Feb. 3, 1918

Dear Marie,

Glad to hear you liked the pictures. I guess we say our final “Goodbye”
to our horses this week. Yesterday we saw our motor radio set. It is for
the main station and is set up on a “White” motor truck. The motor class
I was in was discontinued at the end of the month. (Jan.)

Stock leaves for Urbania, Ill. tomorrow or Tuesday. He will attend the
“ground school” and then go to some aviation field to learn to fly,
later. I wish I were going to Urbana as it is only about 160 miles from
Beliot. Stock’s final success in getting his transfer has stirred up
quite a spirit of unrest among some of the more ambitious men in the Co.
Serg’ts Ryan, Carr, and Ward are going to try for a transfer but I doubt
if they can “put it over” in the way that Stock did. Maybe Stock will go
to Beloit some time before he leaves Urbana. Friday night and Sat. we
were on guard again. The “Officer of the Day” was a pretty strict one
and about fifteen minutes after “retreat” was blown he came around to
look us over. I was on duty at the Guard House (Post no. 1.) and he
criticized me for not turning out the guard when he came in sight. Well
it happened that I was right because the thirteenth special order,
applying to Post # no 1, starts out “Between Reveille and Retreat, turn
out the guard for --- etc.”, but it got my goat anyway. The S.D. came
around again on an inspection tour and Cpl. Abrams told me to be very
sure to challenge all persons and to advance no one without calling the
Corporal of the Guard. I was on duty from 10 to 12 P.M. and believe me I
halted everyone strictly according to regulations. At midnight I was
relieved and went to bed. Just as I was dozing off I heard Corporal
Clayton make a remark about “Bassett waking him up several times by
calling the Cpl. of the guard to advance men coming to the guard-house.
Finally he said, “He’s a d-d good kid, but bellheaded as H—l.” I thought
that was about “nuff ced” so I cut loose with a few remarks on the
subject that cleared the atmosphere considerably. I knew he was pretty
unpopular with almost every man in the Co. so I didn’t leave very much
unsaid. It’s a gay life. I have only been to one “movie” since
Thanksgiving. I saw one of the Bab’s Diary” pictures last summer. It was
the one where her mother wouldn’t let her have her new party dress made
with a low neck. She scared her folks into thinking she was going to run
away and marry, and finally got her dress. It sure was a good story, was
it the one you saw? Well I must quit for tonight. Would you like to
learn the radio telegraph code and the Semaphore method of signaling?

With love,

Forrest.

The radio code is the same one we used to use with the buzzer in my
desk.