similar sights before this war is over. He was a fine young man, too. Just graduated from Harvard. We escorted his body to the station in a body [bag?]. His home is Minneapolis, Minn. Hazel, I haven’t any pictures to send you this time. I did not get the Houn Dawg’s picture Sunday. He had gone out for a walk when I got over there. The doctor has just left my tent and he ordered me to stop writing at once and go right back to bed, and I will have to stop. Hazel, I read the K.C. Star and that is about all I can find time for now. I don’t always find time to do that and I just don’t need a thing here (except your company). How I wish I could see you. I am sure we could have some fine times together. You will excuse my short letter this time, won’t you? For really, I am in no shape to write. I will look for a letter from you soon. I remain Yours as ever Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma September 18, 1917 [Note: Picture postcard of Medicine Park with “X” over hill] Just a line to tell you we are getting along fine. I went to the top of this mountain yesterday. It is 1 ½ mile from bottom to top. I was pretty tired when I got back to camp. Regards from Carl September 20, 1917 Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma Dear Hazel, I think you are the dearest litle girl for writing me such a nice long letter. I have enjoyed it so much and I have also enjoyed our trip to the country very much, only I was disappointed when I got through reading and realizing it was only an imaginary trip. Yes, I am feeling fine again but we are to get our second inoculation tomorrow. We get 3 inoculations 7 days apart. They are called typhoid, para typhoid, and triple typhoid. My smallpox vaccine did not take and I am to have another vaccination in the morning. We will be through in about 2 weeks. Uncle Sam believes in preventing the diseases rather than curing them. Well, Hazel, judging form general indications, we will not be here very long now. Major General Wright left here a few days ago for Hoboken, New Jersey. He left orders here to have all troops here ready in 3 weeks. The Major General will sail for France next week, and while we have no official information, still I believe that he has gone to make arrangements for this Division. Of course, the entire Division is not here yet and chances are good many of the organizations will go direct from their home stations to the point of embarkation. A number of French officers arrived here today direct from France. They will act in advisory capacity with the artillery and aviation section. They wear such peculiar uniforms. Red trousers and blue coats, but they are sure fine soldiers and I think we can learn a great deal from them about modern warfare. Hazel, I am sending you a clipping from the Lawton Sunday paper. Now remember, Hazel, this is not a hint to you to send me any of those things mentioned there because really, I do not need anything that I can not get here. But I think it is a splendid article and every word is true, and I wanted you to read it. [Enclosed newspaper clipping “The Soldier’s Best Moral Influence is the Girl He Left Behind Him.”] Friday a.m. I am in charge of our camp this morning, and our company has gone on a litle hike. They will be back by noon and this afternoon we will get our inoculation and how we wish it was over. We are now passing through the most critical part of our training period. The newness of soldiering has worn off and the Boys are just beginning to realize that they are here to learn to soldier and not on a excursion trip, and it seems hard on a good many of them who has always been used to have their own way. The training is gradually getting harder, the inoculation and vaccination are making things more disagreeable, and the majority of the men are cranky and grouchy. All furloughs has been discontinued and it seems hard for the Boys to get used to conditions. However, I think another month of hard training will get them used to conditions and they will take things as they come. What seems to be hardest on them now is the fact that they can not go home. But they will have to get used to it. We are at war now, and this is no time to howl. The man who obeys his orders and takes things as they come to be is the soldier, and I am trying my best to be a good soldier. It is hard now, but in time to come, I hope to be able to look back to the past with pride, and in learning to be a good soldier, I am learning to be a better man. And I think the effort is well worth the price. But I have duties to perform now and must close. I will look for that nice long letter soon. I remain as ever yours Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma September 26, 1917 [Note: 1 photo of Carl with “Houn Dawg”, 3 photos of “Lady”, 8 photos of Wichita Mountains and scenery around Camp Doniphan (Photos 1 through 12).] Dear Hazel, That nice long letter from you came today and I was so glad to get it, and I shall not let you wait at all for an answer. You shall have it as soon as I can get it to you. About a long, long letter I do not know, but I will try. Hazel, dear, I would be very lonely here did I not have your letters to help me. You have been and you are now an inspiration to me, and you are giving me courage to live a better life and work for better things. If I could only explain to you how much your letters and your friendship means to me, I would be happy. It has not been my good luck to have a sister. Someone to go to in my lonely hours. Someone to help me and guide me through the critical part of my life. But you have filled that place so nicely and in this connection, let me say that I have always had the greatest respect and admiration for you. Your letters has never been put on display in this camp and they never will. I have guarded your letters and your name here as if you were my very own sister. I have always tried to treat you as such. No doubt that some of our Boys here have had a good deal of fun at the expense of some of the girls from Seneca, but I have never been able to enjoy that kind of sport. I should not wish to see my own sister treated that way, and much less treat another man’s sister. So I am thankful for having such a friend as you have been to me and in the future, do not hesitate to be frank with me, for I shall never take advantage of you. I have been exceedingly busy here lately. I have now 348 horses and mules under my supervision and it is not a small undertaking to see that they are cared for properly. The Missouri and Kansas Boys of the National Guard are coming in fast now. 6,000 have come in this week and I think now the entire Division will be here by October 5th. We are now organizing what is called a Sanitary Train, which consists of 4 ambulance companies and 4 field hospitals and a headquarters company. After we are organized, I think we will be known as Ambulance Co #1, 110th Sanitary Train, 35th Division, U.S.A. If we are #1, then we will lose our horses and mules and be given motor ambulances. No. 1 and 3 are motor companies, 2 and 4 animal drawn. And Hazel, I don’t know what to do. It will almost break my heart to give up my horse. I will have an opportunity to transfer to another company. In fact, I have been asked to but I also hate to leave my old organization and friends. But I will find some way out of it, but that is a part of war. No attention can be paid to your personal feeling and sympathy, and the best of friends must part sooner or later. Hazel, do you remember I told you a short time ago I went up in the mountains Kodakking? I am sending you a fe pictures I took up there and around Medicine Lake, and I think I had pretty good luck, don’t you? I will tell you what I am going to do, Hazel. I am going to send you a print of every picture I take while I am in the service and then some day whent this terrible war is over, then I am coming to visit you (that is, if you will let me.) And then I will tell you all about my trip and where the pictures were taken. Every picture has a story. Say, won’t that be fine! I am also enclosing a picture of myself with the famous Houn Dawg and also one of our own mascot, Lady. I don’t know if I ever told you about her. We brought her back with us from the Mexican border, and we are very proud of her. Some of our Boys has fought many a hard fight over her. If anyone wants to kick on Lady, they have 150 men in the ambulance company to fight. It is very cold here tonight. Thousands of men are shivering here. They haven’t enough blankes to keep them warm, and we are not able to get them from the government. Us men who were on the border are fortunate enough to have plenty of woolen clothing and blankets, but the new men are suffering. I am amused now at the old Pacifists who used to say that we could raise and army of a million men over night. Well, maybe we can, but those men must be fed, clothed and equipped, then they must be organized and then they must be trained and hardened up to stand all kinds of hardship. And they must be taught to take care of themselves under the hardest condition. Sleeping out in the open in all kinds of weather. The wind is blowing 60 miles an hour here now and the dust is blowing right through our tents. If a man was to come out here from civil life tonight and live with us tonight, I am afraid he would freeze to death before morning. It takes time to harden up a soldier. It can not be done in a day or two. So you can see what an undertaking it is to raise an army. We may be able to raise a man over night, but it reqires training to make a soldier and a man is not a soldier because he wears a uniform. But I will close for this time. It is getting late and I am getting cold, and I must bid you a good night. I remain as ever your Soldier Brother, Carl Write soon please. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 2, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your letter came today and I was so glad to hear from you, and I am glad that you enjoyed my letter and the pictures. The weather has been very disagreeable here the last 4 dyas. We have had an awful gale here. The wind has been blowing at the rate of 60 miles an hour constantly. We are eating dust and we are sleeping in dust, and of course, it is pretty hard for a Missourian to get used to it. We had our final typhoid inoculation a few days ago and I am surely glad we are through with it. My right arm is still sore from it. Tomorrow we will have our final physical examination for tuberculosis. They have a board of specialists here examining every man here, and they are weeding out all men who shows any symptoms of tuberculosis. It seems the doctors missed a few men in the first examination, and the War Department are not taking any chances. So far they have found at an average of one man in 200 who shows symptoms in greater or less degrees. Hazel, you would be surprised to see how careful we are guarded against contagious diseases, and especially so in the medical department. In fact, many a man is turned down in this branch of service and accepted in other branches. We have 150 of the finest men I have ever seen physically, mentally and morally. We were recruited to war strength almost before anybody else had started. As a result, we obtained the very best of men and I don’t think we shall lose a man. We had a few undesirable men with us on the border last year, but we have gotten rid of them. Do you remember you asked me about a Fred Rusk? Well, he was given a dishonorable discharge for the good of the service. I think that is the severest punishment that a man can receive. The Missouri-Kansas Boys are coming in fast now. I think we have about 25,000 men in camp now. There is 4 ambulance companies and 4 filed hospitals here now, and as soon as they all get organized then we will be known as the 110th Sanitary Train, 35th Division. And I think we will be Ambulance Company #1. I wonder, Hazel, if you can imagine what a task it is to organize and train an army, and I wish you could see the activity here. It is beyond description. On the ground you see thousands upon thousands of soldiers practicing. Hundreds of heavy army motor trucks and today I counted 42 airships and 7 observation balloons in the air at one time. Do you think you can draw a picture in your mind of what a concentration camp looks like? The Houn Dawg Band is playing at the Y.M. tonight, and it sounds good to hear them again. Yes, in a way, I am really sorry to see the consolidation of the State Regiment but I presume the War Department knows what is best. But Hazel, I just can’t find anything to write about tonight and I am going to take a shower bath and go to bed and try my luck in the morning. Wednesday evening I have tried hard all day to get a few minutes to finish this letter but it has just been one thing after another all day long. The horses got scared last night and there was a stampede in the corral, and a number of them were injured and it has kept me busy all day giving them medical attention. Hazel, I am afraid now that I will have to part with my horse. Everything seems to indicate that we will be given motor ambulances, and with the motorized troops, sergeants ride motor cycles and it is going to be pretty hard on me, for I am one of those old fashioned kind of men who loves and horse. In fact, I love all animals, but I will have to live it down. Hazel, I am just wishing tonight that I had a small box of that nice homemade candy. I can still taste that candy you sent me last year. Would it be asking you too much to send me just a small box sometimes when you make candy? You know, I can buy all kinds of candy here, but it doesn’t taste anything like your candy. But I must close for this time. I have another letter to write tonight. I will look for a letter from you real soon. I remain as ever Your Soldier Brother Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 8, 1917 Dear Hazel, You are just the Dearest litle girl in the world to me to answer my letters so promptly. I was so glad to get your letter today and I am going to be as prompt as you were. Hazel, I am feeling a litle downhearted, for I had to say good by to my horse today. We are to use motor ambulances in this war and to part with my horse seemed to me just like parting with a member of my family. I am going to start tomorrow to attend a school of instruction in the use of the gas masks. There is 2 men from each organization detailed to take the course. After we complete it we will have to teach it to the men in our own organization. The training in all the various branches of modern warfare is now in full swing here, and this is getting to be a busy place. I think the entire Division is here now with the exception of the 3rd Mo Regiment, and there is a possibility of them being kept in their own state for a home guard. I have today received a letter from the War Department asking me to take a 3 months training for a commission beginning in November, and I am turning it down. I know this will seem foolish to you but I have no ambition to become an officer in the Army. In the first place, I shall never follow soldiering as a profession, and second, I feel I can do more good in the medical department. And you have to have a doctor’s diploma to hold a commission in this branch of service. I enlisted in the Army for the good I could do to my country, and not for what I could get out of it. We are having the first spell of real cold weather here. A storm broke loose last night and it is still raging, and there is thousands of Boys shivering in camp tonight. The Boys has not been issued their woolen uniforms or overcoats and there is a good deal of suffering here. Us Boys who were on the border are fortunate. We have our woolen clothing and we are quite comfortable. Yes, I kept the deers in Kansas City until I came away. Then I gave them to Swope Park and they are growing so fast that I hardly knew them when I was in Kansas City in August, but they knew me the minute I called to them and they came running up to me wagging their tails. The candy did not come with your letter but I think it will come in the morning. But I will close for this time and I will write you when the candy comes. I am very sincerely Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 9, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your box of candy came today and I thank you so much for it. And I must say that you are some candy maker. It is just the best I have ever tasted. In fact, it seems to me that anything you do, you always do just right, and I have the greatest admiration and respect for you. You strike me as a very accomplished and practical girl and I am so glad that I have come to know you. I am just ashamed of myself now for asking you to send me that candy, but really Hazel, I was so hungry for a litle homemade candy. I took my first lesson today in the use of poison gas and the application of the gas masks, and I can not say that I like it as far as I have gone. But then, anything new and strange always seems hard at the beginning. I am going up in an observation balloon some day this week. I have a friend who is a captain in the observation school, and he has promised to take me up 1,500 feet and then drop me (that is) I will come down in a parachute. The go up 7,000 feet here but my friend will only take me up 1,500 feet to begin with. He has asked me to transfer to that branch of service, but I am not sure that I would make a good airman. Hazel, how are you getting along in school? Do you know, I am anxious that you should be a good scholar, but I am much more anxious you should be a good woman, and if you graduate with a good conscience no one will care if there should be a few holes in your Latin or algebra. I have found from experience that there are two kinds of educations – the part we get in school rooms from professors, and the part we get outside from our friends. And I think that is really the most important part of our education, for while the first can only make us good scholars, the second can make us good men and women. Now Hazel, if you think I am getting to familiar with you, please forgive me, won’t you? For it is a fact that I am finding myself taking an increasing interest in you and anything I write you is meant in a brotherly spirit. But the bugle is blowing (call to quarters) and I must close for this time. Will I hear from you real soon? As ever Carl Ambulance Co 137 (Mo Amb Co #1), 110th Sanitary Train Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 16, 1917 [Note: 5 photos of Lady, the mascot. Photos # 13 – 17] Dear Hazel, I have just received both of your letters. I noticed there were both mailed on the 12th. The mail service is very bad here now. They are reorganizing and making changes in nearly every regiment or company and they are changing the natures of organizations. The result is that the mail is piling up in the post office, and it will be some time before they get used to the new numbers. Hazel, I am going to put you on the right track. I noticed that you have conceived the idea that the commissioned officers in the Army is the man who handles the men, and runs the Army. However, that is not so. The Commanding Officer, of course, is the mainspring of each unit. He is the man who receives his orders from the man higher up. He outlines the work