File:Letter, 6 August 1940, page 1 of 3.jpg

Dear Dad:

This is really writing under difficulties, but I’ll do the best I can and trust to God that you can translate it. I’m using a locker box for a desk, which is about three feet too high, and to facilitate the concentration I need to pen a decent letter, I am forces to listen to about fifty different conversations along with the constant uproar of the average barracks room.

Events have moved so rapidly the past month that I have fallen behind in everything, including my correspondence. I received my orders to leave New York the morning of Monday July 30, and the orders read to report at Parris Island, South Carolina, not later than July 31, midnight. I left New York at 1:32 P.M., arrived in Washington, DC at 5:55 and made my other connection at 6:50 P.M. and arrived here 12:30 Tuesday. I no sooner get here than I find I’m to be transferred"

From the Edward L. Parke Collection (COLL/5627) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division