France

October 2, 1944

Dear Mom,

Your letter and Gracie's of the 20th both came yesterday. Many thanks. Our mail has been rather ragged of late so that wasn't so bad.

Today was a good day. Three of our old officers came back, or rather, we brought them back by finally sending an officer to search the replacement depots for them. They've been on their way for over five weeks and would be there yet if we hadn't gone after them for the place they were didn't even know they were there. The replacement setup is terrible. I wish we could get some of these Rear Area Rangers up where the bullets are flying and they might wake up to what they're supposed to be doing.

These three were certainly lucky. You would scarcely know they've been hit. Lt. Crotty got struck by a hand grenade and it just missed his jugular vein. He was completely paralyzed for three whole days after he was operated on. Now he has just a faint scar at the base of his throat and is fully recovered.

A second officer got hit just below the nose by a bullet. It went through and split the roof of his mouth. He felt for a hole in the back of his head but it stopped near his throat and he spat out the bullet in the blood. His upper jaw bone was broken and he lost three back teeth after it healed, but you can't see from a foot away where the shot entered his face. Only an almost imperceptible lisp and the three missing teeth give any indication of his injury.

The third was most fortunate. The shot cut his metal "dog tag" in two and gave him just a flesh wound in the shoulder, which quickly healed. It was his second injury. The first was a clean flesh wound in the leg which also healed quickly.

We finally heard about Josendale the other day. One of our officers met another who works under Josendale. Josie is now a Captain and is a liaison officer between the American Army and the F.F.I.

The fly situation is still acute. These people disregard them completely. If the barns and houses weren't built side by side, that wouldn't be so bad.

Apparently these people have never seen a fly swatter. In the last town where we were, the commander of one of our companies made a fly swatter and batted a few. The people of the house were astounded. They all took the swatter and each one swatted a fly. Then the head of the house took over and really went to work.

Love,

Bob