for his unit and, of course, he is the man who is held responsible for the efficiency and discipline of his command. But the noncommissioned officer is the man who really runs the Army. The corporal and the sergeant is the man who stand between the soldier and the Commanding Officer and who actually carries out the orders. And the efficiency of a command depends entirely on the noncommissioned officers staff. I do not mean that the Commander is dispensable. One is as necessary as the other. But I sometimes think that a commander gets more credit than he really is entitled to. I am glad that you received and enjoyed the pictures and I am enclosing 5 more pictures of our mascot (Lady). I am very fond of this dog. You will see her here catching grasshoppers and I am just a litle proud of those poses. Don’t you think they are cute? You were wondering if the wind was blowing here. Yes, the wind is always blowing here, and I just love to listen to the winds blowing through the tree tops in the fall of the year. But Hazel, we have no trees here. There is not a tree on the Reservation and I have not been able to find any beauty or charm around here in windy weather. We are compelled to wear goggles every day to protect our eyes, and we find it impossible to keep clean. But then, I expect that there are worse places in the world than this. I am so glad to know that the flowers reached you in good condition, and I am still gladder that you enjoyed them so much. I knew that you would. No, you guessed wrong this time, Hazel. I have not been in Kansas City. I do not think I shall see Kansas City any more until after the war, and who knows if I shall ever get back any more. I had those flowers sent to you because I like you so much and I wanted to make you happy, for you have always and you still are, so good to me. And I know that you can not enjoy these flowers any more than I enjoy sending them to you. You see, I shall soon be leaving this country now and when I get over to France I will not be able to send you those litle favors. And I am just trying to show my appreciation of your kindness and your friendship while I am here. I was cheated out of my balloon ride last week. One of the araplanes fell down about an hour before I was to go up and an artilleryman who was riding in it was injured, and an order was published right then that no outsider would be allowed to ride in any of the aircrafts any more. I felt ver disappointed, for I wanted to go up so much. And now, Hazel, you have absolutely nothing to feel ashamed of for what you have written to me. It has been received by a man who understands. Anything that you have written me has always been accepted in the same spirit that you have written it. I have never misconstrued any of your letters or your thoughts. How I wish that I could come and visit you. I am sure we could both have some delightful times together. But I can not come. All furloughs have been discontinued for the duration of the war, except in unusual cases. A Mother’s serious illness or death is about the only thing that can get a soldier a leave, and in such case, it has to go to the Major General for his approval. But I must close for this time. It’s almost 10 o’clock and that is our bed time. Good night, Hazel. P.S. I am going to look for another one of those nice long letters from you soon. I am as ever yours, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 18, 1917 Dear Hazel, I have just received a dainty box from you, and I want to thank you so much for those fine warm socks and nice wash rags. The socks fits me just fine, and I don’t know how I would ever keep clean did I not have those washrags. They certainly come in handy. Hazel, you have gone a long ways towards keeping me comfortable and happy, and I will never forget your kindness. This is Liberty Lawn Day here and we have a holiday. Speaker Champ Clark and Governor Copper was here today and they were both to make speeches to the Boys, but the wind is so strong here today and it is so dusty that it is almost impossible to live outdoors. The storm started at midnight and many tents blew down during the night. This is really the worse sandstorm I have ever seen, and while it is very unpleasant as long as it lasts, still, it won’t do us any harm to get used to it. You see, the more hardships we have here, the better we will be able to stand it in Europe. In fact, hardening up is just as necessary as the training. I made a trip to Lawton yesterday for the second time since we have been here, and Hazel, it is really a pity to see how many soldiers go to town looking for a litle recreation and amusement, and there is not a place where they can go and spend a few hours. There is two picture shows such as you find in small towns. The most people that they can accommodate is 500 and there is now over 25,000 Boys here. I am told that there is 5,000 Boys walking up and down the streets of Lawton every night looking for some place to go for a litle amusement. I have never realized until lately what a tremendous task it is to take care of all these Boys, and I was so glad to see that Kansas City has started to raise a fund that will provide the Boys with some sort of recreation. Of course, it will not do the Boys any good who are here now. We will be gone before they get anything started here, but I am in hope that the War Department will take it up in Europe. It is very cold here tonight and I am wearing a pair of the wool socks already, and they are certainly nice and warm, and they fit me just right, and you can’t imagine how glad I am for them and how much comfort I will get out of them. What a splendid girl you are. You remind me so much of my Mother. Everything you do you do just right. I am sure you are a credit to your Mother and a blessing to your community. But I must close for this time. Let me thank you again for the nice gift you sent me. You have made me very happy and very comfortable and I will always remember your kindness. I remain yours as ever Carl P.S. I subscribed for 6 Liberty Bonds today. I deposit $30.00 each month with the Army Paymaster and he gives me a receipt and by next August I will have the bonds paid for. Don’t you think that is a fine thing? We have bought about $5,000.00 that way in our organization. Camp Doniphan October 22, 1917 My Dear Hazel, I received your letter today, and also the candy, and how I am enjoying it. It is just awful sweet of you to think of me the way you do. I am afraid that you will spoil me if you keep that up. It is very cold here tonight. We have just received word from the Commanding General to be prepared for one of the worse storms in history, and I am afraid there will be a great deal of suffering in this camp. The new men who have come in to the service since war was declared has no woolen clothing. It is really a pity to think that we have been at war for 8 months and yet our government are not prepared to take care of the Boys in the field. Tuesday A.M. The storm caught me last night and I will try to finish this a.m. We had an awful gale here. It lasted about 4 hours. The wind has gone down some but it is very cold. When we woke up this morning there was about an inch of dust on our cots and all over in our tents. The Boys are out drilling this morning and I am in charge of the camp, and Dearest Hazel, I have a good many details to look after and I will have to get busy. You will excuse this short letter, won’t you? As soon as the weather moderates I will try to write you another letter. I thank you so much for the fine candy. As ever yours, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 25, 1917 I have wanted to write you for several days because my last letter to you was so short, but I am kept awful busy here now. Our training and studies are getting harder and our days are getting longer. I was interrupted when I wrote you last by the storm and my tent blew down, and it took us several days to get straightened up again, but we were pretty cold here for a few days. However, we are getting along pretty well now. We all have stoves in our tents. I would like to write and tell you about my studies in the different branches of modern warfare, but we have been ordered not to write anything about what we are doing here now, and I can not even send you any more pictures until they have been submitted to the Division Censor here. This will show you that we are getting down to business around here. Hazel, you have asked me if I am a Christian, and I am proud to tell you that I was brought up in a Christian home, and have always tried to follow God’s teaching, and while it has not been possible for me for several years to attend church very regular, but I believe that any man who leads a straight, honest, and upright life is a Christian. For if we can not find Christ in our everyday work, we will never find him in church on Sunday. Hazel, I am so glad to know that when I go over there, that there will be someone here who will be thinking of me once in a while. I often find myself wondering what experiences and adventures we shall have over there. We all know, of course, that we shall not all come back here again. We discuss that among ourselves with a great deal of frankness and it is just peculiar to notice that men who have never before been willing to discuss religion or believe in it. Now that we are facing danger and death, you can not find a man who does not believe in a life after death. But Hazel, it is high time for me to be in bed. I am pretty tired, and I find the nights awfully short. Good night. I am yours as ever Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma October 30, 1917 My Dear Hazel, Your letter of the 25th came last Saturday but I did not get it until this morning. I just got back at midnight last night from San Antonio, Texas, where I was sent to bring back on of our Boys who deserted us about a month ago. He was arrested in San Antonio and I was detailed to go and bring him back. I left here Friday afternoon and I had a fine trip. I enjoyed it so much and it did me a great deal of good to get away from camp for a few days. San Antonio is a beautiful city with a population of about 150,000 people. Roses, orange trees, and oleanders are in full bloom there now. While there, I had an opportunity to visit the city parks and they are just wonderful. I have a florist friend in business down there, and I spent Saturday night and Sunday at his home, and I was entertained royal while I was there. I went to San Antonio twice last summer but I never had the time to get around and see the city. But this time I was allowed 4 days to make the trip and had my expenses paid besides. What a relief it is to get away from the monotony, if only for a few days. I feel like a new man again. You asked me in your last letter what I do for amusement. Well, so far, I have just had to do without it and make the best of it. When things get too tiresome around here, I take a walk away from camp, roam around the mountains and streams, anything that will give me a change. The evenings when I do not go to school I spend at the Y.M.C.A. Of course, it is hard to go through the same routine everyday with no amusement or recreation to break the monotony, but I expected that when I first went in to the service, and I find that as long as I can keep my mind busy with my work, it does not work much hardship on me. Some day this old war will be over and I will go back to private life again, and I will go back a much better man for the experiences and hardship I went through and the pride and satisfaction I will have in looking back over my military life will more than pay me for what I am going through now. We are going out on a 2 day endurance march in the morning, and we are going to cook our own meals. Haversack ration consists of hardtack, bacon, corned beef, stewed tomatoes, and coffee. We are allowed 4 ounces of bacon, 6 ounces of corned beef, and 8 ounces of hardtack. Of course, we don’t get fat on that, but a man can live on it and I think it does a person good to get real hungry once in a while, and it helps to harden us up. I am in better condition physically than I have ever been before. I actually believe I could run down a young deer now. Hazel, I am wearing the socks you made for me now, and they are just the finest I ever wore. I get so much comfort out of them. But it is late. I must be in bed in 15 minutes. I will be looking for a letter from you real soon. I remain as ever Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma November 7, 1917 My Dear Hazel, Your dear letter cdame yesterday and I was so glad to get it, and I got started to write you last night, but I had to give it up and go to bed. I am kept very busy here now for from 15 to 18 hours a day. And when my days work is done, I am as a rule pretty well worn out and ready to go to bed. We are now getting some very intensive training here. It keeps getting a litle harder. I think they are putting the finishing touches on us now. I think that another month of this training will make us real soldiers. But I enjoy this life now. The weather has been ideal here of late. The nights are just a litle cool but it is just fine here in the daytime. Just snappy enough to make you feel good. We are going to start out on a march at 4 o’clock in the morning and walk about 8 miles. Then we will make our own breakfast. After breakfast we will march 4 miles further and turn around and come back, getting back to camp for dinner. And we will carry a full pack which consists of 2 blankets, a shelter tent, 1 pair shoes, 2 uniforms, 2 suits underwear, 2 pair socks, towel, soap, razor, tooth brush, housewife, and our hospital equipment. The whole thing weighs about 65 pounds, and I wish you could see us go after that dinner when we get back. I am sure you would enjoy the sight. I would not be at all surprised if we would receive orders sometime this month. I have nothing official to base my opinion on but the fact that we are being hardened up as fast as it is humanly possible to do so, and we are all anxious to go. I am anxious to know how the American Soldier is going to adjust himself to the new conditions in Europe, and I can not help but believe that he is going to surprise the entire world. As a fighter, you know, the American is original and he is going to use his brain as well as his brawn in fighting. I have almost completed my course in the Gas School, and I would like to write you and tell you all about it but I am not allowed to write anything about it. No, Hazel, you must not conceive the idea that you could win out over me in a foot race. I do not believe it can be done, and I don’t think it is at all unladylike. I am glad you are so fond of outdoor sports. It is so good for you. But, Dear Hazel, I have an hour’s studying tonight and I have a date with a 6 hour beauty sleep tonight. Under those conditions, I hope you will excuse this short letter this time, won’t you? As ever Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma November 11, 1917 My Dear Hazel, Your letter came this morning and I have enjoyed it very much. And the Literary Digest has just come, and I know I will enjoy it too, for it is one of my favorite magazines when I am out in civil life. I must admire your good taste for literature. I was quite surprised to know that you read the Digest, although I might have known, for you are always right up to the minute on everything. We are having one of those sandstorms here today that this country is noted for. But we are getting used to it now and we do not mind them as much as we used to. One of my tentmates lives about 100 miles from here and he said that he saw his home town going past here today, but it was traveling so fast that he did not have a chance to say “hello” to it. I have completed my course in the Gas School and have started in instructing our own men, and it is very interesting. But I am not allowed to go in to detail about it. And I am also helping instructing our Boys on the new Insurance and Compensation Bill. Have you read about the government insurance bill? I think it is the best thing that ever was given for the Boys. We can take out insurance for what it cost in peace time. I man 25 years old can carry $10,000 insurance for $5 a month and in case he is killed or totally disabled, he or his dependents will receive an income of $57.50 a month for 20 years. And besides, there is a compensation system for the men who is partially disabled which will take care of a man as long as he lives. I am going to take a $10,000 policy. I think it is a splendid thing. There was 150 sergeants came in here from the British Army. They are here instructing this Division in the various forms of modern warfare. 2 of those men are attached to our Company. And say, they are interesting men to talk to. They have all spent from 2 to 3 years in the trenches, and some of them has been wounded several times. And they tell some pitiful stories and of the wonderful experiences they have had. They are great soldiers and we will learn much from them, I am sure. I have studied those men and I detect a hard, grim expression. I imagine they still see the horrors and destructions of war. They do not like to talk about it. We will be going in to the trenches this week for several days under the supervision of these men. What a vivid description you have given me of your walk through the country. How I wish I could join you on one of those hikes. I am inclined to think you would make a first class soldier. How about it? I have noticed in the papers that the ladies in Kansas City are knitting sweaters for our Boys. Hazel, do you know that there is a great deal of time and material wasted by these ladies clubs? They do these things with the best intentions, of course, but they do not realize that a man can not wear any kind of a sweater in the service. They must be made according to the Regulation or they can not be worn in any formation or on drills. And a good many of these organizations neglect to find out from the Red Cross what the Boys will be allowed to wear. As a result, a good deal of this clothing will never reach the Boys. However, the government is getting caught up and from now on, I think they will be in shape to take care of the Boys properly. (Taps is blowing now.) Tuesday, 6 a.m. I wanted to write a litle more but I am due on the drill ground at 6:30 and I will have to close for this time. I am as ever yours In haste, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma November 20, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your letter came this afternoon and as usual, I was glad to hear from you. I want you to know that I have enjoyed the magazine you sent me so much. I found some splendid articles in it. I only wish I had more time to devote to reading. I have had a litle time to read the last few days, but we are just starting in on a very busy week and I will be busy from 6 o’clock in the morning until 8 at night. I am taking a short course in Army Paper Work this week and I am taking several courses about which I am not allowed to write. Hazel, I think we are beginning to put the finishing touches on our training course, and I am sure we have reached the stage of game where we will be able to give a pretty good account of ourselves. I have a litle inside information from a friend officer who is serving on the General’s Staff and everything here seems to indicate a move shortly. Speaking of soldiers insurance, I have just completed filling out the blanks for the men we have in our Company. We have 123 men and every man has taken out a policy and it may surprise you to know that the sum totals one million and three thousand dollars. And besides, we bought about $60,000 Liberty Bonds. Don’t you think that is a pretty good showing for 123 men? Taps Tuesday Night You are right. Taps is always interfering, and my days are entirely too short. We are giving a party tonight in honor of the French and British noncommissioned officers. We are waiting for them to come any minute. I thought I would try to finish your letter before they came. Hazel, we have just read an order from Division Headquarters to the effect that the Medical Department must be equipped up for field service at once, and be ready to go on very short notice. And how I wish that it meant actual service at once. All my officers have just received orders to report to the Division Surgeon’s Office and I am anxious for them to come back and find out what is in store for us. We are all aching to start for France at once, but the French are here now. Wednesday P.M. I am afraid that this letter will be ancient history before you get it. It just seems almost impossible for me to find time to write any more. Talk about a party. We had one last night that I will remember as long as I live. The English and the French talked to us about their experiences in the trenches and the general conditions in Europe, and we surely enjoyed their talks. And I know that we realize now, more than ever, what we are going up against. I have the greatest respect and admiration for anybody who has suffered the hardship and privation that those gentlemen have. And believe me, gentlemen is the correct title for them. They are actually the finest type of men that I have ever been privileged to know. But Hazel, I must close for this time. I don’t know if you will be able to read this, for it is written in a hurry. May I hear from you real soon. I am as ever yours Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma November 26, 1917 [Note: Postcard] Wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving. Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma November 26, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your dear letter came today and I must answer at once, for I will leave here early in the morning for 48 hours in the trenches and dugouts. We will leave here 4 o’clock in the morning, and while we are in the trenches, each man will do his own cooking and some cooking that will be. This will be our first experience in the dugouts and I am very anxious for tomorrow to come. This will be something new to us all, but I expect that after we get over to France, the newness will soon wear off. Dear Hazel, you ask me if I will be allowed to write and tell you when I leave this country. Well, I don’t know, Hazel, but you can rest assured on this. I am going to try my best of finding some way to let you know. It is very likely that we will be at some seaport town for some time. I expect the entire Division will leave at one time, and it will take some time to gather a Division of 30,000 men. We are having some fine times here with the French and British soldiers here, and they tell us some wonderful stories from their 3 years of experiences at the Front, and I am beginning to realize now more than ever what we will have to go through over there. I wish you could see these men and hear what they have gone through the last 3 years. We just love and admire the French soldiers. I think they are the bravest soldiers in the world and also the Scotch soldiers. There is one sergeant here from Scotland who singlehanded brought in 50 German prisoners, and he was decorated with the Victoria Cross, the highest honor ever given to any man. I guess you saw his picture in the Kansas City Star about a week ago. The Frenchmen tells us that the American soldiers are going to be fine soldiers. Hazel, I imagine you drawing a picture in your mind of me coming back from this war, and I am glad to hear you say that you will be so proud of me. Tell me, Hazel, would you miss me much if my name should be among the missing when the roll is called after the return? I just wonder if you would care much? But really, Hazel, it is 9 o’clock and I must get to bed. Good night. I am as ever yours, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma December 1, 1917 Dear Hazel, I received yesterday the daintiest box of candy and sweets, and I am enjoying it oh so much. Hazel, you can make the finest candy ever. I have never tasted anything so delicious as your candy, and I only wish that you could realize how much those litle things you send me means to me. It is those litle things made by loving hands that goes a long ways toward making life in camp much more agreeable and I want to thank you so much for your kindness. I also received your letter and magazine, and it is needless, I think, to tell you that I was so glad to hear from you. Your letters has always meant so much to me. Yes indeed, I wish that I could have been in Seneca Thanksgiving and gone in the country with you. I know I would [have] enjoyed it so much. Hazel, you have either a wonderful memory, or you were referring back to my letters of a year ago. I was amused when you wrote and told me where I was at, and what I was doing the day before Thanksgiving. I had entirely forgotten what I was doing a year ago, but when you reminded me of it, it all came back to me as if it had happened yesterday. I had a very pleasant Thanksgiving here. One of my friends has his family down here, and he invited me to take dinner with him, and I certainly enjoyed it. Just to sit down to a real table and eat a meal cooked by a woman. We spent the afternoon playing with the children. I think I am a good deal like you (I love children) and after I got back to camp, I felt that I had so much to be thankful for. When Thanksgiving and Christmas rolls around, the soldier feels pretty lonely. Our thoughts travel back to days gone by, to family gatherings, and to those who are near and dear to us. And I can’t imagine a more lonely spot than a military camp on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and were it not for those letters and gifts from our friends, life would be almost unbearable, I think. I sent you a copy of a weekly paper we get here. I hope it reached you in good condition. It will give you an idea of what we are doing here. I am enclosing a poem I cut out of Collier’s Weekly. I enjoyed it, and I think you will too. [NOTE: Humorous war poem enclosed in letter.] I am also sending you a few pictures. I think you will recognize me in them all. If not, I am indicated by an (o). [Note: 7 group photos including Carl with small circle drawn on his shoulder. Photos #18 – 24.] I must close for this time. I am going to play foot ball this afternoon. I don’t like foot ball, but I have promised the Boys to help them out. I am looking for another letter from you in a day or two. I remain as ever yours, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma December 3, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your dear letter came to me this morning, and I was so glad to get it, as usual. Hazel, there is something about your letters that makes the load just a litle lighter, and I am always looking forward to the day when your letter comes. And after I have read your letters, I always feel that I am a better man for having known you. I am leaving here 6 o’clock in the morning. We are going out to a sham battle, and that reminds me, I did not write and tell you of my last trip in the trenches. Well, there really isn’t much to tell, for it got pretty disagreeable as it rained the greatest part of the time. We marched 18 miles in a hard rain and bad road carrying a full pack. They had an imaginary battle and we worked very hard all that day and up till 4 o’clock the next morning doing first aid work and transporting patients to the relief stations and base hospitals. After we had cooked and ate our breakfast, we lay down in the trenches to get a litle sleep, but about daylight it began to rain and we had no shelter except what trees and underbrush we could crawl under, and they gave very litle protection. We got ready and started back about 9 o’clock, and we were all pretty well worn out when we got back, and wet to the skin, and we were covered with mud from head to foot. On those trips, you hear a good deal of growling, particular so from the younger Boys who have had a pretty good home and who have had things almost their own way, which goes to show that they haven’t yet finished their education as soldiers. The real soldier never complains and a man is not a soldier until he has learned to do his bidding, and to do so with a smile, and I am sure that what hardships we do go through now are absolutely necessary to harden us up to stand the strain in the trenches. Since I have come in contact with the French and English sergeants, I realize more than ever the importance of hard training, for I am anxious to be in the best of trim when I get over there. I am glad that you enjoyed the paper I sent you and I shall send you one as often as I can get one. I call it (the Weekly Howl). Hazel, I feel somewhat flattered after reading your letter but I do not hesitate to tell you that I never could amuse myself with a lot of litle love affairs, and whatever qualities I do possess, I have inherited from my Mother, and my home training, but I am so glad that you have enjoyed my friendship and letters, and if I have helped you in any way, then I am very happy. There is many a soldier who is having a good deal of fun at the expense of some girls, but somehow, I have never been able to see the funny side of it. And as I have told you once before, no one has ever had any fun of the letters you write me and never will. But, dear Hazel, I must close for I have a great deal of work to do. I have all my equipment to get ready for tomorrow, and if possible, I am going and try to get a 7 hour beauty sleep. I am as ever yours, Carl You will write real soon, won’t you? Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma December 9, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your letter came to me this morning, and I am very glad to know that you received the pictures and that you enjoyed them. I knew that you would. Hazel, we are shivering here. How would you like to live in tents in zero weather. Well, that is what we are doing. It was 6 below here last night and the wind blew 50 miles per hour. However, the wind has gone down now, but it is still hovering right around zero. The water pipes are froze all over the camp and a good many of them have bursted. We had to go without coffee or tea both for dinner and supper, and I am afraid we will not fare any better tomorrow, and as a result, there is a good deal of suffering in the camp. We have been very busy all day hauling patients to the base hospital. We have 12 motor ambulances now and they have been out all day, and some of them haven’t come in yet. We take care of the patients for the entire camp. Hazel, I froze one of my ears today, and I just need a wool helmet so bad. I have tried to get one from the stores in Lawton but they are all sold out and I am going to ask you if you will knit me one. We had expected to have them issued to us by the government before this, and I was caught unprepared. I just hate to ask you to, for you have done so much for me, and it looks as if I was trying to take advantage of your generosity, but I really need a helmet and if you know how to make one of them, then you can make me very comfortable. I think it is a shame that a man in military service should have to ask friends to send him clothes, and I hope that they will soon get things in shape to take care of us soon. [Note: Carl includes a newspaper clipping warning knitters to change the dimensions of soldier’s headgear so as not to interfere with gas masks.] Hazel, how could you think that I was getting tired of your letters. No, never. They are one of the bright spots in my life. They mean more to me than I can tell you. I am always looking forward for days for your letters. Last year, I had Mother’s letters to help me and cheer me up, but now, those happy days are gone and were it not for your letters, I would be very lonely. Monday Evening My tent got so cool last night that I had to go to bed to keep warm. We had to change off sitting up and keep the fire in the stove going and we will have to do the same thing tonight. It is still very cool here. It is right around zero. We are going out on review tomorrow. The Surgeon General of the Army is here to inspect this Division, and I take that is an indication of our early move, and I have heard the rumor that we will go to Newport News, Va. from here. I have had an examination today on Army Paper Work and Military Correspondence and I got 94 on it, and I think that will give me a promotion to Sergeant 1st Class in the Medical Department, and if I make good at that, theen in a year I will be able to get a commission in the Sanitary Corp. Up till this time, no man could get a commission in the Med Dept. who was not a doctor, but they have organized a Sanitary Corps now that gives us a chance to win one, so don’t be surprised, Hazel, if I come out of this war wearing a gold hatcard. Haven’t I lofty ambitions. I sent you a copy of Trench and Camp a few days ago. I trust it has reached you and that you will enjoy it. But Hazel, my hands are so cold and I will have to stop writing. I am sitting next to the stove. I am roasting on one side and freezing on the other, and I will have to get up and take xome exercise and get warmed up. We can’t sit still very long at the time these days. So good night. I am as always yours Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma December 17, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your letter has just come and I was so very glad to have it and to know that you were well. I have just come in from work. I have been very busy here lately. We are now transporting all the patients to and from the hospital and it keeps us all pretty busy. We are having somewhat of an epidemic after the cold spell. The base hospital here is crowded to the limit. We have several contagious diseases developed here of late. We have measles, spinal meningitis, scarlet fever, and smallpox. But I think we are getting it under control, at least I hope so, for I know we will not move as long as we have any contagious sickness here, and I am getting very anxious to go to France. Major General Wright, who is commanding this Division, has just come back from the Western Front. He has spent 2 months over there, and he says that we are not yet in shape to go over there. He was down her lecturing to us last Friday and he told us that we must spend every minute of our time preparing ourselves and hardening us up, for he said we are going to fight the best soldiers in the world and the best man is going to win out. The weather is not quite as cold as it has been but, of course, it is a long ways from being comfortable here. It is sleeting here tonight. Hazel, I have expected for sometime to have you write and tell me of your desire to leave school and go out in the world, and in a way, I am glad to hear it and again, I am sad, but of course, we must live in our own world and fight our own battles. But somehow, it hurts me to see you go out in to a world entirely so new to you. Not that I have any fears for you. I am quite sure that you are able to take care of yourself, but I just hate to see you come in contact with the big outer world as I have seen it. I am sure that if I had a young sister I would never let her live in a large city unless I could be near her. I know it is necessary to get out in order to finish your education and training and I am sure that you will remember what I told you once, that the education you have received up till this time will only make you a good scholar, but what you will get after you leave will make you a good woman. You ask me if I think you will make good. Hazel, I don’t think so. I know you will make good at anything that you undertake. I think nursing is one of the grandest professions in the world, and if you enter that, you will do so entirely for your love for the human race. You will find it a very strenuous life and there will be hardships and some suffering to go through, but you will come out a better, finer, and wise woman for having gone through with them, and you certainly have my best wishes for your success. I am very proud of you for your ambition. Hazel, this will be the last letter you will get from me before Christmas. You have added so much to my comfort and happiness during my military life, and I am trying in a small measure to show you how much you really have meant to me. I am sending you under separate cover a litle token of appreciation. I trust it will reach you in good condition, and I will close now with my best wishes for a Merry Christmas to you and when Christmas Night comes and you are gathered around the family circle, think of a lonely soldier out here in the Wichita Mountains for my thoughts will be with you, and I will be wishing I could spend it with you. I remain as ever, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma Christmas Morning, 1917 Dear Hazel, Your dear and welcome letter reached me yesterday morning and I was so glad to have it. And I am so glad that you received the litle gift and to know that you enjoyed it. And Hazel, please don’t thank me for you have done much more for me that I can ever repay again. I dearly love those nice things you sent me but I haven’t the heart to use them here in camp. Hazel, I had the blues last night but I am feeling some better this morning. When my Mother was living and I had a home, Christmas meant so much to me, and last night my thoughts naturally went back to days gone by, and I felt pretty lonely for a while. But it is all over now. All my friends in Kansas City has been very kind to me this Christmas. I have received 11 boxes from K.C. the last 3 days and I have everything anybody could wish for to make camp life comfortable and agreeable. All the employees from the Rock Flower Company in K.C. went together and sent me a beautiful big box of Christmas dainties. And the members of Kansas City Florists Club also remembered very kindly. No one has been forgotten here this year. Just think, the American Red Cross sent a box to every man in camp and there is close to 30,000 of them here and everybody is happy this morning. Yes, you are right Hazel. The sergeant is the busiest man in the army. He is the man who is responsible for the efficiency and conduct of the men, and he is the handiest man around camp. No matter what goes wrong and no matter who is responsible, the average officer finds out that the easiest way out of it is to shift the blame to the sergeant. But even at that, I like it. It has been an education to me. No man in the world has a better chance to study human nature than the army sergeant. A sergeant in the Medical Department has charge of 42 men (a platoon). A sergeant gets