Restricted

Ben is 18 years old.  For the last two months he has been at the University of Connecticut for A.S.T.P. school.  His company is restricted for a week.  He describes his experience here which becomes very different when he returns to Infantry Basic Training.  

December 4, 1943
Sunday Morning

Dear Folks, 

Well, how’s everything at home.  I hope you’re not affected by the flu, as most of Rochester is.  Everything is okay with me, haven’t even got the sniffles, knock on wood.  Although I don’t know why.  We’ve had average winter weather here up until the wee hours of Saturday morning.  It was chilly but not cold enough for an overcoat.  The lake had melted, too.  But starting Saturday morning we got about a 60 mile wind blowing around the place.  It was beastly cold.  A teacher told us, that down in the Valley where he lives, it was about 10 above.  The University is located on one of the highest hills around the countryside, so it was a lot colder than that.  And it kept getting colder all through the day. 

Am I glad I got that scarf and earmuffs.  Some of the fellows got their ears frostbitten just waiting to get into chow.  And these buildings were probably built before the Resurrection, as the Sergeant said.  Every room in the joint was freezing, cause the radiators aren’t working to their full efficiency.  We took the valves off to see if that would help (and it did) and we found ice on one of the stems.  I was wearing my overcoat inside.  And regulations say that the windows have to be open a foot from the top and six inches from the bottom, to prevent respiratory diseases.  Even during the past week, it was too cold at night to do that and stay warm, at least on our side of the building, which faces the wind, and we happen to have a corner room.  But yesterday, it was too windy & cold to have a parade, so we had an inspection.  And for purposes of the inspection, we opened the window to regulations, even though we knew that they wouldn’t want us to have them open on a day like that, but we wanted to emphasize the situation. 

Our new C.O. (Commanding Officer) - a young handsome lst Lieutenant who just came up from Camp Croft - realized the situation but there’s nothing he can do.  A couple days ago we asked him for extra blankets & he said he’d get something for us.  They issued comforters yesterday, but by the time our section had a free period to go get them, they were all out.  So we spread our overcoats on top of the bed.  As it turned out, we were pretty warm last night, as long as we were in bed.  It’s still pretty cold in the rooms, but not as cold as yesterday.  That’s probably because the wind has died down, although its still almost as cold.  Yesterday morning, the lake was unfrozen but at night it was all frozen, even with the wind.  And you know it has to be damn cold for a lake to freeze when a big wind is tossing the waves about.  It froze rough so it probably won’t be good for skating.  Well that’s enough about the weather. 

Perhaps you’re wondering why I haven’t said anything about what I did last night.  Well, the whole Company A decided to stay on campus this weekend, after the C.O. told us we had to.  It seems that we’re  restricted until further notice.  We really got the book thrown at us.  We are restricted to the barracks for the week, can’t go to the college store or community house or any recreational function, we have to eat at the end of every company all week long, we have to form in platoons after mess & march back in formation, instead of just wandering back, (oh, is it cold) we had to stand reveille this morning & will have to stand all formations today, and the section leader has to make a report every half-hour of the rooms to make sure everybody is in.  But some of them sneaked out.  A fellow in our room left at 10:30 to see his girl in one of the dorms.  We pinned some Pfc (private first class) stripes on him so the officers wouldn’t stop him.  That’s quite a lot of restrictions.

And all because some freshmen girls complained that we were waking them up in the morning when we came back from chow.  I admit that we used to holler “Hit It” & “Get Up” & things like that, cause I used to do it, too.  After a while they started throwing water at us.  The dorm is right in our path coming back from chow, & it was a temptation no one could resist.  I know it was our fault for doing it, but we shouldn’t have gotten the book thrown at us.  After they got us restricted, they were a little sorry & tried to get it lifted.  The house mother of another dorm that had a formal dance last night tried to get it lifted too, but that’s where they made their mistake.  Civilians shouldn’t try to argue with the army.  He can’t let civilians run the army.  I guess some of the people resent soldiers being sent to school & getting paid for it & monkeying around at the same time.  They think we lead a soft life.  Sometimes we wish we were in combat.  Anyway, that dorm is black-balled from now on & the other girls are mad at them, too, cause lots of them had dates.  That’s all there is to it.  I guess we’ll have to keep on our toes this week or we’ll be restricted next weekend too.

I got the laundry back Friday.  They did a pretty good job, at least better than the G.I. laundry.  I have some more all packed to go.  Probably mail it tomorrow.  I forget exactly how many of what kind of pictures I’m having made, but I think it’s; one large one, two 5x7 & 6 of each of the two you picked out, in a  small size.  I will be able to get reprints later on.  Well, that’s about all,

Love,
Ben