20 Feb February 20, 1944

letter
from: George Shonkwiler
to: Mrs. Alice Shonkwiler
Sunday, February 20, 1944,
somewhere in Alabama, 7 p.m.

Dearest Alice and Ronnie,

We are about 40 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama from as much as we can
figure out.  And from here it looks like we will end up in Florida.  We have
been riding all day and rode most of last night.  We started leaving Fort
Sheridan at 2:15 p.m. Saturday, as I told you, but we actually did not board
trains until 10:30 p.m.  During that time, we were standing around in the cold,
waiting.  They said the train broke down, but I don’t know, and way after we
got on board, it took us two hours to get in Chicago.  At 12.30 p.m., we

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finally got our bunks made up, and we went to bed.  Since I had not slept at
all Friday night, I was dead and slept pretty well in my upper bunk.  In the
lower berth, there are two men, so I was lucky.  We were awakened at 6 a.m.,
had breakfast, sat around all day playing cards.  I am a little ahead now.
The guys in our <? buvk> are waiting for me to finish this so they can try to
get some of it back.  It is quite hilly here and we are doing a lot of
<? weaving> so don’t mind if you can’t make this out.  It is warm here, but
has been very

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dreary all day, and the whole country is flooded.  We have not been allowed
out of the car at all, but I gave some [Negro] a card to mail.  Now, have you
gotten it?  I think we were in Tennessee then.

I’m sorry you had a trip downtown for nothing, but even if we had left on time
I would not have gotten to see you.  I wasn’t even supposed to have called you
but you know me.

The gang here all seem very nice and considerably above average.  We think
we are going to be in some ordinary division.  Of course

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it’s just guesswork.  There are some paratroopers aboard.  So ???

There are two new cars in this train of 16 cars.  I am in one of them, so I am
really riding in class.  The car is really nice and the bunks are quite roomy,
but hard -- softer than those damn army cots though.  400 men on [a] train.

I think we are nearing Birmingham now -- may get a chance to mail this there
so will close.  Give Ronnie a big kiss for me and have him give you one for me.
I will try to write you tomorrow.  They say we will not arrive at where we are
going until Monday 9 PM.  Guessing again though.

Bye, Daddy