his instructions and training in the different subjects from the officers, and when he has mastered them then he gives it to his men. I have 42 of the finest men that ever slipped a uniform on. I can call on them any time, day or night, and they are always willing and ready to go. And they will follow me anywhere, and I have never had to arrest or punish a man. I handle them the way I used to handle horses, with kindness, firmness, and justice, and that 99 out of every hundred will yield to good treatment. But Hazel, I have promised the Boys to trim a Christmas tree for the and they are waiting for me now, and I must close. But I will write again in a day or two and tell you all about our Xmas Tree Festival. As ever Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma January 2, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your letter has just came, and while I was awful glad to hear from you, still I am sorry to know that you have been worried over my comfort, and now, Hazel, please promise me that you will never do that again. It was wrong for me to write and tell you that I felt a litle blue during Christmas and, of course, it was natural, in fact, we all felt about the same way. But Christmas has gone now and we are bucking down to business again, and I am too busy to even think of being lonely. And again, I left my home early in life, and was away from home so much, and it is not so hard on me as it would be had I been at home always. I have just come off from guard duty and I am a litle tired. The sergeant of the guard is on his feet constantly for 24 hours. Guard duty is one of the unpleasant tasks in the Army and in time of action, the medical men usually does not do any guard duty, but in training camps we have to do guard duty around our own camp. I think I can notice a litle improvement in the sanitary conditions in the last day or two, and I am hoping that we have the disease under control. We have about 1,600 patients in the base hospital now, but that is 1,300 above normal. There was a great mistake made here in October when 4,000 drafted men were sent here from Camp Funstan to fill up the Division. We are quite sure they are the men who carried the disease here, for we had no sickness here to speak of until they came. Those men were scattered out in every organization in camp and, of course, spread the diseases and I notice they are not the men physically that the National Guards are. The draft boards has sent many men that can never stand field service, and we are weeding them out now as fast as we can. A weakly, sickly man is a burden in the Army, and if you only have one sick man in your company, it affects the entire company. Do you know Hazel, I am not very optimistic over the national Army. A man who is forced in to the service is not the soldier that the volunteer is, and the majority of the drafted men here feel that they have been imposed on by having been forced to serve their country. And Hazel, let me tell you that I am mighty glad to go to war with a volunteer army. I am pleased to notice clothing and equipment coming in pretty fast now, and I hope it will continue to come fast [Note: Missing page] . . . eyes open any longer. I haven’t seen my bed since Monday morning and this is Wednesday evening and Taps is about to blow. Good night. As always, your Soldier Brother Carl [Poem: No author noted, no date] THE VOLUNTEERS LAMENT Why didn’t I wait to be drafted, And led to the train by the band, And put in a claim for exemption, Oh, why did I hold up my hand. Why didn’t I wait for the banquet, Why didn’t I wait to be spared, For the drafted man gets the credit While I merely volunteered. And nobody gave me a banquet, Nobody said a kind word, The grind of the wheels of the engine, Was all the goodbye that I heard. Then off to the Camp I was hustled, To be trained for the next half year, And in the shuffle forgotten, I was only a volunteer. And maybe some day in the future, When my litle boy sits on my knee, And asks what I did in the conflict, And his litle eyes look up at me, I’ll have to look back as I’m blushing, To the eyes that so trustingly peer, And tell him I missed being drafted, As I was only a volunteer. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma January 7, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your letter came today and your helmet reached me a few days ago, and it is just fine. It was a litle large but I put it in hot water and shrunk it, and it fits just fine, and I have had a great deal of comfort out of it already. I have been a litle busier than usual lately. We are making the preliminary preparations for moving. There are so many litle details to look after. When the order comes for this Division to move for oversea duty, everything must be ready to pack at once, and not only that, but every pack box must be a certain size. No larger or smaller. Each box must have just certain things in it, and every box must be labeled and numbered, and the number must be registered. I wonder if you can realize how much work it involves to move an army of 30,000 men and complete equipment across the seas. I can not help but feel that our stay in this country will be short, and I think as soon as we get everything in shape to move that we will get orders sudden and my beliefs are that we won’t know anything about it until we are on the train. A detail of 60 men from the medical department left here today for an unknown destination. The War Department are playing safety first in all troop movements and don’t be at all surprised if some day you get a letter from me from some seaport town. The sanitary conditions are gradually getting better. Only 900 men in the hospital this week, but that is 600 too many. Of course, we have 1,800 out in the isolation camp. As soon as a man gets sick, the rest of the men who were in the tent with him are isolated and sent to a separate camp about 6 miles from here, and they are kept there under observation and with this system, I think we will soon be rid of the dreadful disease. A good many of the Boys are going home to see their parents for the last time before going over, and no doubt, a good many of them will not return again. And while I could get a furlough for 5 days and I would love to go too, but only a few are allowed to go at a time and I feel that I owe it to those men who have Mothers living, and let them go. And I don’t think I will get away while we are here. But Hazel, before I close, let me say that I never find anything in your letters that seems trivial and insignificant to me. I am so interested in you and I just love to get your letters and I don’t know what I would do without them, but there goes Taps. Good night. As always Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma January 15, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your letter of the 10th came yesterday and I would have written you last night, but it was too cold to write. And speaking of snowstorms, well, we have just had one of the worst storms that we have ever seen. It started in last Friday, and it lasted for about 4 days, and while I don’t think that there was any actually suffering here, but it was mighty uncomfortable. The temperature ran from zero to 13 below for 3 days and nights, and I don’t know what I would have done had I not had the nice woolen socks and helmet you made for me. I have had a great deal of comfort out of them already, Hazel. Those socks are the finest ever for this kind of life, and I wish you could realize how I enjoy them. We had about 6 inches of snow and a 60 mile wind here Saturday night, and it has begun to snow again tonight, and this country is sure having its share of severe weather. However, I think the civilian population is suffering as much, if not more, than we are, for we are all pretty well supplied with woolen clothing and blankets now. We were told when we came down here last summer that it never got cold down here and some of the Boys here say that the people here do not very often tell the truth, and I must say that I never have been so cold before as I have been here this winter, and I have lived in Wisconsin where it sometimes goes down to 50 below. And Hazel, I am mighty glad that you only imagine you hear the wind sweeping across the prairie and around our tents. I mean, I am glad that you don’t have to live in a tent in this country. You say you often wonder what my thoughts are and how I feel about going over there, and I am going to tell you exactly as I feel about it. I can see a big job ahead of me, and I can see a life of suffering, hardship, danger, and death, but still I have never undertaken a thing that I was so anxious to get in to as this. And I feel that I must fight to the last, and that is the way that nearly every man feels about it. Of course, we are beginning to realize that many of us will not come back again and we talk it over quite often between ourselves, but none of the Boys seems to worry over it. At least, I haven’t seen any of them ever take it serious. They oftenjoke about it. The speak of it as being bumped off, or going west to push up the daisies, but somehow we just don’t feel serious about it. Every man is anxious to go. We have today received our trench boots and I am wearing them tonight. They are awful heavy things and they remind me so much of the wooden shoes I wore back in the old country when I was a boy. The equipment are rolling in here now by the trainload and I expect that in another week or 10 days, the Division will be completely equipped. I enjoyed the poem so much that you sent me. It was well written and while I was reading it, it came to my mind that many people think that the men in the medical department have chosen that branch of service because it is less dangerous. Statistics shows that the casualties are much greater in this branch than any other branch of the service. Most of our work is done under shell fire and we do not even carry a gun for our own protection, and we do not like to have anybody think that we are hiding under the Red Cross. But it is getting late and my tent is cold and I will go to bed and get warm. Good night. As always, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma January 21, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your nice letter has just come and I am so glad to hear from you and to know that you enjoyed my last letter, although I fail to see what you find in it that is interesting, for I have never been able to write a decent letter. I have just come back from the base hospital where I have been since Friday. I have been through my first gas attack. I was in the gas chamber instructing men in gas defense, when my mask suddenly sprang a leak and I was overcome by the chlorine gas, but I was carried out in time to be brought out of it. And outside a litle pain in my lungs, I am feeling good now and I will be on duty again in a day or two. We are short on gas masks here and it seems that a few defective masks were handed out, however, nothing serious happened through the mistake and I guess it will cause us to be more careful in the future. Chlorine gas is very poisonous and unless it is pumped out of your lungs at once, it will kill a person in a few hours. Hazel, can you think of a more cruel or inhumane form of warfare that the Germans are using when they pour a lot of deadly gas over the battle field? And particular so in the early part of the war when the allies had no means of defending themselves against it, and thousands of soldiers were killed by gas in the beginning of the war without knowing what ever had happened to them. The modern gas masks that we are using are absolute protection against any gas they have used so far, and the English sergeants here tell me that no man will ever be gassed if he just keeps his ears open for gas alarms and keeps his mask in good condition, and you bet my mask is going to be my best friend when I get over there, for I had a pretty close call here last week. But I am sure that you are sick and tired of gas by this time. Yes, how I would love, Hazel, to be down with you and take a walk in the peaceful country. Just to get away from this war crazy world for a while would be a great relief, but there is a big job ahead of us. Someday when I come back from this war (if I come back) then I am coming down to visit you if you will let me. And then I will tell you of my experiences in this war and I will tell you of my boyhood days I spent in the old country. And I think I can tell you quite an interesting story from the House of the Reindeer and the Land of the Midnight Sun. Denmark is a beautiful country and I often long to go back. We used to have the best of times in the winter. We have so many outdoor sports such as skiing, skating, and sleighing, and also driving the reindeers, and while I have done so much better in this country than I could ever have done over there, still there is something that always seems to draw you back to the place where you spent your childhood days. But I could never go back there to live. By the way, I have forgotten to tell you about our mascots of late. The beautiful Houn Dawg died about 2 months ago, and the old 2nd Regiment is still mourning. And Lady, she has 8 of the prettiest pups that you have ever seen and she is the proudest dog that I ever did see. We built her a nice litle house and she will not allow a stranger to come near her house. Any man of our own company can go down and visit her and play with the pups, but no outsider can get close to her house. We are going to ship her back to Kansas City next week and I don’t know how we will get along without her, for it will seem like losing a member of our family. But orders are orders. I do not know yet how soon we will get out of here, but I do know that we will go from here direct to France by way of England, and we are due in France 26 days after we leave here. I also know for sure where we will sail from, but I am not allowed to tell you. Tuesday A.M. Taps blew last night before I could get this letter finished and in the Army, all activities stops at the sounding of Taps. Have you ever heard Taps sounded over a soldier’s grave? It is the most beautiful call I have ever heard. I am feeling so much better this morning, and I think I will be able to go on duty again tomorrow. My friends here in the company have taken the best of care of me during my illness, and I am anxious to be back with them again. But I am sure this letter is long enough now and I will close for this time. Hoping this finds you well and happy. I am as always Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma January 26, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your nice letter came today and I was so glad to have it. You were so good and write to me so prompt. Hazel, you do write such nice letters and how I would miss them should they cease to come. They mean more to me than any thing else in this world. Tell me, Hazel, what does your Father and Mother think of you corresponding with me? A stranger that they or you have never seen or know anything about. We are having another spell of zero weather. It was 4 below here this morning. I have been out all day. I took a trip up in the mountains today. The doctor has advised me to get out in the open as much as possible for a week or so and get all the fresh air possible. I am feeling just fine again, and I am going back to duty again in the morning. Somehow, I can’t stand to be idle. I have always been very active and I am an awful poor patient for I just can’t be still. And I know that I will not make the same mistake again. I am going to the gas chamber again tomorrow, but I am going to be very sure that I have a good mask before I go in to the chamber. I had expected to see this Division begin to move the first part of February, but I think that these plans has been changed. 2 weeks ago everything indicated that we would all be out of here in 2 weeks. In fact, we were all ordered to make preparation for oversea service. But in the last few days things has changed so much. A good many officers have been dismissed from the service and at the present, there is nothing that indicates a move. I am afraid that our War Department is falling down on the job. There seems to be some shortcomings somewhere. We have the biggest job ahead of us that we have ever tackled, and I think it is high time that we cut out politics and get down to business. We are still in need of much equipment here, and there are artillery regiments here who have never been issued a cannon yet. I notice in the papers that they are still arguing and fighting down in Washington, and I am hoping that they will soon get through and get down to business and work together, for as long as they keep on fighting down there, we are the ones that are paying the price. For while they are fighting and playing politic, we are suffering for the want of equipment. And without a good head of our War Department, we can never have a good army. For the first time now, I fail to understand our President for being against a war council, and yet, I can not doubt his sincerity. Those who knows him will will readily believe that in arriving at his decision, he has spent many hours in prayer. And as we get out of prayer pretty much what we put in to them, his prayers may be very effective. Lady just scratched on my door and I let her in. She comes in every night at 9 o’clock and gets her lunch, and when she gets all she can eat, she fills her mouth with bread and walks over to the door, and asks me to open it for her, for she wants to go down to feed her children. She never stays but a few minutes now. She is a very busy dog now. Hazel, if you think you would like to have a pup, I think I could manage to ship you one in 2 or 3 weeks. I am going to send you a picture of the family in a few days. I had the K.C. Star man take her picture a few days ago. Hazel, I would like to write more, but I am so cold. It is below zero and my fingers are numb. Good night. I am as always Your friend, Carl P.S. You will write me a long, long letter real soon, won’t you? I am sending you under separate cover of Trench and Camp. I hope you will enjoy it. