Everett Schafer's Letters
Letter #4
Really Having A Rugged Life Now
To “Mom & All”
17 June 1943
June 17 1943
Dear Mother + all
Here I am, lying in a pup tent about twenty-five miles from our barracks. We are on a twelve-day problem in the field. We left this past Monday and will return to camp next weekend. We hiked ten miles by road at day and twelve at night over the hills + ruts on an azimuth.[1]
During the whole trip we each carried full transport packs which weigh about fifty-five pounds. Seems impossible but we did it, altho we were near dead and walking on our ankles when we arrived here in the tent area.
My correct address is this: Co. B 1st Bn. 24 Marines – not Sep. Bn. anymore.[2]
We have a regular camp here tho and will lie here and work in this area till we go back to our own camp.[3]
We are really having a rugged life now. Getting brown as a [?], and feel good all the time.
Well I know you are all well and getting along well. I know everyone will be glad to see Delwin and he, everyone at home. Wish I could be there but that is out of the question at this time. I’ll write later on this week or next, and write me soon. I received your last letter, too.
Lots of love to all
Everett
The photos below were taken during field exercises at Camp Pendleton in June, 1943, around the time Everett wrote the preceding letter. He mailed them to his mother on August 9, 1943, with a single line: “Here are a couple of pictures thought you might like to keep.”
Everett Schafer, unknown, Charles E. Thompson, Michael J. Ryan
Top Row:
unknown, Leo E. Morris, unknown, Edward G. Eller, Edwin T. Williams, unknown, unknown, James R. Frazier
Middle Row:
Leslie M. Chambers, unknown, Pedro Gaminde, Frank C. Bruile, Peter Wilchinski, Michael J. Ryan
Front Row:
Everett Schafer, John K. Howell, Charles E. Thompson, Harmon I. Chichester, James W. Smith
Footnotes
1. Field training was a major part of training at Camp Pendleton. Everett’s battalion spent a lot of time at the tent camps out in Pendleton’s “boondocks.”
2. The First Separate Battalion became the First Battalion, 24th Marines on March 26, 1943.
3. Meaning permanent barracks at the main base area of Camp Pendleton.