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma February 3, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your dear letter came yesterday and, as usual, it made me happy. This is Sunday morning and it is a beautiful day, and it is going to be a very busy day for us. The weather has been so cold for the last 2 weeks and we haven’t had any chance to wash our clothing and I just wish you were here now and could see the Boys wash their clothing, for if there is anything that gets on the American Soldier’s nerve, it is to be filthy. And we are actually filthy now. I have changed clothes until I haven’t any clean clothing left, and I am going to take advantage of the good weather. I am glad to hear that you have entered the oratorical contest, and I just know that you are going to make good. If I am not mistaken, you are quite an orator now. I would rather listen to a good orator than anything else, and I never miss to go and hear Mr. W. J. Bryan. I think he is the greatest orator in the world today. Have you ever heard his sermon The Larger Life? It is a wonderful sermon. By the way, do you subscribe to the American Magazine? If you don’t, let me know for I want to send you the February number. There is an article by Harold Bell Wright that I would like to have you read. I am sure you will enjoy it. I also have the February number of the Ladies Home Journal that I am going to send you if you haven’t one already. And now I guess you will think I am pretty much of a sissy for reading the Ladies Home Journal, but I never miss a copy of it when I am able to get one. Lady was honorably discharged yesterday per Special Order 73 Headquarters 35th Division. She was provided with travel rations and transportation to Kansas City. The order was issued by the Commanding General, and it applied to every mascot on the Reservation. The pups were too small to travel alone yet and we just had to get her away from the camp. I haven’t gotten the picture yet but I think I will have them in a few days and if I can find one of myself I will be glad to send it to you. But Hazel, I have the biggest washing waiting for me and I have to get busy and get cleaned up. You will excuse this short letter, won’t you? I am as always yours, Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma February 11, 1918 Dear Hazel, I received your letter of the 7th yesterday and was glad to have it and to know that you are well. And you said you would have written sooner had you had the time, but I would not have received it any sooner this time for we just got back yesterday from a weeks marching trip. The entire Sanitary Train, 4 field hospitals and 4 ambulances, has left here last Sunday at midnight for a weeks endurance trip, and we had a wonderful trip. It was an awful hard one but we enjoyed it very much, and of course, we are all pretty well worn out this morning. Still, it did us good to get away from camp for a while. The government has about 60,000 acres here set aside for the protection of wild game. It is called the Wichita Game Reserve and there is where we went to. We marched every night and did some maneuvering in the day time. No one supposed to rest as long as he was able to march or even to stand up, and I had 8 hours sleep in 6 nights. But I made up for lost time when I got back yesterday. I ate a big dinner, took a hot bath right after, and went to bed at 2 o’clock and stayed there until 8 o’clock this morning, and I slept 16 hours without waking up. Can you beat it? I am feeling pretty good this morning, although every bone in my body is aching. But I think with a litle exercise today, I will be ready for another one. I think we will start out again Monday night. But I must tell you of the game reservation. I saw hundreds of buffaloes and wild deer, and thousands of wild turkeys. All game is protected out there and, of course, game of all sorts is plentiful. It is surely a wonderful country. There are beautiful valleys between the mountains and all sorts of mineral springs all over there. I am sending you under separate cover the American Magazine and the Ladies Home Journal, and I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I have. Whatever you do, you must read the article in the Journal, Mrs. Redding Sees It Through. And now you ask me why I like the Journal. Well, I know how to answer you but in the first place, I find it always has the very best in literature, it is up to date, and it has so many things that deal directly with the home. And to me, Hazel, a home is the most sacred place in this world. Doesn’t that sound funny, to hear a man without a home say that? I put a copy of Trench and Camp in the Journal. I am glad you enjoy them and you shall have one as often as I can get it for you, for I would rather please you, Hazel, than anyone else that I know. No, I don’t care for any of Kipling’s works. Somehow I have never been able to get interested in any of his works, but I do love music, and I used to play piano, but for the last 10 years I haven’t had the time I would like to devote to it. If I had had the opportunity, I would have had a better education, but after my Father died, I had all I could do to support my Mother and finish my profession and my education had to suffer. Hazel, you ask me if I would approve of you writing to another stranger, and I would say, if you intend to write to another soldier, yes, if you could find someone who would appreciate your cheerful letters. Someone who would understand you. I can’t see anything wrong in it but be careful. Hazel, I have a man in my tent who writes to 17 girls all over the country, and when he gets their letters, he reads them to the Company and he seems to get a great deal of amusement out of it. And there are many soldiers who practice the same thing. You would not want to write letters to a man like him, would you? But if you could find some good Boy who would treat you right, I am sure there could be no wrong in doing so and I have no right to ask you not to. I have enjoyed ??? any thing else while I have been in military service. They have always meant so much to me. You are the only girl I write to and I do not hesitate to tell you that you have become very dear to me. As dear and perhaps ???ever be to me. I have guarded your name and your letters so careful, and you can see it is perhaps natural for me to feel just a litle jealous at the mentioning of another man. But you just go ahead and write and I am sure that you will soon be able to know what sort of man you are writing to. I will close for this time. ???. I need the exercise to get limbered up. Will I hear form you real soon? I remain as always yours Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma February 16, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your nice long letter came yesterday and, as usual, I was so glad to have it, and I was so glad to know that the magazines reached you and to know that you enjoy them. And Hazel, don’t thank me for those litle things, for if you will only enjoy them as much as I have, then I will be happy. This is Saturday afternoon and the weeks work is over, and it has been a very busy week for us. The Inspector General of the Army has been here and he has more than inspected us. I have stood many a rigid inspection, but I have never stood as rigid an inspection as the one he gave me. He was the most wonderful man I have ever seen, and he was the most efficient man I ever saw. It seemed to be his business to find faults, and wherever he did find them, he did not hesitate to point them out to us. He would walk up to a man and look him over, and if his outside appearance were good, then he would unbutton his clothes and look at his underwear, and if he found them clean he would look at his skin, and if there is anything that escaped his attention I can’t imagine what it could be. And when he got through with us, we knew what a real soldier should be. I was awful glad to see him come here for there were a good many defects in this Division and his visit has been a tremendous power for good, for he had unlimited authority to make changes wherever they were needed. And wherever he found inefficiency, he placed the responsibility where it belonged, and as a result, a good many officers are going to loose their commissions for the good of the service. I am only sorry that he did not come and look over this Division 3 months ago, for that was just what we needed – an Official Housecleaning, and I am not exaggerating it when I tell you that he made a clean sweep. We will start in on a busy week Monday. We are going to prepare for a review before the Commanding General. The Sanitary Train will pass in review next Friday, and somehow, Hazel, I feel that that is the beginning of the end here. I am going to be very disappointed if we don’t get away from here in the next 30 days, for this life is getting on my nerves. Hazel, do you realize that I have been in training for 17 months and it just makes me mad when I see men who were out in civil life when I left the last time have been in France several months. But I expect that I will be as anxious to get back here as I am to go over there now after I do get in to it. But somehow, I am anxious to go. Dearest Hazel, you ask why are you so good to me? Let me tell you. I owe it to you to be good to you and you would not consider me much of a man if I were not good to you. After all that you have done for me, the many dainty and useful things you have sent me, and the cheerful and inspiring letters that come to me so regular. Perhaps you can not realize what your friendship means to me, and perhaps I can appreciate it more fully than others who have good homes, Mother, and sisters to write them letters and otherwise comfort them, for to the soldier, the letters are almost as essential to him as his food. I wish it was possible for me to meet you and get better acquainted with you before I leave this country, for I have so much to talk over with you that I can not tell you, but perhaps it is better that I can not see you before I go, for who knows ???...and who knows whether we shall ever return again. But I am afraid I am getting a litle too far ahead, but you are asking me to be frank with you. Hazel, I have always been frank with you. Have you ever doubted me? But when I try to look ahead and ??? to the future, I am not sure that it is fair and just to you for me to say any more. I am sending you under separate cover another copy of Trench and Camp…??? And look for a long long letter real soon. I am as always yours Carl [Note: Hazel writes “My wonderful letter” on the envelope of this letter dated February 22, 1918.] Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma February 22, 1918 Dear Hazel, Your letter has just come and I was more than glad to have it. And you ask me to make you happy by writing soon, and I am going to try and get this off by return mail, for I do love to make you happy. Today has been declared a holiday here and we are enjoying it so much, for we have been kept very busy lately. We have spent all this week getting ready for the final review, and we went out yesterday morning and laid out all our equipment when the General sent word that the weather was too cold for us to stand there all day, and so we will have to do it all over again. It is a beautiful day here today. The sun is real hot and how the Boys are enjoying it. If we could have this kind of weather here always we would enjoy our stay here, but we will always remember the winter we spent here. But I do not think that we will be here much longer. They are busy here now selecting men to go to France ahead of the Division, and I have a chance to go, and if I do go, I think we will leave here in about 10 days. I have 24 hours to decide, and I am so anxious to go, but again, I am afraid that I may be transferred from my Company. That happened to 2 of our men who left here a month ago, and I would like to go through this war with the men I know and who I have helped to train. Hazel, I do not think that I am qualified to advise you whether to quit school now or not. You have a splendid education now, but I am sure that your Mother knows what is best for you. And now, hazel, I am afraid that you have misunderstood me. I am glad to have you do for me anything I need, but I was always afraid that I would be taking advantage of your generosity. But now I am going to ask you if you want, please send me a box of candy, and Dearest Hazel, I am going to tell you now what I would have told you some time ago had I not been a soldier and facing an uncertain future. And in order that you may understand me more fully, I am going to tell you that I love you with all my heart, and my thoughts are with you always. I have fought hard for some time. It has been awful hard for me not to tell you, but I feel I can not wait any longer. I have felt that it was wrong for me to tell you because I am going away and may not return again, and again, I feel it is my right to tell you. It is the right that God has given every man and woman, the right to seek a mate, the right to a future. No, Hazel, there has never been a time where I doubted your sincerity. But you would not have known my heart’s desire had you not ??? and I do not think you have written too plain. But Dearest, I must close. I can not write any more until I hear from you again. As always yours Hazel I forgot to tell you I am so glad for the picture of the Dearest Girl in all the World. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma February 27, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, Your dear letter has just come, and I must answer you at once. And Dearest, will you believe me when I tell you that I am the happiest man in this camp tonight? I am so happy to know that I have won the heart of the Dearest and Sweetest Girl in the World, and I promise you now that I will never never make you unhappy again. If I have ever made you unhappy in the past, then it has been against my will, for I have always admired you. But my admiration has gradually developed to love, and now you want to know how I was attracted to you and I will tell you. You remind me so much of my Mother. You are so cultured and refined and you are so practical and so good hearted. No man could help but love you. All the bright and cheerful letters you have sent me and the beautiful things you have made for me has convinced me that you are the girl that can make me the happiest man in the world. No, Dear, I did not think that you were not brave enough to send your Sweetheart to war, for I know you are brave. I fought the hardest fight with myself before I told you. I was not sure that it would be justice to you to tell you that I loved you, for I was thinking of your future, and hazel, if you are sure that you love me and you feel that you can wait till I come back, if it is God’s will that I come back, then you will make me the happiest man ever. If it is God’s will that I come back whole of body, then I will come back a better man physically than I left. But by my own strength I will come back to you whole of soul. The thought of you will guide me through trials and temptations and I will come back a better man for my experience, and then I would ask you to walk through Life’s Lane with me, and I would live for you only. But Dearest, you must be fair with yourself and your future, and I am going to ask you to be very sure of yourself and give me your answer in your next letter. You just can’t imagine how proud and happy your last letter has made me, and I don’t know what would happen to me should you drop out of my life now. But if I knew that I was not to come back to you here, and it was for your future happiness, then I could live it down, although I could never forget you, for I love you and I could sacrifice for you. So don’t you see that you must settle the question in your own mind and be very sure of yourself. I can not think of any camp news tonight for my thoughts are on you. I sent you an American and a Trench and Camp a few days ago. I hope they reached you and that you will enjoy them. 10 of your men left today for France. I wanted to go too but I could not leave until I had heard from you. The bugle is sounding (call to quarters) and I must close. I am writing this in my Captain’s tent. He is visiting his family in Lawton and I wanted to be alone tonight. I will be living in hopes. Will you accept my most sincere love, and will you forgive if I enclose just a lot of kisses to you? I am always yours Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 4, 1918 Dearest Hazel, Your letter came to me this morning and also the box of candy, and of all the good candy I have tasted, this is by far the best ever. Dearest, your letter has made me so happy, for I know now that you love me as dearly as I love you, and that means somuch to me. It is just like a beautiful world has opened up for me. Not that I doubted your love for me, but I wanted you to be very sure that you did, and I am as happy now as you are if not happier. And now, Dear, it will be up to us to make the best of the conditions. No doubt, I shall be away a long time and I shall miss you so much, but I am going to write you as often as I can. But after I leave this country, I will not be able to, nor allowed to write you as much and as often as I would like to. There will no doubt be times when there will be weeks between my letters, and I know that will be hard for you. But I know that you are going to be the bravest litle girl when the test comes, and I also know that you are going to write me as often as you can, for I will need your letters more than ever. I mailed you yesterday a large picture of the Sanitary Train taken out in Wichita Mountains. It will give you an idea of what that country looks like. And I put in a Trench and Camp and a copy of a letter from a Father to his Son. I thought it was so good and I wanted you to read it. We had a big rain here. It rained all day Friday and Saturday. ??? Dear, the flowers and trees are calling me. This is the time of the year when I used to begin to get ready to plant, and here I find myself ready to go to war. But I am sure that this war will not last much longer. I am sure that as soon as America gets ready . . . ??? . . . are just plain people. I think that is just the reason why I cam to admire you so much. I come from a very plain hom myself, and my father never did accumulate any wealth, and I also must say that what qualities I do have I owe to my Mother, but I never did guess that you loved me. I always did admire you but it was not until lately that I dared entertain the idea of winning your heart, and now I am so happy to know that I am your ideal of a man, and Dearest, I shall not disappoint you. From now on, as long as I am in this country, I am going to write you oftener than I have in the past, for you have been so good to me. And now I am going to tell you something. You remember the pretty moccasins you made and set me at Ft. Riley? Well, Dear, they were so pretty that I did not have the heart to wear them around camp, and I took them to Kansas City the last time I was up there but I sent for them about 2 weeks ago and I am wearing them evenings in my tent now, and I do get so much comfort out of them. I should say you are a busy litle girl and you must be careful, Dear, not to overwork yourself. I would rather see you busy than idle, for it is so much better for you, but there is a limit to what a person can do, or rather, how much a person should do. And you say that your heart is not in your work. I think that perhaps your cup of joy is flowing over right now and you are a litle excited. You will get over that in a short time. You must not lose interest in your work now. But Sweetheart, you have told me once or twice before what day your birthday comes, but I have forgotten, but if you will tell me just once more, then I will promise never to forget it again. I am enclosing the only picture we ever had taken of Lady and her family. It was taken by the Star Reporter, and if you will look close you may see it in the Star in the near future. But I must close for this time. I will write you again in a few days, and Dearest, I am enjoying that box of candy so much. I will look for a long, long letter from you soon. With love and kisses, I am always your Carl [Note: Two photos of Lady with the Boys and Carl. Photos # 25 and #26] Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 6, 1918 Dearest Hazel, I am going to write you a few lines tonight. I am pretty tired. I have marched 26 miles today carrying a 60 pound pack, but I can’t go to bed until I have written you a few lines. We left here 8 o’clock this morning. We went out to the trenches and watched the heavy artillery practice, and it was very interesting. They use 6 inch guns here. They can shoot 11 miles, and I had no idea how destructive those shells were. They make a hole in the ground 8 to 10 feet deep and almost as wide. They can drop a shell wherever they want to anywhere from one to eleven miles from the gun. The aroplanes circle over the range while they are firing. They direct the fire by wireless telegraph. We had a pitiful accident here a few days ago. One of the machines caught fire about 8,000 feet in the air and crashed to the ground. The two men in it were burned to death before the machine reached the ground. There has been so many accidents here lately. The general impression is that there are German spies in the service who are tinkering with the machinery. 16 men has lost their lives here the last 6 months. We are wondering when we will get away from here. This Division is through training, and we are all ready to go, and we can’t understand why we are still being held here, but I have an idea that it is the ??? us back now. From what I can gather from the newspapers, the shipping problem is very serious. But I hope that we shall not fall down on that now. Dearest Hazel, I have read your last letter over many times. And to think that you have remembered me in your prayers every night ? ? ? . I love you more than I can tell you and how I wish I could be with you tonight. And yes, I am coming back to you, and when I do come back, I am going to make you the happiest litle girl ever, and I know you will be true while I am away. I could never doubt you. But Dearest, I must close for this time. I haven’t any news but I just had to write you before going to bed. I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 10, 1918 Dearest Hazel, I have just received your nice long letter and I was so glad to have it. This is Sunday and I am going to try and get this off by return mail. Hazel, this was the dearest letter you have ever written me, and you just don’t know how much your letters mean to me. And I am the happiest man in this camp for ever having come to know you and love you. Dear, what a wonderful thing true love is. I have never realized it as I do now since I lost my Mother and began to know you. When I wrote to you on the Mexican border, I always had the greatest of respect and admiration for you. But that was all. But when I came away last time and your letters came so regular, and you were so good to me, then my admiration gradually grew in to love. And will you believe me, Dear, when I tell you that I am a better man and a better soldier for having known you. And I wanted to tell you a long time ago that I loved you but I had expected to be in France months ago and I did not have the slightest idea that you cared for me. And with the uncertainty of me coming back, I kept it to myself. Tell me, Dear, when did you first begin to love me? I was up at Division Headquarters this morning visiting my former company commander, Captain Gist. He is now on the staff of the Division Surgeon. He told me he was quite sure that we would get away from here for sure in the next 30 days and we are all so anxious to get away from here. Training is getting so monotonous and tiresome and we all long for a change. I mailed you a short letter last Wednesday night, and I am so glad you are going to answer all my letters. I like to have you do that if you possible can. And I am not going to forget you, Dearest, when I get to France, but I am going to write you as often as I can. And yes, I will always be thinking of that sweet and pure litle girl down in the hills of Missouri making those beautiful things that you are so capable of doing. Why Hazel, no man could help but admire and appreciate your needlework. I am so glad the big picture reached you in good condition. I am so proud of that picture. There are many pleasant memories attached to it. I am going to try hard to get me a Kodak when I get to France and send you some pictures from there. Dear Hazel, have you a good Kodak? If you haven’t, let me know and I will send you mine. I have a good one and I will not be allowed to take it with me, and if you want it, it is yours for the asking. I have sent it to Kansas City already but I will have it sent to you if you want it. We have a new Colonel in charge of the Sanitary Train. He was sent here from the Surgeon General Office. His presence here is the result of the visit the Inspector General paid us some time ago and we are expecting great things of him. He is one of the most efficient soldiers I have seen yet. He has been given unlimited power from Washington and he is making many changes for the efficiency of the Train. Yes, you guessed right, Hazel. The moccasins were so pretty that I hated to wear them in camp, but I know you wanted me to wear them and I sent for them and I am wearing them now, and they are so comfortable. But I just can’t think of a thing that I need now, Dearest. I shall always remember your birthday after this and some day, I am going to surprise you with a box of flowers and that will be your birthday present this year. Next year, your birthday present will come from France. 7 P.M. I have been interrupted a dozen times this afternoon. I have been the only sergeant in camp and now the day is over. I will try and finish this letter. I know you can’t enjoy this but I just haven’t been able to concentrate my mind this afternoon. Dearest Hazel, you said how I am to thank you. Hazel, don’t thank me. I am merely showing you my appreciation and my love for you, for as I told you in my last letter, I will be the happiest when I know you are happy. Just promise me that you will always love me. I am drawing a picture in my mind tonight of you and I, after the war, in a cozy home where love reigns supreme, sitting by the grate fire, ???... Won’t that be a happy time? I wonder if there can be anything more wonderful for a man than to love a good woman like you and I feel a wave of courage and of daring and patriotism sweep over me and through me, and I know that we shall fight to the end, and our glory shall be that when the world was afire we ??? not great love which made us willing to lay down our lives that liberty might live among men. And Hazel, until the very end, through war and through peace, through this world and the next, forever I am yours. I love you. Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 12, 1918 Dear Hazel, I received your letter yesterday and I was so glad to have it. I had not expected to hear from you until today, but Dearest, your letters can not come too often, for I do like them so very much. They make me happier than anything else could do, and I don’t know what I would do should they cease to come. You said in your letter that you wonder if you would be able to make me happy. Yes, I am sure you will, Dear. I know I will be happy anywhere with you, and you told me in one of your letters that you were going to tell me all about you and your folks, and that your life ??? and respectable. Sweetheart, you do not need to tell me that. You have demonstrated that to me so long ago, and no one could help but notice that by reading your letters. And Hazel, while my life is pretty much like a closed book to you, I hope you will believe me that I have always lived a clean life, and I can look back over the past with pride. But as I have told you before, I owe that to the good training I got from my Mother early in my life. I have lived a very interesting life, Dear. I have traveled much and met people of all sorts, and I have met many trials and temptations, but I have always remembered my Mother’s teaching. And I have come through clean of body and soul. And Hazel, I am very proud of being able to tell you that the medical officers here have referred to me as a perfect physical specimen. I haven’t a blemish or a weak spot in my system. Dearest hazel, I feel now that it is my duty to tell you this and it isyour right to know it. And if anything should happen to me on the battlefield and I should not return, I wanted you to know that you had loved a clean man. And if I should receive any wounds over there, they will be wounds of honor. Hazel, Dearest, you may think I am writing a litle too plain to you, but I am sure that you understand me. You are so broadminded, but I feel that you have a right to know all I can tell you about me. I forgot to tell you in my last letter that it is me in the picture with Lady. We had a letter from the man who is keeping her yesterday, and he said she is getting along just fine. This month seems to be the windy season in this country. We have dust storms here every day now. Were it not for the dust, this would be a fine climate. The wind comes up every day about 9 a.m. and we can’t see 50 feet ahead of us until about 5 p.m. But the early mornings and late evenings are ideal. The Boys are out on the drill ground this afternoon. I am acting First Sergeant this week. My First Sergeant is on furlough and I think the change does me good, but I don’t think I would like to be a First Sergeant, for he stays in the office and looks after the clerical work, and somehow, I never was cut out to sit in an office. I feel better when I can be outdoors and particularly so at this time of the year. I have planted a row of sweet peas in front of my tent. Of course, I know I won’t be here to enjoy the flowers, but I don’t feel right at this time of the year if I don’t have a few plants around me. Some day, Dear, when I come back from this war, I am going to grow just the best and finest of roses for you, and you are going to have them the year around. I believe you told me once that you liked roses best of all flowers. I have today received my official number. Here it is. 1472281. It is a new system they are installing and I think in the future in announcing the casualty list, they will just publish a man’s number and not his name. I mailed you a Trench and Camp Sunday morning. I hope you have received it by this time. But really, I must close. I know you will get tired of this, but I had a litle more time than usual and I didn’t realize how much I had written. With love, and just a lot of kisses I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 16, 1918 Dearest Hazel, That fine letter of yours came today and I do not need to tell you that I was happy to have it, for it was just the best ever. And I am very glad to know that you liked my last letter, and I am hoping that my letters will always make you happy, for I just love to make you happy. Hazel, dear, I am ashamed of myself now every time I think of how cruel I treated you last winter after I came home from the Mexican border, and I assure you, Dearest, it would never have happened had I not had the sorrow I did, but I lost interest in everything for a while. I wanted to write to you after I went to Riley, but I was afraid that you were angry at me. But I am sure I would have written to you, however, before the summer was over, for I had not forgotten you. I kept company with a girl in Kansas City last winter and I thought that I loved her, but when I got your first letter in Ft. Riley, then I knew that I did not lover her as a man should love the woman he intends to make his wife. And when I went back to Kansas City on my first furlough, I went and confessed to her that I could not love her, and Dearest Hazel, I still carry that first letter in my shirt pocket and every now and then I take it out and read that last sentence you wrote me, “Remember there is a girl down in the Missouri hills that asks God’s blessings for you and your Company every night,” and then I thank God that I love the sweetest girl in all the world, and I do not wonder that we love one another so dearly now, for it just seems that Fate brought us together, regardless of obstacles. And while you say you are just a school girl, I have accepted your woman heart, and yes, I do believe that you love me. And you must never, never doubt my love for you. I would like to tell you when I will leave here, but Dear, I don’t know any more about it than you do, and I can only make a loose guess, and I would say about 3 weeks from what I can learn now. Ambulance Co’s and Field Hospitals 137 and 138 will go in advance of the Division and the remainder of the San Train will follow the Division. We have our complete equipment, even our trench coats and rubber b oots and gas masks, but I do not think we will know anything about it until we entrain. It is quite certain that we will go to Camp Merritt, New York, 12 miles from Hoboken, N.J. We will sail from Hoboken. Camp Merritt is a camp where troops rest up for a few days before going aboard. I have a letter from a friend of mine who is there now, and he said the camp there is under quarantine now. I wish I did know when I would leave here, for I would love to have that letter from you before I go. I am going to have my Kodak sent to you as soon as I can get time to send for it. And listen, Dearest, am I going to get a photograph of you a litle larger than those I have to carry with me? I want that more than anything else now. I am trying to figure out a new way of carrying my toilet articles over there. We have a new pack now and the old style blanket roll and haversack has been discarded for foreign service, and we will have to carry our toilet articles in our blanket roll. We used to carry them in the haversack but the new pack straps on the shoulders and if I can figure out a new scheme I will ask you to make me a new kit. The one you sent me last summer was just fine with the old pack but it is not practical now. I think we will leave camp early Monday morning and go to the trenches and I understand we will be in the trenches all next week practicing first aid work at night and rest in the day time. With all the advanced training we are getting here, I don’t think we will be in France very long before going on the battlefield. One of my tent mates has just brought me in a nice big apple from the canteen and I wish you were here, Dear, and I would give you a bite. But Sweetheart, it is getting late. Taps will blow in about 10 minutes and I must close. I sent Trench and Camp to you this morning. Good night my Dearest Hazel. With love I am always Your Carl Somewhere in Wichita Game Reserve March 19, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, Your letter of the 15th has just come to me and I managed to borrow this sheet of paper and envelope, and I am going to drop you a few lines. I am not sure that I will have any way of sending this to you, but I am trusting to luck hoping some messenger will be sent back to camp, for I don’t think we will get back to camp until Saturday night. We left camp Sunday night 9 o’clock and marched to Puritan Gate, 16 miles, and pitched camp there 3 a.m. Monday we got up at 7, cooked our own breakfast and dinner, and started off 1 p.m. At 4 p.m. we arrived at Sulphur Springs (11 miles). We found a canteen there and bought some refreshments and rested half an hour and started off again over 14 miles of the worse road you ever saw. Got in to Lost Lake 9 p.m. Our cooks had been sent in advance and had supper ready for us. Our feet were in pretty bad shape and we went and bathed them in the lake, and laid down 10 o’clock. At midnight we were roused out again and the Company was split up in 3 parts and each started out in different directions and we were given 6 hours to get to this place. This place is called Turkey Pass, 14 miles. We are on the Game Reserve and dear, I am sitting on a stump and I have just counted 64 buffaloes and 78 elks grazing half a mile from here. So you see, Dearest, we haven’t lost much time and we are all pretty tired. I slept 3 ½ hours this morning and I think I am good for another 20 miles tonight. However, our 12 ambulances has just came out from camp. They brought your letter and I don’t know if we will continue to march, but I feel that this is our final test. My commanding officer left last night for France. Dearest Hazel, how I wish you were here now. I know you would enjoy the scenery here. I had no idea that America had scenery like this. Steep mountains, beautiful valleys, and good springs running through them. The redbuds and wild cherries are blooming now but we are just a litle to tired to enjoy it. I conceived the idea of taking the moccasins along on this trip and they are a wonderful help to me. As soon as we come to a new camp I put them on, and in a few hours, my feet are rested up and I am ready to start again. Sweetheart, you just wrote me the daintiest letter I have ever had. It made me feel so good and I love you more than ever, and Hazel dear, I am just the happiest man in the world, for I know now that you love me and I know that some day I should come back to you, and then we shall plan for the future. And we are just going to have the coziest of homes, won’t we Dear, and I am going to live for you and for you only. And dear, I don’t know how soon I can write again, for I don’t think I will get back to camp until Saturday night, but if I can find a sheet of paper and envelope, I will write again. That is, if I can find a way of sending the letter. I don’t even know when I can get this sent. Good bye, Dearest. I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 20, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, Your dear letter was delivered to me about an hour ago, and how happy I was to have it, for I had not expected to hear from you today. We left Turkey Pass last night at 11 o’clock and arrived here 4 o’clock this morning. We pitched camp and went to sleep and got up 8 o’clock and cooked our breakfast and we have rested up all day and I am feeling just fine. We are having just the finest of weather, and we are enjoying this trip so much. Dear, I mailed you a letter this morning. That is, I gave it to a government Range Rider and he promised me that he would get it mailed somewhere, for we are now about 40 miles from a post office. Dearest Hazel, I am so happy tonight to think that you are coming down to see me before I go. Would you be welcome? Well, I should say you are welcome by all means. Come, for I want to see my sweetheart so bad before I go. I would have asked you to come some time ago, but of course, I knew your parents would not approve of you coming way down here to see a stranger. But now, when you have an opportunity to come with your friend and her Father, you must come. And if you will write me at once, I will send you your traveling expenses as soon as I find out when you will leave. You understand, Dear, that I expect to pay all your expenses. I will get in touch with Mr. Toussaint as soon as I get back to camp. I don’t think I will get to camp till Saturday night. But Dearest, the Commanding Officer of the train is just coming in to camp and that means we will break camp and I must close. I don’t know how soon this will reach you but as soon as you get this, let me hear from you either by letter or telegraph and let me know what arrangements you are making to come. If you need money to come, send me a telegram and let me know when you will leave. You just must come, Dearest. With all my love to you, my own Hazel. Carl I don’t know how soon I will get this mailed. The Boys are breaking camp now. We will march 16 miles tonight. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 23, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, I just got back to camp about 2 hours ago and I have just taken a bath and gotten in to some clean clothing, and I am feeling just fine. Your letter reached me last night 11 o’clock. The orderly who brought the mail woke me up and gave it to me, and I used up nearly a box of matches to read it. But I just could not wait till morning, and I was just the gladdest to have it and Dear, I saw you and talked to you in my dreams last night. I wrote you a letter from Rattlesnake Island, but I did not get a chance to mail it. I am wondering if you got the letter I sent you last Thursday. I am so anxious to hear from you and find out if you are coming down to see me. And Sweetheart, you just must come down to see me now that you have opportunity to come with your friend and her Father. I want to see you so bad, and then I have so much to talk over with you before I go. You will not disappoint me now, will you dear? And I will be looking for your letter telling me that you will come, and when you will come, so that I can send you your transportation expenses. And I will get a room to stay in a private family. And Dearest, if you knew how bad I want you to come, you will write me and promise me to come. I am going to look up Mr. Toussaint tomorrow. His camp is just a short ways from here. I know you would enjoy the trip so much, and besides, well, the truth of the matter is I am just dying to see you. My own Dearest Hazel. And again, I must tell you that you must never, never doubt my love for you, for I did not learn to love you in a day or a week, and I did not tell you of my love for you until I was very sure that I did love you, and Dear, I will promise you again that I will always love you and you only. You do believe me, don’t you Dear? There will never be anyone else for me, and my one wish is that I may come back from this war sound and then make you the happiest litle girl in the world. I am so glad to know that I am going to have your picture to carry with me. We are all going to have our picture taken here tomorrow morning, and you are to have one of them. That is, if you want one. Yes, Dear, I have kept all your letters up till lately, but from now on I can’t keep them because I have no place to keep them. We used to be allowed to keep a trunk or a box with us, but now, we have only a barrack back to keep our belongings in and that gets pretty crowded, and lately I have had to burn your letters, for fear that someone would get to read them. I would love to keep them, but it is impossible for us to do so. You may tell Verna’s Father that there is a soldier down in Camp Doniphan who has the same opinion of Hazel Atkins that he has, only he thinks she is the prettiest and best girl in the world. Yes, dear, I realize that I was somewhat stingy with that apple, but I am sure I would do better than that if you were here. Sunday Morning I tried to finish this last night but I just couldn’t keep my eyes open and went to bed 8 o’clock. And how good my cot did feel after sleeping on the hard ground for 6 nights. I had no sooner laid down and I was sound asleep and I never knew a thing until I heard first call at 6 o’clock this morning, and I am feeling just fine this morning. We are going to have another beautiful day this morning and I am going to have a pretty busy day. I have a big washing to do, and all my equipment to clean up, and it is going to keep me busy the best part of the day. I got up and called the roll of my platoon this morning, and went back to bed until breakfast, and now you will say I am lazy, won’t you. I ate 7 hotcakes for breakfast. But Hazel Dear, it is time for me to get cleaned up. The photographer will be here in an hour to take our picture, and I must close for this time. I will send you a Trench and Camp later on today or tomorrow, and I am looking for your letter promising me that you will come and see me. With love to you my Dearest Hazel I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma Sunday Evening Dearest Hazel, Your dear letter reached me this noon, and I was very surprised to get a reply from my letter so soon, but I was mighty glad to hear from you. And I was so glad to know that the flowers reached you in good condition, and don’t thank me, dear. If you will only enjoy them as much as I enjoy sending them to you, then I am well rewarded. I just love to send flowers to you, for you know how to enjoy and appreciate them. It was just like you to send me the first violets from your bed. I enjoyed them so much. This has been a very busy day for me. We are going to stand a rigid inspection 7:30 in the morning for a representative from the Surgeon General’s Office, and our equipment and clothing was in an awful shape after last week’s trip, and I have been scrubbing and polishing nearly all day. However, I took time to run up to 130 Artillery and look up Mr. Toussaint and I spent about an hour with him, and then he walked back with me and visited a while, and I found him to be a mighty fine litle fellow, and I was glad I met him, and I told him to write Verna and urge her to come so you can come along. And Dear, I am counting on you coming, and you will not disappoint me now, will you? And I am just waiting for your letter telling me that you are coming, and when you are coming, so I can send you the money, for I will not allow you to spend one cent of your money for the trip. So I am just begging you, dear, to urge Verna and her Father to come. But you must come before long, for I assure you that we will not be here much longer. I feel that the officer who is here from Washington is here to give us our final inspection. But Sweetheart, I can’t write much tonight for I have so much work to do yet, and I must close and go mail this so it will go out to you tonight. When will I get your letter telling me you are coming? With all my love to you, my dearest Hazel. I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma March 25, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, Your good letter has just come to me and needless for me to tell you, I was so glad to have it. And I am going to try to get this out to you tonight yet. I am glad to hear that it is only the uncertainty of Mr. Toussaint’s stay here that keeps you and Verna from coming, and I want to say that you can safely come down here, for he is not going to leave here this week or even next. I will leave here long before he does and just to show you how sure I am of that, I am sending you an order for $12.00 to pay your way down here. And I will be looking for you to come, and I would suggest that you start Friday morning instead of Saturday. With good connection, that would bring you in to Lawton about 10:30 Friday night, and you could get a good night’s rest and feel fresh in the morning, for I am going to keep you very busy down here. My dearest, it is a great pleasure for me to know that your parents like me and has confidence in me. It has worried me for some time. I feared that they would object to you writing to me so often, for I just know that you are the world and all to them, but they can not love you any more than I do. We had a pretty rigid inspection this morning, and I think we made a pretty good impression on the Officer who was here to look us over. But I must close, dearest. I am going to try and get this off on the train tonight. Now, tell Verna that Mr. Toussaint is still here and he will be here for some time yet, and we will be looking for you real soon. Send me a telegram as soon as you leave so I may know when to look for you and prepare for you. With all my love to you I am always Your Carl Lawton Hospitality House Lawton, Oklahoma March 30, 1918 My dearest Hazel, I received a letter from you a few days ago, but I did not answer it for I had really expected to see you down here, and, of course, you understand it was somewhat of a shock to me to learn that you could not come when I received your letter today. But I must live it down. Yes, I understand, my dearest, that you could not come alone. While it would be perfectly all right, but the world would not look at it the way you and I do, and we must just try and forget our disappointments. I kept hoping all day yesterday and all morning today that your letter would come telling me that you were coming down to see me, but of course, I do not blame you in the least, my dear. You must never think that. But I did want to see you so bad. I had engaged a room for you with my Captain’s family, and I am writing this from there. I am not going back to camp till Monday morning. I am going to church in the morning and I think I will spend the rest of the day right here in this room. It is just the coziest place ever, and I am going to spend all the time I can here. Dearest Hazel, I am sending you under separate cover my Kodak and I hope you will enjoy it in my absence, and when you want to make me real happy in the future, just send me some snapshots of yourself in your everyday life. There is a roll of films in the Kodak now and I don’t think you will have any trouble in learning how to operate it. And I am also sending you a litle gift that I wanted to give you when you came down here, but now that I can not see you before I leave here I must send it to you. And Hazel dear, with it I send my everlasting love for you and my promise that I will love you always, and I will promise you that I will never let my memory grow dim of you while I am away. My dearest Sweetheart, you have always been and you will always be the brightest light in my life. I have your picture right before me. I always do when I write to you, and I am so glad to know that I am to have a real photograph of you soon. I know you are disappointed, litle girl, and my heart is rather heavy tonight, but we must make the best we can of it dear. Forgive you, dear, why, there is nothing to forgive. I know you wanted to come as bad as I wanted you to,and you must never think that I would hold anything against you for not coming at this time. I have always tried to put you in my sister’s place, if I had one, and I would never allow a sister of mine to go to see a stranger alone. But I can not write any more tonight. I am going down to mail this now, and then I am going to bed, and what do you think, Dear, I am going to sleep in a real bed tonight. The bed that you would have slept in tonight had you been here. I will write you another letter tomorrow and tell you how I am celebrating Easter. With all my love to you, My own darling I am always Your Carl Lawton Hospitality House Lawton, Oklahoma March 31, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, I went to bed at 10 o’clock last night and can you imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning. It was 9 o’clock! I just wouldn’t believe that I could sleep that late after being used to get up early, but of course, I forgot that the clock had been turned ahead an hour. Well I hurried and got my breakfast and I attended church this morning and after church, I took my Captain and his family to the Hotel for dinner, and we just got back an hour ago. I am not going back to camp until tomorrow morning. I just had to get away for a short time. Somewhere where I could not hear the bugle. I was invited out to spend the day with a family I met in church, but I would rather stay here. I wanted worse of all to spend the day with you, my own dearest girl, but that could not be. So I would rather be alone and just think of you. And dear Hazel, I am feeling a litle lonesome today. I was almost sure that I would have spent this day with you, and I do not hesitate to tell you that it was a hard jolt to me to learn that you could not come. You will not misunderstand me, my dearest. I did not expect you to come alone, and I would not want you to, but I just love you so dearly, and when I learned you could not come it hit me pretty hard, but I will go back to camp tomorrow and I will be very busy again, and I will try to forget my disappointments. We received 15 new men from Camp Funstan yesterday, and we will be very busy with them from now on. They are all recruits, and we only have a few weeks time to train them. We shall not be here much longer. This Division will begin to move from here in a few days. I noticed yesterday when I came in that the Engineers were packing up and loading their animals and wagons, and I would not be surprised to see them gone before this week is over. Our carpenters are building crates for our ambulances and trucks and I feel safe in telling you that we will all be away from here before May 1st. I am really not allowed to give out any military information, but I can not see any harm in telling you these things. Dearest, I mailed you today by parcel post my Kodak. I enclosed a Trench and Camp in the box. I also sent a litle ring that I bought for you, and I hope you will like it. If it does not fit your finger and you could not get it fitted in your town, if you care to, you can send it back to me and I will have it fitted for you. But I must close for this time. The Captain’s children, (a girl of 3 years and a boy of 5) want me to stop writing and play with them, and Hazel dearest, I just love children and I am just going to have the best time with them this evening, but how I do wish you were here, my own dearest Girl. With all my love and kisses to you I am always Your Carl. You will write me a long letter real soon, won’t you Dearest? Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 1, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, I got back to camp this morning, and somehow, it feels good to be back again, and I have spent a very busy morning. My Captain announced to us at dinner that we would not do any work this afternoon, but just rest, and I think that means that we will go on another night march tonight. And so I am taking this opportunity to write you a few lines for fear that we should be out all week, and I should not get a chance to write you while we are out and you would know why I did not write. We are having summer heat here today, and we are suffering a litle as we are still wearing our heavy winter uniforms. But dearest, I just haven’t a bit of news to tell you this time, and you will excuse this short letter, won’t you Sweetheart? I just wanted to tell you where I was at in case I should not get a chance to write. With love to you my own dearest girl, I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 2, 1918 My Dearest Hazel, You are just the daintiest and dearest girl in all the world to write me a letter and you had not heard from me for four days. I was so glad to find your letter when I came in from an 18 hour trip this afternoon, for really, I had not expected a letter from you for a day or two. I did not answer your letter last Thursday because I had expected to see you last Saturday. Had I known that you were not coming, then I would have written you, for I knew you would be looking for a letter from me and in the future, I shall write you more regular when it is possible. I wrote you a letter from Lawton Saturday and one Sunday, and I sent you a short letter yesterday afternoon. We went out to the trenches last night and worked hard all night and up till 3 o’clock this afternoon, but I don’t feel a bit tired yet, even if I didn’t have any sleep last night. I took a cold shower bath as soon as I came in and I am feeling just fine. I am just so hardened now that I very seldom get tired. I am in better condition physically than I have ever been before. Dearest Hazel, you must try to forget your disappointment. God knows, I wanted to see you as bad as you wanted to come to me, but it just couldn’t be so, and we must make the best of it and try to forget it. Some day in the future we shall meet, and Sweetheart, won’t that be a glorious meeting! And then we shall always be together and share our joys and sorrows. My own dearest litle girl, I am dreaming and planning for you, for I love you dearest as I never could love another. The picture that we had taken a week ago Sunday was of the entire Company and I will get one in a day or two. However, it is not very good for we were all worn out after being in the field for a week, and you shall have one as soon as I get one. And I am hoping that I will get your picture real soon. I am wondering if you have received the Kodak and I am anxious to know if you like your ring. If there is any other kind of ring that you would rather have, I will be only too glad to get it for you. I always did like pearls, do you? Well, dear, I will not be here much longer. I have just shaken hands with 3 of my friends from the old 3rd. 1,500 men will leave here early tomorrow, but dearest, please keep this to yourself for I am really not allowed to tell anybody of any military movements. I will close for this time. I think I will get a letter from you tomorrow, and then I will write again. And now, don’t worry dear about writing me too often. I would rather have a letter from you than anything else in the world. With all my love to you, my own dearest girl. I am always your own Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 4, 1918 My dearest Hazel, I received a bunch of beautiful carnations from Neosho yesterday and I was quite sure they were from you, and when your letter came today I knew, and dear, it was so good of you to send them to me. I am enjoying them so much. I was so glad to have your letter and to know that you were pleased with your ring, and I wanted so bad to put it on your finger myself, for I went and got it when I first thought that you might come down here, but that could not be. But my dearest, your letter has a ring of sadness in it and I am so sorry to hear you say that you are fretting the days away about me. Really, dear, you musn’t do that. You will do yourself a great deal of harm by it, and besides, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Us soldiers are just as well off as you people at home, if not better. We live just the cleanest and best kind of life, and I am as well and happy as I could be. True, this is a pretty hard life, but we are all here for the cause, and we are making the best of it. And I think that you should be the happiest litle girl in your town, for you know that some day, I am coming back from France and coming back to you. And then, my dearest, we shall mark out our dreams together. Yes, dear, I know you appreciate those litle things I do for you, and that is just the reason why I like to do them. And then, too, I love you so sweetheart, and I want you to have nice things. But Hazel, will you promise me one thing? That you will not worry over me, for you know you will hurt yourself by doing it, and besides, it will cause your dear Mother to worry over you, and you will have me worrying too. This is a trying time and we must be very brave. If I should begin to worry now, I would be a burden to my country and they would have to send me back home, and you would not want that, would you dear? Cheer up, litle girl, for as sure as I come back, I am coming back and ask you to be my wife and to live for you only. My dearest, the only thing I can think of that I need now is a few olive drab handkerchiefs, the only kind we will be allowed to use after we leave here, but I have several of them now and I only need two or three. I can not send you the sketch of my toilet kit yet for we are going to have a new pack. The one we have now has been found unpractical. Tell me, dear, are you receiving your Ladies Home Journal? I sent in your order over a month ago, but I haven’t heard from them. If you are not getting it, I want to know it, for your subscription is paid for a year. We are crating up our ambulances and trucks and we are about ready to leave. But I can not tell you when we will get away from here. And dear, if in the future I do not tell you much about what I am doing here, it is because I am not allowed to. When you get a letter from me marked like this (X) on the bottom, you will know I have gone, and if you send the next letter to Camp Merritt, N.Y., I think I will get it, for I am sure we will leave here on very short notice, and from now on, we will not be allowed to give out any military information. I will mail a post card with the Commanding General at the Port of Embarkation, and as soon as I land in France, he will mail it to you. That will be the first news you will get of my departure from this country. But after I get over there, I will write you just as often as I can, but from the time I leave here until I arrive over there, I may not be allowed to write you and you will have a litle patience, won’t you dearest? But I must close. It is almost time for me to go to bed. Taps will sound in 10 minutes. Good night, my dearest litle girl. With all my love to you From your own Carl P.S. I enjoyed the poem, “The Home To Be” so much. Let me thank you again, dear, for the beautiful flowers. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 7, 1918 My dearest Hazel, Your letter came today and I was awful glad to have it, and I was just getting ready to answer you when Mr. Toussaint came down here and he spent the afternoon with me. I got the impression that he was not in very good humor today and I thought that perhaps he was not hearing from Verna. However, he told me that he had a letter from her today. I wanted him to stay and have supper with me but he had to go back and stand retreat. Hazel, I think you are just the dearest and sweetest girl in all the world to stay home and write me a letter when you should have gone to the country, and I love you more than I can tell you, and I just wonder what I would do should your letters cease to come. You said in your letter that you could not get offended at me and not write me. Well, dearest, I will certainly try never to give you reason to. The Division is moving fast now. I think the last of the old 3rd Regiment will leave tonight or tomorrow, and I passed the old Houn Dawg Regiment today and they were packing up. I think they will get away in a few days. I do not think that the artillery will get away yet for some time. We have no moving orders yet, but we are looking for them most any time now. The Commanding General and his staff left this morning. I was up at Division Headquarters this morning and what I could learn up there, only the Infantry and the Sanitary Train are to leave now, and Hazel dear, I am so anxious to go. Just think, I have been in training now over 18 months all together, and it is much too long. I think soldiers should be given about 6 months of training and then sent over. You are a very busy girl now, aren’t you? How I would live to see your play Friday night. And speaking of pies, dear, why I am hungry right now. I just know you can make fine pies. If your pies ???? Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 9, 1918 My dearest Hazel, I was awful glad when I came in from drill this noon and found your letter, for I was looking for it. And I am mighty glad to know that you are gradually getting over your disappointment. I know it was pretty hard on you, but it couldn’t be otherwise. And we will just forget it, dear. Hazel, my carnations kept looking well up til today and I took a few cuttings from them and I am going to raise a few plants from them. And if I am here long enough, I will send them to you as soon as they have rooted, but I don’t think I will be here long enough. Yes, you can expect to hear from me most any day now that I have gone, although we haven’t any travel orders yet. They are still very busy getting the Infantry out of here, and they can only move about 1,500 a day between here and Oklahoma City because of single tracks and they carry an awful lot of freight. We will carry about a trainload with us when we go, so you can imagine what an undertaking it is to move a Division of 30,000 men and full equipment for foreign service. And while I haven’t the least idea as to when we will leave here, still I think it is safe to say that we won’t leave for 10 days or two weeks yet, and yet, we may get a 12 hours notice to get out of here anytime. You just can’t tell a thing about military movements these days, and you will never know that we have left this country until you see in the papers that we have arrived in France. Hazel, I stood at attention for 30 minutes this afternoon before an officer from West Point who is here to give some special instructions to the sergeants of the medical department. Do you think you could stand at attention for 30 minutes and never move a limb in your body? And we carried a 55 pound pack besides. It is the hardest thing I know of. Try it sometime for a minute or two and see how hard it is. And thanks to the hard physical training we have had here this winter, I am as hardened up as can be. And now, dearest Hazel, promise me just one thing. That you will not worry about me, for I am just as well as I could possible be, and of course I realize fully what hardships and suffering lies ahead of us, but I am so well prepared to meet them and I am going to come through with colors flying. And no matter what happens, I will always be thinking of you, the sweetest and best girl in all the world, and come back to you a better man for what I went through. I close with all my love to you, my dearest litle girl. Your own Carl P.S. I am anxious to get your picture. Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 10, 1918 My dearest Hazel, Your dear letter came this morning and I was awful glad to have it. I was somewhat surprised to get it today. I had not expected it until tomorrow, but I am always so glad to get your letters dear, and they can not come too often. They mean more to me than anything else. But I am afraid that my letters are beginning to lose interest now, aren’t they, for it seems so hard to find anything to write about now. We are just waiting and hoping every day that the order for us to move will come, for we are so anxious to go. I had occasion this moring to watch 1,000 men march to the station and board the train and somehow, Hazel, I detected a spirit among them that I had never seen before. There was no cheering, no singing, but every man had that stern determined expression in his face and they seemed all to realize fully the task that lay before them. And Hazel, I just had to come to attention and salute them as they marched by, for they are the finest and best men in the world. And how I wished I could have gone with them, but it will not be very long now before we will go. However, I do not think we will leave here until after the 20th of the month. Hazel, you said I would be proud of you if I could see you. Why, Sweetheart, I have always been proud of you and always will be, and I just know you are going to be the bravest litle girl in all the world, and I have the most confidence and faith in you. I will write the Curtis Co, tomorrow about the Ladies Home Journal. But now I must close. This is not a very good letter, dear, and I know you will not enjoy it, but I will try and do better next time. With all my love to you, my own dearest litle girl. I am always your own Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma Friday Evening (April 13, 1918 ?) Dearest Hazel, I received the Red Cross Magazine several days ago, and I was just so glad to have it. I have read every word in it, and enjoyed it so much. Those articles you marked were just fine. Hazel, I am so proud of you belonging to the Red Cross. I think it is the grandest organization in the world. We have a chance to see the good work they are doing. They are always ready to help us when we are in need. They are a blessing to every man who wears a uniform. I sent you the March number of the Ladies Home Journal a few days ago. I hope you have received it. Your subscription will start with the April number and after this, you will have a nice clean copy to read. I was almost ashamed to send it to you, for it was so soiled. But Dear, it is so hard to keep things clean here. We have a sandstorm every day now. I was just hoping that I would get a letter from you today, but I didn’t, but I will look for it tomorrow. Dearest Hazel, your letters mean more to me than anything else now. But I can’t write you very much tonight. Friday night is clean up night for the weekly inspection, and I must close, but I almost believe that I will get a letter form you tomorrow, and then I will write you a longer letter. I am enclosing the weekly Trench – Camp. With love to you, Dearest Hazel. I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 14, 1917 My dearest Hazel, I received your letter yesterday and I was so glad to have it. And I would have written you last night but we had a party, and it was some party. We had a splendid program and a fine time. Major Wooley, the Commanding Officer of the Train, spoke to us on our duty to our country. Our Captain spoke on our duty to our Mothers, and another officer spoke on our duty to our Wifes and Sweethearts. The 110th Engineers Band furnished the music, and of course, we had plentyof good eats. That is the most important thing in the soldier’s estimation. It was just one of those get together parties that becomes necessary ever so often in a soldier’s life to break the monotony of the daily routine, and when Taps blew last night, we went to bed better men and better soldiers for the gathering. Hazel, dearest, I can understand that the soldiers in the trenches can get used to dangers, death, pain, and rats, but they never get used to the longing for human love and companionship. The Sanitary Train is going to give a farewell party at the U.M.C.A. Tuesday night. We have no news yet as to when we will leave, but the Major told us last night that we would follow the infantry out of here, and I think the last of them will get away about Wednesday. Yes, I had expected that some of the men were passing through Seneca, and it is very likely that I will come through there some day in the near future. As soon as I can find out which way we are going, I am going to send you a telegram and I am going to ask the Commanding Officer to stop the train in Seneca, and I am almost sure he will do it, for I stand high with him. So you see dear, you may see me yet before I go. We went out to the trenches Thursday night and we got back yesterday morning, and it rained nearly all the time. We were out there and we were wet to the skin and just covered with mud when we got back, and I had an awful big washing to do this morning. Hazel, I am getting to be very accomplished in housekeeping and I am sure that I will make an ideal husband after the war. What do you think? I haven’t seen Toussaint for a week. I was going up to see him this afternoon but it is raining hard and the roads are so muddy. Dearest, you are going to hear from me regular for some time yet, for we are going to England for 8 weeks training with the British Army, and my own dearest Hazel, if later on when we get in to battle my letters doesn’t come to you regular, you must always believe that I have no chance to write you. Yes, I know how dearly you love me and you have made me the happiest man in the world, and dear, you must never doubt my love for you, and I will be so true to you while I am away. You believe me, don’t you dear. If I am to come back at all, I shall be able to come back and hold you in my arms and look you in the eyes and tell you I have been true to you, for as I have told you before, I could never love another as I love you. But I will close for this time. I think I will get another letter from you in a day or two. With all my love and kisses to you, my own dearest litle girl, I am your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 15, 1918 My dearest Hazel, Your letter reached me this evening and I was so glad to have it, and I was somewhat surprised to have your letter come in the afternoon, for they most always come in the morning. I mailed you a letter last night and you should get it tomorrow. I meant to send you Trench – Camp last night but I forgot to put it in, and I am enclosing it in this letter. I am very glad, dear, to know that the play was such a success, but I knew it would be when you took a part in int, for you always do everything right. Yes, dear, I would love to be down there and go Maying with you. How you do love Nature, don’t you? And I am so glad you do. There are so many people who go through life who never have learned to love or appreciate Nature’s Beauty. I know south Missouri is wonderful at this time of the year. I used to go fishing in the Ozarks. The last trainload of the infantry left this afternoon and we are so anxious to know what is going to happen in the next few days. We all feel sure that our orders should come now within a day or two. Do you remember, dear, how anxious I was on the border when I knew we were going to be ordered home? Well, it is the same way now, only I am more anxious to go over there. Do you know, Hazel, if we stay in England for 2 months and I can get a weeks furlough, I may take a trip over to my native country. I would love to see the place where I spent my boyhood days once more, and I can go there from London in about 40 hours, providing I can go across the North Sea. But dearest Hazel, please don’t think that I was finding faults with your letters. I was not. Your letters has always been just perfect to me. You always write me cheerful and encouraging words to me, but I was afraid you were worrying about me. If in the past my letters has helped you and made you happy, I am very glad. You know, dear, I have always wanted a sister, and when you wrote to me on the border, I found in you just the kind of a girl that I wanted my sister to be, and I was happy. Later on, as I began to find in you the qualities I wanted my future wife to have, I was very miserable, for I don’t think I would ever have told you until I came back had you not asked me. But now, dearest Hazel, I am just the happiest man in the world, for having won the heart of the finest and best girl in the world. But I will close for this time and I will look for another letter from you in a few days. Good night, dearest. With all my love to you from your own Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 17, 1918 My dearest Hazel, Your dear letter has just come and as usual, I was so glad to have it. And the candy also came, but the doctor has taken it away from me for the present for I am under medical treatment, but I am hoping to be well again in a day or two and I know I shall enjoy the candy so much. It was awful good of you to send it to me, and you are just the dearest Sweetheart a man ever had. Nearly every man in our Company took sick suddenly Monday night. We had beef hash for supper and whatever caused the trouble, we haven’t been able to find. But we have 65 men sick here in camp and 17 in the base hospital. So you see, dear, our litle army is in bad shape right now, but the Boys are all coming through in good shape and we all hope to be out again in a few days. I am beginning to get hungry now and that is a good sign. I have been on light diet for 2 days but that doesn’t satisfy me any more and I am pleading with the doctor to put me on heavy diet tomorrow. It is possible now that all this sickness will delay us in getting away from here. We would not be able to travel should the order come now. It would be a week or 10 days before we could stand the trip, and now, we are beginning to worry that the order will come before we get well and we will be left behind here. I am glad to know that you received the Journal, and Hazel, dear, are there any other magazines you would like to have/ If there is, you must not hesitate to tell me about it, for I will be only too glad to get them for you. You see, dear, you are the only one I have in this world to show my love and affection to, and you are the world and all to me, and I want you to have anything you wish for. You will tell me, won’t you dear? I am just so proud of you dear, and so happy that I have come to know you, and I want always to do everything in my power to make you happy. Yes, I have often wondered if you at times kept company with any one in your town. Now don’t misunderstand me, dearest. I have never doubted your sincerity and I never will, but I thought that you might keep company with some of your men friends for the sake of companionship, and I could never see that there could be anything wrong in it, and I would not object if you desired, but I have always had the most confidence in you and I trust you and believe in you, and dearest, I am true to you and I will always be true to you. And you are the only girl I correspond with and I am not a bit interested in anyone else. I believe I told you once that I could not amuse myself with many litle love affairs. I come from a very strong race and when we love, we love much. And dearest, you will always have all my love and I want all yours. No indeed dear, you are no slacker. Sweetheart, you are far too broad and too fine for that. Dear, the doctor has just ordered me back to bed and he promised me heavy diet tomorrow, and he said I can have the candy, so I must close for this time. With all my love to you, dearest. I am always Your Carl Camp Doniphan, Oklahoma April 24, 1918 [Note: Hazel’s note on the envelope, “Letter came in a box of flowers from Kansas City”.] Dearest Hazel, When you get this, I think I will be far away from you, but I want you to know that my thoughts and my heart is with you always. No matter where I may go or what may happen, you will remember that, won’t you dear? I hope these flowers will bring you joy and happiness, and if in the future, my letters do not come to you as regular as they have in the past, you will know it is because I can not write. You will write me real often when you get my address, won’t you? With love, Carl [NOTE: Additional photos from Camp Doniphan include: 6 photos of the “Game Preserve” – Photos 27 – 32 1 photo of Carl (?) “on a march” – Photo 33 1 photo of “Inspections” - Photo 34 1 photo of “Kansas Field Hospital Arriving in Camp” - Photo 35 1 photo of “Ambulance Co Men Getting Ready for a March” - Photo 36 1 photo of “Ambulance Co Officers”-Photo 37 1 photo of two men (Carl?) - Photo 38 3 photos of camp life - Photos 39 – 41 1 small photo of camp - Photo 42

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